Sen. Nass disagrees with UW economist on RTW report: "Partisan garbage research is what we have come to expect."

Nothing projects ignorance and unfettered authoritarian control like yesterday’s attack on a UW professor over his report disputing the benefits of right-to-work.

Seriously, dissent will not be tolerated. This is just the latest frightening Republican reaction that should send up a few red flags for conservative voters.

It’s beyond words really. WPR Shawn Johnson:

A Republican state lawmaker and outspoken critic of the University of Wisconsin took aim at a UW economist on Monday for producing research that disputes the benefits of right-to-work laws.

State Sen. Steve Nass sent an email to reporters, legislators, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and UW System President Ray Cross calling a report by UW-Madison and UW-Extension economist Steven Deller "yet another example of wasted resources" at the university.

Want to know what Republicans really think of a college education? 

Nass added that "hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan, garbage research is what we have come to expect" at the UW.

Deller's two-page report found that wages -- and manufacturing wages in particular -- are lower in states with right-to-work laws, saying they're more symbolic than an actual economic growth policy.
 Deller called Nass' remarks another "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts" reaction.

This is a manufactured dust up to justify Walker's proposed stiff cuts to the UW...again.

Here's a story that outraged Nass:

A UW-Extension paper estimates that workers in the manufacturing sector earn an average of $8,100 less in states that have right-to-work laws, and that right-to-work states have more poverty and fewer college graduates.

"Bottom line, right-to-work states tend to have lower manufacturing wages and overall income levels, higher poverty rartes and lower education levels," reads the UW-Extension right-to-work fact sheet (the PDF is attached) by Steven Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics.
  "In the end, right-to-work politics are more symbolic than an actual growth and development policy," reads the short report. "In and of itself, right-to-work laws really do very little. It's really more of a signal about how people think about business climate."

In right-to-work states, Deller says, economic policies are geared toward lowering the cost of doing business — cutting taxes, driving down the cost of labor and limiting regulation. But such policies also are at odds with promoting high-growth and high-wage industries.

The study compared the 22 right-to-work states that existed prior to 2012 — when both Michigan and Indiana adopted right-to-work laws — with states that didn't have right-to-work laws.

The comparison found that in right-to-work states, manufacturing jobs paid an average of $52,900, while in non-right-to-work states, manufacturing workers earned $61,000. Per capita income in right-to-work states was $3,875 less in right-to-work states, $33,101 versus $36,976.

The individual poverty rate in right-to-work states was nearly 2 percent higher: 13.9 percent versus 12 percent. And the percentage of people with a college degree was nearly 4 percent lower in right-to-work states: 24.4 percent versus 28.2 percent.