News Releases

MADISON- “Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s bill to reduce collective bargaining privileges for many government employees recently passed in the House and is a bold step in the right direction as it would provide much-needed property tax relief for the oppressed taxpayers of Wisconsin,” said Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), at a press conference at the State Capitol Monday.

TUA President Jim Tobin Speaks to the Press Outside the State Capitol in Madison, WI, Monday, February 28, 2011.

CHICAGO–Illinois State Comptroller Judy Barr Topinka “has reached new heights of hypocrisy,” charged the president of Illinois’ largest taxpayer organization, who criticized her today for defending the lavish, gold-plated pensions of retired government employees while she enriches herself from these same pensions.
“Topinka is a lifetime politician who milks the system and richly profits from it,” said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI). “At the recent Sangamon County GOP’s Lincoln Day Luncheon, Topinka told the bureaucrats in the audience, ‘I’m kind of tired of state employees taking a bad rap…most state employees work hard, and they don’t make all that much money….’ Well, a lot of them do get a lot of money, including Topinka.”
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WISCONSIN— Wisconsin governor Scott Walker proposed a bill Tuesday that would take away virtually all collective bargaining rights for many Wisconsin government employees, including teachers and municipal workers. Walker reasoned that one must have money in order to bargain, and the government has no money; therefore, a halt on bargaining rights is necessary.
As a state once referred to as a “laboratory for democracy,” Wisconsin could be setting the tone for a nationwide trend in reducing the chokehold government employees have on state budgets.
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