Another angry listening session we missed, Voters not happy with Walker, rail on Rep. Howard Marklein

The article started off like this: The policies of Gov. Scott Walker proved divisive during an informal listening session held by a state assemblyman Howard Marklein last week.

I discovered this account recently, from the Sauk Prairie Eagle. Check out the first bizarre comment here, from a Marklein voter, who is so over the top cruel that Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers look like social workers:

Sauk City resident Steve Weynand said he's self-employed, and he told state Rep. Marklein he believes that once the current contracts for public workers and teachers expire the state should not provide them with health insurance, retirement benefits or paid holidays and vacations. "If they don't work, they don't get paid," said Weynand, adding that's how he manages his two employees.

But the listening session then took a sudden, ugly adversarial turn for the worse…

Eric Powers of Sauk City said he, too, was self-employed, but told Marklein he didn't believe it was necessary to take away their collective bargaining rights. "I don't think we need to go to the extremes of Walker's budget." Powers also said he objected to corporate tax breaks approved by Walker. 

"I don't understand the corporate tax breaks perception out there," Marklein said. He said there had been no corporate tax breaks passed while he was in office.

Marklein either has a short memory or is lying:

In January Walker’s special session of the Legislature … tax deductions for businesses relocating to Wisconsin, and an economic development tax credit … combined with the HAS deduction, the three measures were estimated to be a $140 million tax cut … were approved by the Legislature during the January special session. According to votesmart.org, Marklein voted in support of all three measures. 

In a phone interview May 10, Marklein said … "I guess it depends on how you want to spin it," said Marklein, adding (the) bill (was) a tax breaks for farmers. 

The rest of the comments speak for themselves:

Many speakers argued against ending collective bargaining rights … while others simply expressed confusion over the intent of the legislation. Jeanne Lenerz said she wished someone would explain whether ending collective bargaining would save the state money.
Becky Powers said she thinks Walker is unnecessarily polarizing the state. "It shouldn't be us against each other, but it's being presented that way," she said. 

The most contentious part of Marklein's budget listening session occurred when Michael Putnam loudly asked if campaign contributions were influencing the Assemblyman's support of expanding private school-voucher programs … Barbara Ostrowski said she believed expanding the voucher system eventually would harm public schools and benefit students from wealthier homes at the expense of the poor. 

Other initiatives opposed by people in the audience were the dissolution of regional transit authorities and a bill requiring voters to present identification at the polls. "Voter fraud - where is it?" said Ostrowski. She said the voter ID bill is a solution with no problem and ultimately would disenfranchise voters.