Elections have consequences alright. Democrats in Wisconsin are now fully in control of both the executive and the legislative branches of government, and they are wasting no time in bringing change.

On the death row of existing public policy is the “Qualified Economic Offer (QEO),” and the Democrats are poised to flip the switch and start the legislative lethal injection.

The QEO is a longstanding policy to reign in out of control property taxes. It applies to public school teachers’ salaries and benefits. During the years preceding the QEO, the union was able to force costly arbitration on school districts and eventually bully fat raises for teachers. The cost, of course, was passed onto property owners in the form of property taxes. The QEO put a stop to that. Under the QEO law, if a school district was able to offer a minimum salary and benefit increase of at least 3.8%, then a costly, protracted battle with the teacher’s union was effectively avoided. Without the threat of protracted arbitration, the union was toothless.

Still, during the life of the QEO (from approximately 1993 to present) public school teachers in Wisconsin fared pretty well. The average annual increase in wages and benefits was in excess of the minimum 3.8% set by the QEO (the average was 4%). Further, public school teacher salaries and benefits in Wisconsin usually rank at or above the national average. All in all, the 60,000 or so public school teachers in Wisconsin are doing pretty well. Any rumors of them being reduced to eating government issued lard sandwiches (ala the Great Depression) are wholly unfounded. They are not spending their summers off standing in the soup line.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the teacher’s union in Wisconsin, spent about 2 million to help elect Democrats in this last election cycle, and now it is payback time. The Democrats are poised to reward the loyalty of another big union at the expense of property owners.

Killing the QEO has another unfortunate effect. It will add another strident chord in the symphony of out migration from Wisconsin to other states. You see, Wisconsin has a little problem that we Wisconsinites have come to call the “brain drain”, where educated, higher income people flee the state rather than see more of their hard earned income go to property taxes . . . or welfare.

But, fear not, Wisconsin will not be a complete hinterland, void of people. Replacing the educated, high income earners are people on the lower rung of the economic ladder. They come to enjoy Wisconsin’s impressive welfare (some of the best in the nation!), and generous earned income tax credit (welfare for low wage earners), and even taxi services to schools and health visits. If you’re a mooch in search of great “benies”, then what’s not to like about Wisconsin?

As of November, 2008, Wisconsin made the big plunge as a deep blue state. Any iota of Republican power, for the time being, is nonexistent in any truly meaningful way. Now, the entitlements and the redistribution can proceed apace without hindrance from those mean, heartless conservatives.

One problem, though . . . who’s going to pay for it? College grads in Wisconsin are collecting their degrees and heading to other states where they can keep more of their hard earned salaries, where the Pandora’s Box of income redistribution is more closed than open.

Wisconsin has engineered an unsustainable entitlement bubble. There are more and more hands, palm up, seeking their “fair” share, but less and less pockets to pilfer from. It’s a situation ripe for implosion.

So, if you’re in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes, come visit beautiful Wisconsin, the incredible, imploding blue state. If you’re in search of a great welfare package, consider my invitation null and void. I can’t afford your company.