Over at Developing, Katrina Trinko notes that Wisconsin state Sen. Dale Schultz, a moderate Republican, is trying to craft a deal with the public-sector unions that would temporarily eliminate collective bargaining. On MSNBC’s Daily Rundown this morning, Gov. Scott Walker (R., Wis.) rejected the idea. “No,” he said. “We can’t do a short-term fix.” GOP senators, he added, remain supportive of his budget plan.
More from the Wall Street Journal:
Even if moderate Republicans did move to support Mr. Schultz’s proposal, it is not clear that Democrats would accept it. On Sunday, Democratic senators emphasized that the elimination of bargaining rights should be taken off the table all together since the state’s public sector unions have accepted the governor’s concessions on increase pension and healthcare contributions to repair the current budget addressed by Mr. Walker’s bill.
Several senators also said a compromise on the bill that would sunset the collective bargaining provisions in 2013 would not be acceptable to Democrats. One reason is that Republicans will likely still be in control of both the state senate and assembly and simply extend the provisions. But a bigger reason, according to several senators, is that unions have already agreed to fix the fiscal issues.
UPDATE: In an interview with ABC News, Walker tells George Stephanopoulos that if the 14 state senators return, “we’d gladly talk to them.” But he is not ready to give an inch. “The bottom line is we are trying to balance our budget and there really is no room to negotiate on that because we’re broke,” he says.
