Scott Walker

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Scott Walker is the Republican Governor of Wisconsin who, in 2011, proposed sharply curtailing the bargaining rights of public employee unions as a way to achieve budget savings. His proposal gave rise to unprecedented state-wide protests in Wisconsin.

Biography

Scott Walker is the son of a preacher. He grew up in the small town of Delavan, Wisconsin.

Scott Walker Budget

Governor Scott Walker introduced his budget bill in late February and plans on cutting $1.5 billion in aid to public schools and local government, transportation and environmental issues and unions. But, it avoids any tax or fee increases, furloughs or widespread layoffs. Walker says this bill will help confront a projected $3.6 billion deficit the state has acquired.

The Wisconsin State Journal clearly outlined the two different bills that have been discussed in the media: The two-year Budget Repair Bill and the Biennial Bill (2011-2013), which projects cuts and changes to come (the fist of January 2011). "The Senate and Assembly have passed — and Walker has signed — the part of the budget repair bill that decreases public employee compensation and limits collective bargaining rights. The Legislature still must act on other parts of the budget repair bill, including the debt restructuring. Simultaneously, work now has begun on the next biennial budget bill, which will address taxing and spending that is yet to come — in this case, beginning July 1, 2011, Dresang said."

This budget is not exclusive to Wisconsin, its changes and effects are mirrored in 16 other states that are using their majority Republican Senates to pass extreme laws in their new budget bills. In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and others, new Republican-led state governments are voting on proposed deep cuts to essential programs and plan to privatize publicly-owned and funded services. Below is a list of the cuts being made in Wisconsin and how they will affect the average citizen.

Proposed cuts to healthcare

The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families reported that the Budget Repair Bill grants the Department of Health Services the power to make decisions that would change state laws dealing with medical care for children, parents and childless adults; prescription drug plans for seniors; nursing home care for the elderly; and long-term care for the elderly and the disabled outside of nursing homes. BadgerCare Plus and BadgerCare Core plans, Family Care and SeniorCare, are programs that could see changes and cuts under the proposed plan. The budget adds nearly $1.3 billion to Walker's two-year plan.

• "The biennial budget bill cuts about $500 million (GPR) from Medicaid (including $111 million GPR from Family Care)."
• BadgerCare, a program for low-income families and children, will take decision-making authority away from legislature and give it the Governor. This also affects the people’s chance to voice their opinion on proposed changes.
• SeniorCare members will also be required to enroll in the federal program.
• Title V Maternal and Child Health program are eliminated under the plan. Currently, uninsured men and women can currently receive this care, which includes cervical and prostate cancer screenings, access to birth control and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
• The "contraceptive equity" law passed in 2009 that requires health insurance plans in the state that cover prescription drugs to include contraceptives will be repealed.
• Uninsured men between the ages of 15 and 44 will be taken out of the family planning program of BadgerCare.

Proposed cuts to education

Governor Walker is proposing $900 million worth of cuts in K-12 school aid over the next two years. This will continue to move the state further from its former commitment to cover two-thirds of the costs of public schools. Higher Education will also be affected. "University tuition is expected to increase by 5.5 percent each year for the UW System, and 20% or more over the biennium for UW Madison."

• The plan lifts the cap on the number of students who can participate in the Milwaukee School Choice program.
• It ends state funding for Advanced Placement courses and "science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.”
• Walker's budget mandates a 5.5 percent cut in per-pupil local education spending. That comes out to approximately $550 per pupil. No district will be permitted to maintain its current level of property tax-based funding for education or be able to increase that tax to offset state cuts. The exact dollar amount would also be greater for higher-revenue districts and lower for low-revenue districts.
• The bill increases the amount of money spent on Milwaukee's private school voucher system by making more city students eligible for the program.
• The budget transfers UW-Madison into a quasi-public authority, facing deep cuts in state funding. This could also later happen to UW-Milwaukee.
• Other public universities face an 11 percent budget cuts and get none of the cost-saving tools UW-Madison would get by splitting from the UW System.

Cuts to workers' rights

Under Governor Walker’s new budget repair bill, unions and state workers will see some of the biggest restrictions and cuts. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that:

• The bill requires most public workers to pay half of their pension costs. This factors out to about 5.8 percent of state workers’ pay and 12 percent of their health care costs. This does not apply to police, firefighters and state troopers.
• Raises will be limited to inflation and contracts would be limited to one year. Wages would be frozen until a new contract is settled.
• Non-law enforcement unions will loose their bargaining rights over everything but wages.
• Collective bargaining units are required to take annual votes to maintain certification as a union. Employers would be prohibited from collecting union dues, and members of collective bargaining units would not be required to pay dues. Changes would be effective upon expiration of existing contracts.
• It also authorizes appointing agencies to terminate any employees who are absent for three days without approval or any employees participating in an organized action to stop or slow work if the governor has declared a state of emergency.

Local governments

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Budget Bill will cause cities and counties across Wisconsin will see their aid cut by $96 million, or nearly 12 percent on average, over the next two years.

• The bill would freeze property taxes for local governments, allowing them to increase only for the construction of new homes or buildings.
• Local governments will no longer be required to operate recycling programs and will no longer get state subsidies for these programs.
• It also reduces their payments to maintain local roads by 10 percent.
• The bill requires local governments that don't have civil-service systems to create an employee grievance system within months. Those local civil-service systems would have to address grievances for employee termination, employee discipline and workplace safety.

PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS
The budget focuses on hiring more staff for the State Crime Laboratory, investigating child pornography cases and enforcing tougher drunken driving laws.

• Includes $1 million for raises for prosecutors.
• Eliminates the early prison release program.
• Consolidation of correctional schools: Closing Ethan Allen School in Wales and South Oaks Girls School in Union Grove. Their operations would be moved to Lincoln Hills School in Lincoln County.

TAX CUTS AND THE ECONOMY
Walker has approved over $100 million in tax cuts over the next two years. This is on top of $140 billion already granted to corporations in three bills Walker signed in his first month of office in January.

• Investors will be provided with lower state taxes on capital gains for investing in Wisconsin businesses.
• It gives multistate corporations a larger window in using losses to offset their tax liability. That would lower taxes by $46 million over two years.
• Provides $196 million for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the partly private entity that is replacing the state Department of Commerce.
• Companies that relocate to Wisconsin won't have to pay income taxes for two years.
• Eliminates state income taxes on contributions made to health savings accounts.
• Ending inflation adjustment costs for low-income households under the Homestead Tax Credit that will result in a $8 million cut. "The Homestead Credit provides targeted property tax relief for about 250,000 low-income households, including both owners and renters. The Governor proposes repealing the annual adjustments, which will cut the credits by $2 million in tax year 2011 and $6 million in 2012. The cuts will average about $8 per recipient in tax year 2011 and $24 the next year. Those amounts will grow steadily in future years."

ENVIRONMENT
The Wisconsin State Journal reported that "the former head of the Division of Water in the state Department of Natural Resources said rollbacks of clean water regulations in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget could put the state in violation of federal laws. Walker has proposed reducing standards for phosphorus which were set in a rule passed by the Natural Resources Board last year. His budget also includes a plan to eliminate municipal stormwater standards that regulate pollutants running off streets, parking lots and other urban surfaces."

• Eliminates rolling back regulations to control phosphorus pollution in line with neighboring states' rules.
• Eliminates payments to local governments that lose property tax revenues following DNR land stewardship purchases.
• It lowers funding to the Department of Natural Resources by nearly 16 percent.
• Lowers support for local transit by 10 percent.

Protest Timeline

In addition to tens of thousands of people rallying in Madison, Wisconsin's state capitol, to oppose Walker's budget plan, students and teachers around the state conducted walkouts, effectively shutting down entire school systems around the state. Walkouts closed Madison-area schools for days in a row.

Funders

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. WDC's data shows that Walker's major contributors include a diversity of national and state-based firms, including Koch Industries, AT&T, Wal-Mart, John Deere Tractor, Johnsonville Brats, Miller/Coors, Kwik Trip, Sargento Cheese, and SC Johnson & Sons (producers of Windex, Glade, Pledge etc).

Attack on labor unions

Walker called his union-busting measure a "budget repair bill" and portrayed it as a way to keep more people from being forced to apply for unemployment compensation. His proposal drew outrage from labor unions in Wisconsin, and gave rise to unprecedented, huge protests at the Wisconsin state capitol. Elements of Walker's proposal include limiting state employees' wage increases to the rate of inflation unless approved in a voter referendum. State workers other than police, fire, and inspectors would lose many of their bargaining rights and could opt out of paying union dues after current contracts expire, with dues no longer collected automatically. Wisconsin state workers would have to raise the amount they contribute to their pensions to 5.8 percent of salary, and double their contribution to their health insurance premiums to 12.6 percent of their salary.

Relationship to Koch Industries

OpenSecrets.org (the Center for Responsive Politics) reports that Koch Industries donated $15,000 on July 8, 2010 and another $28,000 on September 27, 2010 to the Friends of Scott Walker political action committee, to help elect Scott Walker as Governor of Wisconsin. Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, part of the nearly 4,000 miles of pipelines owned or operated by the company. Walker has taken more than $70,000 from gas and pipeline companies, and opposed a high speed rail project that would have reduced Wisconsin's dependence on oil

Prank call from "David Koch"

On February 23, 2011, blogger Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast in Buffalo, New York phoned Walker posing as conservative billionaire businessman David Koch, one of Walker's major campaign contributors, and a major funder of the anti-union group Americans for Prosperity. In the call, Murphy posing as Koch makes derogatory statements about unions and Democrats. When the fake Koch suggested placing "troublemakers" among the crowd of protesters who have been swarming the Wisconsin state capitol for eight consecutive days protesting Walkers' anti-union "budget repair bill," (presumably to discredit them), Walker admits, "We thought about that." Walker then says he concluded that real unrest might swing public opinion against him and that it was better to let the protests play out, saying the media would eventually lose interest. Walker never said he decided not to place troublemakers because doing so was morally or ethically wrong, or illegal. Walker drew greater scrutiny and questions from public officials over these statements, and became an object or criticism for taking the call, since at the time he had refused repeated calls from Democrats trying to reach him to discuss the legislation he was proposing.

Sourcewatch resources

• Wisconsin Governor Walks on Workers, Brendan Fischer, PRWatch.org, February 16, 2011
• Koch Industries

External resources

• Meet Scott Walker, biography
• The Koch Connection in Scott Walker's War on Working People, blog, PRWatch.org, February 18, 2011
• Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Budget Coverage