The Center on Wisconsin Strategy says "this is a stressful time for workers" in its biennial report on the state of labor in the Badger State.

The think tank notes that workers are still trying to get back to income levels of 2000. The bursting of the housing bubble, soaring gas and food prices and mass layoffs are creating an economy "teetering" towards recession. The report calls economic gains "a spectator sport," since most people are not experiencing them first-hand.

Some notable findings:

• Wisconsin's workforce is roughly $2,500 behind the national average in per capita income. The state's median wage was $15.17 per hour, but it is declining, something that hasn't happened since the early 1980s. The wage is a mere 57 cents an hour higher than the median wage in 1979.
• One of five workers earned wages that couldn't keep a family out of poverty.
• The state has lost 24,000 jobs since June 2007.
• Wisconsin places second in terms of the share of its workforce in manufacturing, it lost about 13,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 15 months.
• The poverty gap between whites and blacks in Milwaukee was the highest disparity posted by any of the nation's top 100 metropolitan areas in 2006. Only Minnesota exceeds Wisconsin's white / black poverty gap.

Park People Ready for Battle: The Park People are doing their annual rallying to save Milwaukee County's emerald ring from further dilapidation -- at least that's their view.

Jim Goulee of the Park People is stressing the importance of public involvement. Cutting staff and changing positions to seasonal help would not be good for the health of the parks, he says.

Preliminary budget requests have the Parks Department cutting maintenance by from $918,000 to $252,500, a 72 percent drop. It also would close two community centers at Martin Luther King and Kosciuszko parks in the hopes of perhaps getting day care centers or some other private entities to lease the space.

The plan would also privatize golf course concessions and the parking operation at O'Donnell Park. It would also cut 50 worker posts at the parks. One bone being tossed to taxpayers is the possibility of opening 10 new dog parks, but sites were not listed.

"If this is allowed to happen the Parks Department would lose nearly 1,000 years of knowledge and experience that the full-time employees offer. This can not be allowed to occur," Goulee says.

County Exec Scott Walker is expected to announced his budget plan Oct. 1, but there are three public hearings slated for next week: Tuesday at Kosciuszko Community Center, 2201 S. 7th St.; Wednesday at Granville Senior Center, 7717 W. Good Hope Rd.; and Thursday at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, 1531 W. Vliet St.

The hearings begin at 6 p.m. and run until 7:30.

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