The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) caught the eye of the Landmark Legal Foundation long before they gained national prominence due to their pro-union position around the tense debate currently playing out in Wisconsin. But not only have they recently stepped up to pay some back taxes, presumably due to pressure from Landmark, if Governor Walker is correct, they are also gouging taxpayers for health care costs at the same time they failed to pay the appropriate taxes – and the stance taken by truant Wisconsin teachers appears calculated to allow what some are calling a scam to continue.
In April, the Landmark Legal Foundation asked federal officials to investigate its claim that WEAC failed to report or pay taxes on $430,000 in contributions to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee between 2000 and 2002 in apparent violation of federal law.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council has voluntarily made $171,091 in payments to the Internal Revenue Service after a review of past federal tax returns, the state’s largest teachers union said Wednesday.
WEAC previously created the WEAC Trust, which, among other things, provides health insurance for Wisconsin school districts.
If the bill proposed by Governor Walker were to pass, the teachers union could still employ collective bargaining for wages but their ability to control the benefits portion of the contract would go away. Walker claims that would immediately reduce health care costs for WI school districts by 68 million dollars. Obviously, it would also impact the WEAC Trust’s bottom-line.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker has proposed a bill which would have school districts optionally join the state employees’ health insurance plan.[9] Walker says the bill would save $68 million a year for Wisconsin school districts, and $224 million for local governments.[9] WEAC is against the bill and said that it would fight its implementation.[9]
Given the circumstances, it’s fair to ask what, precisely, is WEAC’s motivation for opposing the Wisconsin bill supported by Governor Walker and Republicans, while Democrats have fled the state.
In a worst case scenario, not only would WEAC be gouging tax payers through the WEAC Trust due to inflated health care costs, given Landmark’s discovery, they might not even be paying their own taxes at the right level, or in a timely manner.
Certainly the big dollars at stake for WEAC casts a shadow over their alleged support for teachers. Given that Walker claims up to 5,000 people might lose their jobs if the bill fails to pass, WEAC could conceivably be putting their own financial interests over the plight of Wisconsin public employees.
It appears WEAC stands to gain, or at least keep profiting, while a large number of workers would become unemployed thanks, in part, to WEAC’s position.