The assault on workers and organized labor taking place in Wisconsin has been all the talk this week, but it looks like what we are seeing there will start popping up in more places. Here in the buckeye state yesterday, a similar protest broke out:

Hundreds of union protesters again packed the Statehouse in protest on Tuesday as government officials from around the state lined up in support of a bill that would wipe out Ohio’s nearly 30-year-old collective bargaining law and make other union changes.

A crowd of firefighters, police officers and other public employees overflowed the hearing room, packing cat walks and filling the Statehouse Atrium and Rotunda to standing-room-only capacity for much of the afternoon. It was the second week that hearings on the bill drew such crowds.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Shannon Jones, would eliminate collective bargaining rights and salary schedules for public employees across the state. GOP Gov. John Kasich has expressed his support for the bill in concept, but he has also signaled he may bring forth his own plan that could go even further — including banning public employee strikes.

In Ohio it appears the only way to get a raise is to actually work for the Governor:

Strickland’s Communications Director Keith Dailey, for example, currently makes $89,003. While Kasich’s Scott Milburn is getting a bump to $120,000.

Press Secretary Amanda Wurst currently makes $69,992. Rob Nichols will get $90,000.00.

But the big boost is for Chief of Staff.

Strickland’s Chief of Staff John Haseley makes $122,990/year but Kasich’s incoming Chief of Staff Beth Hansen is going to receive $170,000. This is more money than every cabinet member but 3, more than the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, more than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, Speaker and Senate President!

That’s almost a $100,000 a year in raises for the “fiscally conservative” governor’s staff, and then there’s this:

For his long-time friend and the second half of his two man office at Lehman, John Kasich made up a brand new position: Special Assistant to the Governor. And a brand new salary as well: $145,000.

So with almost 1/4 million dollars in extra salary going out in the Governor’s office this year, we have further evidence that Republicans care nothing about the people who educate or children or keep or lives and property safe. They only care about their own friends and special interests.

Proof of this also exists back in Wisconsin, in what is probably the biggest part of the story that isn’t being told:

In fact, like just about every other state in the country, Wisconsin is managing in a weak economy. The difference is that Wisconsin is managing better — or at least it had been managing better until Walker took over. Despite shortfalls in revenue following the economic downturn that hit its peak with the Bush-era stock market collapse, the state has balanced budgets, maintained basic services and high-quality schools, and kept employment and business development steadier than the rest of the country. It has managed so well, in fact, that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently released a memo detailing how the state will end the 2009-2011 budget biennium with a budget surplus.

In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.

To the extent that there is an imbalance — Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit — it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes — or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues — the “crisis” would not exist.

Wisconsin was one of the better states financially until the Republicans took control and decided to fork out all this money to special interests. If this isn’t a “redistribution of wealth”, I don’t know what is. Perhaps the Republican mascot should become the Sheriff of Nottingham, the man who stole from the poor to help the rich. Now we need a real life Robin Hood to turn the tables on them.