June 2003 News

FROM THE PRESIDENT

CONTRACTS APPROVED II GOVERNOR SIGNS THEM INTO LAW MAY 7,2003
This is great news for all members of the Association - I know you've all been working
without raises for almost two years - it is time that you get these much deserved raises.
Thank you to all t he members of the bargaining team for your work on the 2001-03
contracts. I want to mention a few members of the team.

Tom Miller, DFTF chairperson. helped keep us organized and on track. I am sure Tom
didn't expect to be on a three year bargaining session! It was very helpful to me as
president to have someone I could depend on like Tom.

George Mickelson, Compensation Chairperson, again did and outstanding job with his
research, reports, and presentations. George does an enormous amount of work for
the Association - it is appreciated!1 When you see George let him know you
appreciate his work - he has been appointed compensation chairperson again for the
2003-05 contracts.

Willie Haus, Spokesperson, continues to do an outstanding job for the Association.
We are fortunate to have Willie working for the Association. He understands our
bargaining unit and is effective in bargaining.

If you see Tom, George, Willie or another member of the 2001-03 bargaining team take
a moment and give them your thanks!

The next few years will bring budget challenges for us all in State service - remember
to continue to be professionally and technically the best at your jobs - that's how we
can best serve ourselves and the taxpayers! I ask everyone to eliminate "ngineering"
from their jobs and do things right !!

The Association is YOU I Continue to support your local leadership and participate!

Respectfully,
Timothy R. Hanley
SEA President
 

SWIB MEETING - MAY 7, 2003

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) voted on investing in the
emerging markets by contracting for the Investment Managers. They discussed
the risk, and two Board members would not support the total $550 million.
Currently, there are only five members on the Board, which normally has
nine members. They did approve only investing $300 million with three or four
contracts that they will select from the list of seven finalists. In the past,
SWIB has not invested funds in the emerging markets; however, currently there
are some good returns possible with some risk.

There were some negative newspaper articles coming from the Milwaukee area
on the 3rd, 4th & 5th of May. All SEA Board members have copies of them for
review. Several references in those articles were not true because we find
they were selectively edited to support their criticism. You can note that
SEA and WPPA, who opposed Act 11, were not mentioned indicating all bargaining
groups supposedly supported approval of Act 11.

Pat Lipton had good news with the turnaround of the market with plus retur
for the month of April.

Performance:
End of March - year to date; End of April
Balanced Fund -1.8% to +3.7% (An increase of 5.5%)
Variable Fund -4.0% to +4.1% (An increase of 8.1%)

Hopefully, May will also be another plus month.

SWIB is remodeling the building they are located in because they have
purchased the building as a real estate investment. The State Commissioner of
Insurance Office has moved out, and SWIB will occupy 40,000 square feet and
lease out the other 10,000 square feet.

They will also implement a new Info Tech system by June 13th which will
provide a faster trading system directly with the markets.

Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative
 

ETF ANNUITANT ROUND TABLE - MAY 13,2003

SWIB reviewed the error made in 2001, which transferred more money to the
Milwaukee school's retirement system than what should have been. The error was
noted by the Legislative Audit Bureau. Now ETF will reduce payments to the two
funds in Milwaukee that received the additional funds because of a two place decimal
point error. SWIB now has more procedures for review in place before future E-mails are sent to
ETF.

After noting the improved SWIB performance in the SWIB article in this SEA
Newsletter, ETF has calculated what level of return will be necessary for the balanced
fund (fixed) to break even on December 31,2003. This break even return is +83%, and
to have a dividend for annuitants on May 1,2004, we will need a return by SWIB of
10.3% to get an approximate dividend of2%. These higher returns are needed because
of the three year negative MRA returns that wipe out the fourth year of T AA transfer of
Act 11.

ETF reported on the status of the new benefit computer program which is to be
up and running by March 2004.

The implementation of Act 11 by ETF is now 98% completed, and the ETF Board
will be deciding on the dividend date for 2003; if it will be April 1, 2004 or May 1,2004 as it ha~
been for years. They could make the payments on April 1st now because of the faster
calculation of returns by SWIB and the faster calculations by the actuary for ETF to
certify the dividend that can be paid out prior to April 1st.

The new annuitant ETF Board member elected this year is Theran Fisher from
the La Crosse area, who retired from OW La Crosse.

The next ETF Round Table Meeting will be held on August 14, 2003
Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative
 

MEETING WITH GOVERNOR'S STAFF REGARDING RETIREMENT ITEMS IN BUDGET
(MAY 5, 2003)

The Governor's Budget proposed to issue pension obligation bonds to pay off
the state's unfunded accrued actuarial liability. The State's WRS account is
currently underfunded for prior service liability (UAAL) of $729 million from
previous retirement improvements. By bonding now, the state can reduce thier
payment on the UAAL from the current 8% to the WRS to the bonding interest of
5.8% to 6.5%.

DOA has estimated savings between $143 million and $212 million.
They also want to amend the Budget Bill to bond for the unfunded liability
for their current sick leave conversion fund contribution holiday and avoid
the ETF lawsuit presently being prepared. The sick leave conversion benefit
UAAL amounts to $563 million. Their current interest rate is 8%. The bonding
interest will be between 5.7% and 6.4% providing savings of $86 million to
$134 million.

We will have to watch the final budget approved by the Legislature and
signed by the Governor to see if the bonding is approved. SEA did support the
WRS bonding in letters to the Finance Committee back in March and April

Melvin B. Sensenbrenner,
SEA Retirement & Health
Insurance Representative
 

A STATE ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION -
Le2islative Report June 2003
Larry Legro 2nd VP

Attention: Have you seen this person? This person is all around us.

Can anyone identify this person? I will give you a hint, he/she is someone whom we all
know but do not love. He/She (from here on I will use the masculine "he") could be a
member of our legislature, Congress or beyond. He could be a fellow employee.
We hope he is not a member of our families, or a good friend. His pants (not sho~)
could be on fire. He could be writing this article or one like it in another media like a
newspaper, or even from a radio. Some people have the misfortune to being married
to him. He could be your minister, priest, or even your jeweler. He is famous every year
in Burlington Wisconsin around New Years day. I am proud not to know him. Do not
be like him. Have you figured out who this is? Read on.

Good news today, 5/28/2003. The United States Supreme court has upheld that the
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to not only the private sector but also to state
employees in its entirety. You have the right to get up to 12 weeks off (unpaid
leave) to care for children spouse or ailing relatives. This was a case involving the 11th
Amendment and the 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was a battle over
state's rights vs. federal law. The court decided that the issues of discrimination
{14th Amendment) trumped the issue of state's rights to immunity under this law. I
recall that The FMLA was a former issue in the last bargaining session and we kept it in
the contract as it was, while the employer wanted it removed.

You all should have gotten a letter from Wisconsin Deferred Compensation (WDC)
allowing you to put some or all of your back paychecks into the fund. Details are
within the letter. This is a good deal for the state (and you), because the state would
have to pay in less withholding on any monies set aside by each of us, and of course
it taxes us less at the end of the year (since it comes off our check/income before taxes). It
is also an account that will supplement your retirement futures. Watch for those raises
and backpay checks on June 12th and 26th but also realize these were tentative dates
given to us by DER payroll offices. You might also like to divert some of your
backpay to a legislator of your choice, who voted favorably for your contract and this
raise (small campaign contributions from a constituent with a letter would possibly be
more effective than coming to Visit the Hill Day-$20 to $25 should suffice-anything
over $25 is disclosed). Or lastly, consider sending UFCW 538 a token amount to help
with their strike fund. I spoke about this last month, 470 Tyson workers in Jefferson WI
are striking against a 23% wage cut, with a four year freeze on lowered salaries, loss of
pensions, decreased health, vacation and sick leave. If anything DO NOT BUY
Tyson products or pizzas who use their products (Tombstone, DiGiorno, Jack's and
Tony's). Address Info: UFCW Local 538. 2228 Mvrtle St.. Madison WI 53704.

Certain elements of the legislature, (whom I will not name here as they are not worthy of
my Writing to place their moniker in print), are telling us they have integrity (look at that
picture in the upper left comer again) as of late, while they host fund raisers from many
who have a big interest in this budget. Some voted for the sham legislation last year
which was supposed to halt campaign fund raising while the legislature was discussing
the budget. Of course they interpret this as meaning this only occurs during the
"workday" when they actually meet. In the evening it is okay to host/attend campaign
fund raisings. This is how the system works. Weasels, are my words to them, all
of them. (Now I s 'pose PET A will be on my case.)

For those of you who missed it, Ex -Gov. McCallum had to forfeit an additional
$13,000 (over his earlier "elastic check" in the original amount of $3420.35) plus a
$500 fine (for his personal plane trips and ethics fine), for his free COrporate America
provided boat/personal state plane trips and his associated memory loss of these 'events
while he was acting Gov. Maybe that picture up there is of him?

It appears that the two things hanging up the stalled budget are transportation, and health.
The Gov. Wants to take $500 million from Transportation and use $400 million toward
state shared revenues and put $ I 00 million to school aid and general fund (rainy day
fund) over the next two years, while the minority is opposed to this. Estimated
federal Medicare monies that the Gov. hopes he gets from the federal government is short
of what he proposed, $434 million vs. approx.$350 million (about $84 million
short). Finding the extra $84 million is part of the hang up here. The majority was okay
sick day benefit that a full time employee (like us) gets. I would be very curious to
know how many sick days the entire legislature takes annually, I'll bet it is slim
to none. If you only came in three days a week you could conceivably schedule Dr.
appointments, etc, around the off days, thus keeping all of your accrued sick leave.
Remember how former Governor Thompson bragged how much sick leave he accrued in
his many years as a legislator and Governor? It is most likely due to the logic I put forth
to you here. It might be time for legislators to not only pay their fair share toward the
health plans too, but also to their free parking perk, the tax free $88/day per diem
(which should be taxed as income), and the sick leave benefit since they are not full time
employees. They should get a reduced mileage rate similar to state employees too
(.20/mile instead of the .325/mile they get now). I think we can make a case for this.
Much of this occurs from DOA AND DER, since they set the rates. We bargain with
DER, and a member of DO A usually sits on their side.

US Congress woman Tammy Baldwin Thinks that National Healthcare is ripe for
the times. Creating federal/state partnerships would allow most states to
experiment with health care reforms and implement these by 2005. Since all states
administer health care differently, the partnership plan appears workable and could
lead to a National Plan. Keep this in mind when we go back to the bargaining table
too. She is working right now with a conservative think tank to draft a plan
proposing this type of national legislation. Sidenote here: I owe our President a cup of
coffee (Kwik Trip Hazlenut Decaf with no cream) since he was correct and I was not

over the pending contract approvals. Congratulations Tim Hanley, I was wrong!.
But in this case I was glad to be wrong. California has a greater than $50 billion
deficit, Minnesota has one about $4.23 billion deficit (WI deficit is estimated at
$3.2 billion), and by the way, Minnesota's legislators get $50 and $60/day per diem
while our legislators get $44 and $88. Legislators who Voted No on the Contracts:
Senate: T. Reynolds (R-W. Allis) of 31 Senators:
30 Ayes 1 No (2 Senate seats open at present)
Assembly: Foti (R-Oconomowoc)
F. Lassee (R- Manitowoc area)
Seratti (R-Marinette Co area)
M. Lehman (R-Hartford)
Nass (R-Whitewater)
Grothman (R- W .Bend)
Gundrum (R-New Berlin)
Jensen (R-Waukesha)
Vukmir (R- Waukesha)
Suder (R-Abbotsford)
LaMahieau (R-Oostburg)

The first nine listed voted no on all 19 contracts, the last two listed voted no on just
a couple of contracts. Basically there were 89 Ayes, 9 no's, and 1 abstain/not voting
which was Barb Gronemus (D Eau Claire). Does anyone see a pattern here? I think I.
do. Now who is the mysterious person on the 1rst page????? If you have not figured it out
by now, rotate the page (or your computer screen if this gets on the webpage)
counterclockwise a quarter turn and look again. "Aha!" You say! My humble advice
to you all, "don't be like that person, be professional and the best state employee you
can be!"

Feedback anyone?, it is always welcomed.
P .S. I had fun writing to you all today.