Unionize UW Faculty a Republican Priority?

"This is one of the many bills that in other years would have just been filed under the category of Schultz ideas that would go nowhere...except now he is the majority leader, so they get attention whether or not they have legs."

That's the take someone shared with me yesterday regarding Wisconsin Republican Senator Dale Schultz' proposal to allow UW faculty to unionize.

The scuttlebut is however that the bill, which wouldn't see the light of day in the GOP-controlled State Assembly, is also likely DOA in the Senate. Says another source:

"Dale claims he 'has' to do this for UW-Platteville. He bugged Senator Harsdorf about a hearing so she did one out of courtesy, but has no plans to exec the bill."

Unionized UW faculty? This is a warmed over Democrat proposal, variations of which have been introduced by former senators Cal Potter and Rick Grobschmidt (both who now are entrenched in the DPI bureaucracy). Well, a unionized educational bureaucracy has done so much to help K-12 public education in Wisconsin, why not try it in the UW System, right?

Anyway, this may not be worth worrying about, like I said, it appears to be dead.

Appears. One can not underestimate the power of the position of senate majority leader.

A perfect example: Senate Bill 175.

The bill allowed the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to purchase and renovate the Governor Dodge / Best Western Hotel property in the city of Platteville and turn it into a dorm. The cost to purchase and renovate the existing property and buildings: $5 million.

During this session, Schultz put considerable weight behind his bill. Despite being outside the normal budgetary process... Despite coming at a time when legislators are facing a growing structural deficit...It passed.

So never say never.

To recap, we have a proposal to build a new dorm. Passed.

We have a proposal to unionize UW faculty. Introduced with great fanfare.

But hey, where is TABOR????