Ohio's Loss Could Benefit Wisconsin

The defeat of collective bargaining limits in Ohio is crushing for taxpayers in Ohio and could hurt Ohio badly, but it also could prove to be positive for Wisconsin.

This is assuming we educate voters on the facts. First, we need to show the failure of other methods of balancing budgets in Ohio, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Second we need to be ready to combat another extremely dishonest campaign, like we saw from the Greater Wisconsin Committee, during the Alberta Darling recall election. Finally, we need educate people why Walker’s changes were the right thing to do.

Ohio Governor Kasich had said in an interview prior to the vote they were going to leave the budget in place with the cuts in funding to local governments. This will likely show us another example of what not to do. If Ohio leaves the cuts in spending in place, local governments will be forced to raise taxes or lay off workers, assuming public unions refuse to give the concessions needed.

We already have Illinois setting the example that massive tax increases and refusing to deal with excessive spending is not the solution. In this state, we have school districts, like Milwaukee and Janesville, whose irresponsible leaders protected the union at the expense of the quality of education of children. They put contracts in place before expected budget cuts came. That tied their hands in dealing with those cuts.

Now, Ohio may become another example of what happens if a state cuts funding, but doesn't give local governments tools to cut labor costs and avoid layoffs. This has led to massive layoffs of teachers and public workers in other states. If the Ohio unions are smart, they will work to make major concessions to avoid layoffs, or risk proving the voters wrong for trusting them.

Given that truth is on Walker’s side, we have to prepare for another dishonest campaign like we saw from Pasch supporters this summer. In Ohio, campaign commercials implied firefighters might lose their job due to the law, when in reality striking down the law makes that more likely.

Wisconsin is fortunate we were able to get the collective bargaining limits in place. Wisconsin residents can see the benefits of the law. The budget has been balanced, without hurting public services, for localities that behaved responsibly and took advantage of the tools they were given.

The tools have allowed school districts in Wisconsin to save millions of dollars, just by not being forced to overpay for WEA Trust health insurance plan, through switching carriers, or getting lower rates from WEA Trust to keep the business.

Some try to make the laughable argument that all of the unions were willing to make the concessions Walker wanted. If this were true then explain why school districts signing contracts before the passage of the bill did not get the same concessions that the state workers were required to make. Then districts like Menomonee Falls that signed a contract, after the bill was passed, but before the Supreme Court ruling, got concessions that would likely not have happened if the bill failed to pass.

The recent DPI survey on staffing losses could be used to launch a dishonest attack on the Walker reforms. The facts are that the cuts in staffing came from schools not using the tools given to them, like Milwaukee, and from shortfalls from Doyle’s cuts with no tools. In Menomonee Falls we had about a $1.7 million shortfall from Doyle cuts that needed to be closed even if Walker did not cut the budget. As time goes by it will be harder to run dishonest campaigns like Sandy Pasch and the Greater Wisconsin Committee in the last recall, assuming the truth gets out.

The final step is to educate people, not just on the benefits of the law, but on why it was just the right thing to do. Many mistakenly see this as an issue of rights. If it were about rights, Democrats would insist that people be allowed to choose to pay any dues to the union, giving workers the right to control their own money. 

For example, the National Rifle Association does not get to make all gun owners give them money since they benefit from NRA activities. Rather, they have to convince people it is worth the cost. It is not about rights, it is about power.

In the private sector you can make good arguments for allowing the power, of mandatory dues and forced union membership, to balance the strength of workers against the might of companies. The same arguments do not hold water when made for public sector unions, however.

In the private sector, the fight is about dividing up the profits between owners and workers. Public unions are entirely different, since they are fighting to take from all the taxpayers in the state. As I have said before, in the private sector it is illegal to buy off the management you are negotiating with. In the public sector it is called a campaign donation and is legal.

We need to help everyone to understand collective bargaining without limits in the public sector gives workers too much power. This has led to a corrupt system that brought us the WEA Trust health insurance plan with $330 million this year in banked sick days converted to pay for health care for retirees, overtime stacking, and health care that was almost free.

Also, supporting Walker does not mean you do not support public employees, like teachers, and the work they do. I like the teachers my kids have had, but it would not be ethical for me to push for more benefits for teachers or power for their union. We are asking the entire community, including many without kids, to pay the cost. Elected officials have a responsibility to maintain the quality of education at the lowest cost to the community. Bottom line is we have more teachers employed in Wisconsin due to the collective bargaining limits and that education would be harmed more by cutting the way Doyle did.

Ohio voters will get what they deserve. However, not only will it not hurt our positive reforms, it may actually provide another case study that proves Walker and the GOP are right. Time is on our side. That is why the Democrats want to recall Walker now. We must talk to friends to educate them that the law is working, it is the morally right thing and it has protected public worker jobs. It is not about whether you like public workers or not.

Note: See link for video on how reform has worked.