Surprise! Madison Mayor in Collusion With Unions

Imagine my surprise to discover Democrats and the unions were secretly trying to pull a fast one on the taxpayers.

As Gov. Scott Walker’s bill to rein in the power of unions to inflate city budgets was moving forward, the City of Madison was scurrying to sign contracts with its unions – “racing against the clock,” as one e-mail put it, to insulate city work

ers from having to pay something toward their entirely taxpayer-funded pensions.

In on the dealings: Madison Mayor David Cieslewicz and head Senate Democrat Mark Miller. WITI-TV (Channel 6) has the details, reporting that both officials also tried persuading Secretary of State Doug Lafollette to slow-walk the bill once it passed to make it easier to give away taxpayers’ money.

WITI got the story via e-mails that Citizens for Responsible Government got via open records requests. CRG head Chris Kliesmet told the station that the e-mails prove collusion between elected officials and their supposed adversaries and the bargaining table.

Of course the lamestream media will assiduously avoid this story because is comes from a Fox affiliate.

Before protesters stormed the capitol, the mayor of the city of Madison tried to pull a fast one. The governor's budget repair bill was on the fast track, and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz was racing against the clock to pass new union contracts first.

E-mails obtained by the FOX6 Investigators show that the mayor enlisted the help of State Senator Mark Miller. They both tried to convince the Secretary of State to hold up the bill by taking the maximum 10 days allowed by law before publishing the bill.

They were trying to buy some time so they could ratify new contracts to protect workers from benefit cuts. Citizens for Responsible Government Rep. Chris Kliesmet says, "This suggests, and this is a harsh word, collusion. There is collusion between some politicians and public sector employee unions.

Kliesmet says collective bargaining require that there be two sides. It is impossible to have collective bargaining with only one side."

Here are the emails and the video report:

 Update: The mayor