Dear Governor Walker,

Public employees did not create our budget mess, and taking away their right to collective bargaining won't fix it. History shows that a right, once taken away, is never returned. Collective bargaining has been one of the underpinnings of labor peace in Wisconsin for more than 50 years. Public employees at all levels -- whether state agency employees, UW staff, local government workers or the teachers who educate your children -- make an important financial contribution to the health of every city and county in Wisconsin.

Most people can see through your ruse: Stripping Wisconsin's public employees of their bargaining rights in the name of saving money is just an excuse to try to break unions. Perhaps you should stop giving huge tax breaks to corporations and stop allowing contractors to charge the state $65-$75 per hour, plus facility costs of (in some cases) $2 million, to have their employees pretend to be state workers, before you shift the blame for economic problems to long-time civil servants who earn less than people doing similar work in the private sector. You might even consider collecting taxes from the 66% of Wisconsin corporations that pay no income tax. If corporations want to be treated as "persons" for the purpose of 1st Amendment rights, they should be treated as persons for the purpose of paying their fair share of the cost of government.

Anne Urbanski
Madison