KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Sunday February 27 Housing and Economic stories

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Walker takes broad swipe at public employee unions - (www.madison.com) Saying those who didn't see it coming must have been in a "coma," Gov. Scott Walker unveiled sweeping legislation that would severely curtail public employee rights and dramatically change the way Wisconsin negotiates with unions going forward. Officials alerted the Wisconsin State Employees Union on Friday that expired collective bargaining agreements would be canceled March 13. State unions have been operating under the terms of their previous contracts, an arrangement that can be terminated with 30 days' notice. The news came on the same day the governor unveiled a budget repair bill that would remove nearly all collective bargaining rights for nearly all public employees in the state and make it easier for employers to fire workers that engage in some form of labor unrest. WSEU executive director Marty Beil, whose union represents about 22,000 state employees, did not return calls Friday. But AFT-Wisconsin President Bryan Kennedy said Walker's move is part of a nationwide effort to kill labor unions. "It is a power grab, a coordinated effort to kill the union here," said Kennedy, whose organization represents 17,000 state employees. "This is essentially the governor saying, 'Sit down, shut up and do what you are told.'"

Look at how ridiculously ass backwards that comment is from AFT-Wisconsin President Bryan Kennedy.

Detroit Will PAY You To Take One Of These 100 Abandoned Homes - (www.businessinsider.com) Mayor Dave Bing is trying to save Detroit by offering incentives to lure residents back to abandoned neighborhoods. One program offers $150,000 in housing renovation money and requiring only $1,000 down to police officers who are willing to relocate to the city. Another offers college graduates $2,500 to rent and $20,000 forgivable loan to buy properties.Potential home buyers can choose from plenty of cheap or free homes, especially in the blighted neighborhoods of Woodward Ave. and Brush Park.

Wisconsin Laborers Rally Against Gov. Walker's "Union-Busting" Bill - (www.fox21online.com) "We have people who are working in the courthouse. We have the snowplow drivers. We have people who do just about every kind of work you can imagine,” AFSCME Council 40 Staff Representative James Mattson said. But Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) has a warning. "In 5 days, this legislature and governor could eliminate 60 years of collective bargaining history,” Jauch said. It is possible, Senator Bob Jauch says, through a new bill from Republican Governor Scott Walker. If it becomes law would forbid most contract discussion and punish resistance to the change. "They would have no rights to deal with these issues as they have in the past,” Mattson said. Milroy says Gov. Walker will not sit down for a discussion with union officials and that his bill would hurt Wisconsin families and communities. "For a lot of people this is going to mean a 5-10% cut in their take-home pay,” Rep. Nick Milroy (D-Superior) said. It's time to send senator Bob Jauch and Rep. Nick Milroy packing. Taxpayers are fed up. They are sick of extortion by unions that give union workers wages and benefits most taxpayers will never see.

Experts: Walker's budget bill would likely drive workers away - (www.journaltimes.com) The bill proposed by Gov. Scott Walker to restrict collective bargaining for most public employees would likely drive workers from the public sector and the state, according to legal and economic experts. Those experts said the bill would keep public employee wages down, create contentious and protest-filled union-employer relations and cause confusion about labor issues, all culminating in public employees eventually leaving for private sector jobs or work in other states. "People will leave the public sector and as a whole the state of Wisconsin will be looked at as a place where there is less stability and, frankly, as a more backwards state," said Marianne Robbins, a Milwaukee-area lawyer specializing in public and private sector labor law. Employee groups could bargain for wages but any wage increases would not be able to exceed the increase in the Consumer Price Index unless approved in a referendum. That means there likely won't be decent-sized wage increases, if there are increases at all, said Robbins and Andrew Reschovsky, professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "So some (public workers) with options will think about taking jobs elsewhere," said Reschovsky, who is among the University of Wisconsin System staff that would be affected by Walker's bill. "Retirement will look better to some state workers. The most experienced will leave and there could be real costs in lost experience." Departing workers might look outside Wisconsin, leaving the state with less experienced and lower quality workers, Reschovsky said, especially when it comes to new school teachers and UW System faculty who can take their research and business-growing efforts elsewhere.

Egypt is considering cancelling out all of its trades - (www.businessinsider.com) Egyptian regulators, confronted by investors angry about stock losses and a closed exchange, said they will weigh the cancellation of transactions that led to the biggest tumble in the EGX 100 Index in more than two years. Bourse chairman Khaled Seyam said the exchange won’t cancel Jan. 27 transactions because the move would be “illegal,” Al Arabiya television reported today. Individual equity holders, who accounted for 48 percent of all trading on the Egyptian Exchange last year, jammed into a meeting in Cairo with bourse Vice Chairman Mohamed Farid Saleh yesterday, demanding changes in regulation and management before the market resumes operations Feb. 20. The exchange shut after the EGX 100 plunged 14 percent on Jan. 27. Al Arabiya also reported the exchange won’t open Feb. 20.