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Did Scott Walker do what he said he would do?

March 9, 2011 —

Scott Walker and his allies insist that his policy toward public unions in Wisconsin was clear to the voters before Election Day. I examine the 2010 Walker campaign to see if this is the case.

In February of 2011, Wisconsin Gov.  Scott Walker introduced legislation that would affect unions of public employees. Some of the plan is designed to reduce a portion of the state’s budget deficit. Public workers would have to pay half their pension costs and contribute more to their own health care costs. Raises would be limited to inflationary increases, unless approved by voters, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Most sound like reasonable actions of a state in a budget crisis. In fact, unions agreed to the financial concessions to save the state the money. According to CBS News, “Under one deal, the unions said they would accept paying more for benefits as Walker wants but still retain their collective bargaining rights.”

More controversial are the provisions that such public unions would only be able to negotiate wages, not benefits. They would have to be annually certified, and could not have union dues deducted from state paychecks. This information also comes from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article. They aren’t as much about saving the state money (reviewing union certification over an annual basis, instead of on a multiyear plan, would likely cost the state more money).

But did the Wisconsin voters know that public unions would be targeted as they went into the voting booth? According to the Green Bay Gazette, Walker said, “Unless you were in a coma for the last two years, it was clear where I was headed.” In that same article, however, the reporter wrote “Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said Walker never talked about doing away with collective bargaining rights during the campaign.”

Walker has an ally, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who was reported by The National Review as saying “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, Scott Walker won.” Graham went on to say “In a democracy, when you run on something, you do have an obligation to fulfill your promise. [Gov. Walker] didn’t take anybody by surprise, he’s doing exactly what he said. There was a referendum on this issue and the unions lost, and the Democrats in Wisconsin should come back to Wisconsin to have votes.”

To determine who is right, I went to Scott Walker’s 2010 campaign website. I searched his “issues” site, which did not contain a single detail about unions. I also tried looking in his press releases and news clips, without any luck. I read dozens of articles about his campaign appearances, but couldn’t find anything about unions. Unions aren’t mentioned on this site until after the bill is introduced last month. Regardless of how you feel about unions, it’s clear that GOP Governor Walker wasn’t candid with the Wisconsin voters about his plans.