Governor Thompson Visits AFSCME

MADISON, WISCONSIN

Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) paid a call to AFSCME headquarters in Madison in December. But the visit was official, not social.

Thompson signed a package of new legislation affecting public employees, including a bill providing the largest boost ever for participants in the state’s retirement system.

The pension bill improves the formula used to calculate pensions for approximately 450,000 current and retired public employees. The pension improvements are funded from an account that has burgeoned through the investment of workers’ retirement contributions in the booming stock market.

A special guest at the signing was Roy Kubista, 88, one of AFSCME’s founders and a key player in the original state retirement system in the 1940s.

Despite the upbeat mood at the signing, the new bill is undergoing a court test as of this writing. The Department of Employee Trust Funds is concerned that some of the bill’s provisions may be unconstitutional and has asked the state Supreme Court to review it.