STUDY: Scott Walker's Union Reforms Saved Taxpayers $5.24 billion

MADISON, Wis. – Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of angry and distressed teachers and other public employees stormed the state capitol in Madison, passionately protesting Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s public sector labor reform legislation.

As WiscNews.com put it, “The bill that later became Act 10 launched the largest protests ever in Madison, including a temporary occupation of the Capitol; legislative chaos highlighted by Democratic senators fleeing to Illinois to forestall a floor vote; and Walker’s historic recall victory.

“The days, weeks and months after Walker’s Feb. 11, 2011, announcement were among the most dramatic in Wisconsin’s history.”

The emotional protests left many across the state and nation with the impression that Walker and legislative Republicans had somehow imposed a terrible injustice on public sector employees and their families.

But the fact is that unchecked collective bargaining was bleeding massive resources from units of government at all levels. And overburdened taxpayers were picking up the tab.

The worst part was that taxpayers had no way to defend their wallets from constantly increasing labor costs. Public sector unions bullied employers behind closed doors, and the resulting contracts almost always increased costs for schools and municipalities, whether they could afford it or not.

Those extra costs inevitably found their way to the working people of Wisconsin.

Act 10, signed into law on March 11, 2011, limited the ability of public sector unions to plunder their employers’ bank accounts every two or three years, when contract time came around again. Unions were limited to negotiating for salary increases alone, and the percentage of those increases was capped. The levels of other compensation, like insurance and other benefits, were left to the discretion of the people elected to run local units of government.

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