Scott Walker Busts The Myth That Union-Busting “Saves Money”

Gov. Scott Walker (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker traveled to Washington on Thursday for testimony on Capitol Hill regarding his controversial measures that take aim at labor rights for state employees, including the notorious law that rescinds collective bargaining right for Wisconsin public workers.  The session proved especially illuminating…

Gov. Walker commenced his appearance by praising himself in opening statements for pursuing a “truly progressive”  agenda that is both “bold” in scope yet “modest” in its impact on workers in the Badger State.

In Wisconsin, we are doing something truly progressive. In addition to holding the line on spending and finding efficiencies in state government, we are implementing long term budget reforms focused on protecting middle class jobs and middle class taxpayers. While our idea may be a bold political move it is a very modest request of our employees.

Later, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that called the hearing, asked Gov. Walker point-blank “how much money” the state of Wisconsin would save from the various pieces of legislation meant to increase the burden on state employees and curtail the activities of organized labor. Cost savings has consistently been the excuse given by the governor and his Republican allies in the state legislature, as well as other lawmakers taking a similar anti-union approach across the country.

The answer to how much money will be saved from initiatives like ending five decades of collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin public employees?? “It doesn’t save any,” says Gov. Walker.

Think Progress provides the transcript of the exchange between Rep. Kucinich and Gov. Walker.

KUCINICH: Let me ask you about some of the specific provisions in your proposals to strip collective bargaining rights. First, your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue representing their own members. Can you please explain to me and members of this committee how much money this provision saves for your state budget?

WALKER: That and a number of other provisions we put in because if you’re going to ask, if you’re going to put in place a change like that, we wanted to make sure we protected the workers of our state, so they got value out of that. [...]

KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?

WALKER: It doesn’t save any. [...]

KUCINICH: I want to ask about another one of your proposals. Under your plan you would prohibit paying union member dues from their paychecks. How much money would this provision save your state budget?

WALKER: It would save employees a thousand dollars a year they could use to pay for their pensions and health care contributions.

KUCINICH: Governor, it wouldn’t save anything. [Goes on to present letter from LRF and is denied unanimous request for it to be placed in the public record by Issa]

Besides Gov. Walker’s testimony before Congress, the facts make it plain that cost savings and deficit reduction are not at the heart of his aggressive restrictions on public employees and labor organizations.

Take the state budget deficit consistently put forward by the governor and Republicans in the legislature as the reason that the law targeting collective bargaining must be a priority. Before Scott Walker took office, Wisconsin’s official “Fiscal Bureau” predicted the state would end 2010 having a budget surplus. After Walker and the state legislature approved $140 million in spending for “economic development” and tax cuts for corporations, the governor now claims a $137 million deficit — a pretext for the assault on state employees.

In fact, like just about every other state in the country, Wisconsin is managing in a weak economy. The difference is that Wisconsin is managing better — or at least it had been managing better until Walker took over. Despite shortfalls in revenue following the economic downturn that hit its peak with the Bush-era stock market collapse, the state has balanced budgets, maintained basic services and high-quality schools, and kept employment and business development steadier than the rest of the country. It has managed so well, in fact, that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently released a memo detailing how the state will end the 2009-2011 budget biennium with a budget surplus.In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.To the extent that there is an imbalance — Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit — it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes — or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues — the “crisis” would not exist.

Adding to the fiscal mess created by Gov. Walker is that Wisconsin could be on the hook for an additional $46 million in lost federal funding because of the new law eliminating collective bargaining rights for public workers.  The money is earmarked for transportation spending in Wisconsin, and there are reports that it could be forfeited based on rules for its distribution barring states that receive it from tampering with bargaining rights for workers.

Where Gov. Walker and the legislature does look for new revenue and a plan to reduce the deficit they created, it comes on the backs of low-income and middle-class residents.

In an aggressive tax cut plan that target the wealthy and businesses for tax cuts, Walker has seemingly broken his campaign pledge not to raise taxes by proposing to eliminate tax credits worth almost $50 million that help low and middle income families and individuals.  But the governor defends his decision by calling the tax breaks a “redistribution program” that is “taking money from other taxpayers.”

Wisconsin and Scott Walker are not alone in touting what turns out to be phantom savings from a union-busting agenda.

Senate Bill 5 was recently passed in Ohio and signed by Gov. John Kasich that would restrict collective bargaining rights and place new burdens on public employees. Kasich and supporters of the bill have promised over one billion dollars in “savings” will be squeezed from public employees due to the legislation. Experts say that prediction is not “accurate.”

The Kasich administration says local governments could save nearly $1.1 billion from the health-care and longevity-pay provisions of Senate Bill 5, but a contract expert says the methodology used to calculate the number for school workers is flawed.”It’s an estimation,” said Pieter Wykoff, spokesman for the Department of Administrative Services, which put together the analysis. “People keep asking us what kind of savings is out there, and we’re just trying to come up with a way to figure that out.”The latest analysis comes just days after Gov. John Kasich signed Senate Bill 5 into law, kicking off an effort by union supporters to ask voters to strike down the law on the November ballot.