Opponents of the reforms enacted in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker and his Republican legislature are understandably beside themselves; he was able to do in a single legislative session what they could not accomplish in a decade.
Last winter, an information campaign entitled “It’s Working Wisconsin” was launched to publicize the benefits of Act 10, the GOP budget repair bill that restricted collective bargaining privileges for public sector employees and gave municipalities new tools to address their budget shortfalls.
Opponents say it’s not working, and I agree with them. It’s not work-ing; it worked.
The Walker budget reforms are no longer a theory, an experiment, or a work in progress - they worked. Cause and effect; action and reaction; input and output; stimulus and response; modification and result.
You can hold any opinion you wish about Governor Walker his Republicans; you can oppose their agenda, you can abhor their ideology, you can object to their tactics, you can fear what they will do next. But you can’t say that their fiscal reforms have not worked – not if you have a clue what the word “fiscal” means.
And you can have any opinion of public sector unions that you wish, but you can’t say they weren’t the problem – not if you truly believe that Walker busted them and you truly believe that his predecessor did everything possible to fix the state’s fiscal mess without busting them. Walker did bust them; and it worked.
A structural budget deficit of $3.6 billion has been turned to a $425 million surplus without raising taxes, gutting programs, or laying off large numbers of public employees. Townships, cities, counties, and school boards have saved well over $1 billion - and counting - of taxpayer money in less than a year since Act 10 went into effect; property taxes actually declined state-wide for the first time this century.
I know those are Walker’s campaign talking points, but they wouldn’t be if Act 10 didn’t work. And they could have been former Governor Jim Doyle’s third-term talking points if he would have done what Walker did during any one of the eight years he sat in Madison with legislative majorities and swore up and down that nothing could be done about our deficits but raise taxes, beg for federal bailouts, raid trust funds, and spray some accounting voodoo around to cover the stink.
Wisconsin’s business climate has risen from the bottom of the rankings to 20th in just two years, an historic turnaround. Employers’ right track/wrong track surveys have gone from 90% wrong in 2010 to 90% right in 2012. Tens of thousands of jobs have already been added in a rejuvenated private sector and another 30,000 openings exist due to a shortage of qualified candidates. Did you catch that? We went from a budget deficit to a deficit of skilled workers for high-paying jobs.
Corporate tax revenues are up, personal tax revenues are up, sales tax revenues are up, the number of people working is up, the number of unfilled jobs is up, companies are hiring, exports are increasing, and Wisconsin is attracting business from surrounding states. Unemployment is down, new claims for unemployment are down, and the average length of time on unemployment is down.
Municipalities which took advantage of the budget tools the legislature gave to them found ways to save money and improve services. Many school districts reduced class sizes and enacted merit pay to reward great teachers. Liberated from state choke-holds, local units of government began to govern much better. He busted the Madison bureaucracy, too; and it worked.
Some cities and school districts rushed to extend union contracts to “protect” public employees from Walker’s Act 10. Those are the ones who have had to lay off employees, cut services, and abandon projects. Not because of Act 10, but because they rejected Act 10. Some have subsequently come back to the legislature to seek Act 10’s protection from those very union contracts they inflicted upon themselves.
While Wisconsin chose Walker, California and Illinois chose polar opposites. Like Walker’s current recall opponent, those two un-Walker governors ran on empty feel-good rhetoric with no fiscal plan to offer voters. Once elected, they raised taxes, cut services, laid of workers, and laid the lumber to businesses with taxes, fees, fines, and regulatory looting.
Both states have melted down, and their wealthy citizens and businesses are fleeing. This week, California Governor Brown admitted the state’s deficit will be $5 billion worse than he promised just 3 months ago. He will now raise taxes again; this time by 10-30% on everyone making over $250,000 per year (think, a pair of teachers). He will cut tens of thousands of additional state jobs, AND will ask public sector workers to contribute to their pensions and health care premiums.
That is what we avoided here in Wisconsin. That is what didn’t work – taxing and spending and debt and central control. It didn’t work here before Walker; it didn’t work in California; it didn’t work in Illinois; it didn’t work in Washington, D.C.; it didn’t work in Greece or Portugal or Italy or Spain. It has never worked anywhere but in the minds of liberal elitists and academics and socialist ideologues too busy yelling about what democracy looks like - to them - to notice what it really looks like to the majority of voters who rejected them in November of 2010.
This will be the last post I will write on the Wisconsin recalls before the vote on June 5. With over a year to think about it, the Democrats haven’t offered up anything that appeals to libertarians, the Republicans can defend their own candidates, and there is nothing further that needs to be said.
In a regular election, it is fair game to argue over what each candidate might do, but a recall is about what somebody did. What Governor Walker, Lt. Governor Kleefisch, Senators Fitzgerald, Wangaard, and Moulton did was take on the unions and the concentration of government power in Madison.
And it worked.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
Last winter, an information campaign entitled “It’s Working Wisconsin” was launched to publicize the benefits of Act 10, the GOP budget repair bill that restricted collective bargaining privileges for public sector employees and gave municipalities new tools to address their budget shortfalls.
Opponents say it’s not working, and I agree with them. It’s not work-ing; it worked.
The Walker budget reforms are no longer a theory, an experiment, or a work in progress - they worked. Cause and effect; action and reaction; input and output; stimulus and response; modification and result.
You can hold any opinion you wish about Governor Walker his Republicans; you can oppose their agenda, you can abhor their ideology, you can object to their tactics, you can fear what they will do next. But you can’t say that their fiscal reforms have not worked – not if you have a clue what the word “fiscal” means.
And you can have any opinion of public sector unions that you wish, but you can’t say they weren’t the problem – not if you truly believe that Walker busted them and you truly believe that his predecessor did everything possible to fix the state’s fiscal mess without busting them. Walker did bust them; and it worked.
A structural budget deficit of $3.6 billion has been turned to a $425 million surplus without raising taxes, gutting programs, or laying off large numbers of public employees. Townships, cities, counties, and school boards have saved well over $1 billion - and counting - of taxpayer money in less than a year since Act 10 went into effect; property taxes actually declined state-wide for the first time this century.
I know those are Walker’s campaign talking points, but they wouldn’t be if Act 10 didn’t work. And they could have been former Governor Jim Doyle’s third-term talking points if he would have done what Walker did during any one of the eight years he sat in Madison with legislative majorities and swore up and down that nothing could be done about our deficits but raise taxes, beg for federal bailouts, raid trust funds, and spray some accounting voodoo around to cover the stink.
Wisconsin’s business climate has risen from the bottom of the rankings to 20th in just two years, an historic turnaround. Employers’ right track/wrong track surveys have gone from 90% wrong in 2010 to 90% right in 2012. Tens of thousands of jobs have already been added in a rejuvenated private sector and another 30,000 openings exist due to a shortage of qualified candidates. Did you catch that? We went from a budget deficit to a deficit of skilled workers for high-paying jobs.
Corporate tax revenues are up, personal tax revenues are up, sales tax revenues are up, the number of people working is up, the number of unfilled jobs is up, companies are hiring, exports are increasing, and Wisconsin is attracting business from surrounding states. Unemployment is down, new claims for unemployment are down, and the average length of time on unemployment is down.
Municipalities which took advantage of the budget tools the legislature gave to them found ways to save money and improve services. Many school districts reduced class sizes and enacted merit pay to reward great teachers. Liberated from state choke-holds, local units of government began to govern much better. He busted the Madison bureaucracy, too; and it worked.
Some cities and school districts rushed to extend union contracts to “protect” public employees from Walker’s Act 10. Those are the ones who have had to lay off employees, cut services, and abandon projects. Not because of Act 10, but because they rejected Act 10. Some have subsequently come back to the legislature to seek Act 10’s protection from those very union contracts they inflicted upon themselves.
While Wisconsin chose Walker, California and Illinois chose polar opposites. Like Walker’s current recall opponent, those two un-Walker governors ran on empty feel-good rhetoric with no fiscal plan to offer voters. Once elected, they raised taxes, cut services, laid of workers, and laid the lumber to businesses with taxes, fees, fines, and regulatory looting.
Both states have melted down, and their wealthy citizens and businesses are fleeing. This week, California Governor Brown admitted the state’s deficit will be $5 billion worse than he promised just 3 months ago. He will now raise taxes again; this time by 10-30% on everyone making over $250,000 per year (think, a pair of teachers). He will cut tens of thousands of additional state jobs, AND will ask public sector workers to contribute to their pensions and health care premiums.
That is what we avoided here in Wisconsin. That is what didn’t work – taxing and spending and debt and central control. It didn’t work here before Walker; it didn’t work in California; it didn’t work in Illinois; it didn’t work in Washington, D.C.; it didn’t work in Greece or Portugal or Italy or Spain. It has never worked anywhere but in the minds of liberal elitists and academics and socialist ideologues too busy yelling about what democracy looks like - to them - to notice what it really looks like to the majority of voters who rejected them in November of 2010.
This will be the last post I will write on the Wisconsin recalls before the vote on June 5. With over a year to think about it, the Democrats haven’t offered up anything that appeals to libertarians, the Republicans can defend their own candidates, and there is nothing further that needs to be said.
In a regular election, it is fair game to argue over what each candidate might do, but a recall is about what somebody did. What Governor Walker, Lt. Governor Kleefisch, Senators Fitzgerald, Wangaard, and Moulton did was take on the unions and the concentration of government power in Madison.
And it worked.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
