Darling, Knodl Praise Walker's Claim That Act 10 Saved $1 Billion

This article has been updated at 1 p.m. Monday to include comments from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Local lawmakers are praising Gov. Scott Walker’s announcement that the state’s controversial budget repair law that significantly limited public unions in collective bargaining has reached $1 billion in savings.

After Walker appeared in Manitowoc Monday morning to make the announcement, State Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, released the following statement 

“Less than one year after Act 10 became law, Wisconsin taxpayers have seen $1 billion in savings.  Within the 24th Assembly District alone, school districts were able to save taxpayers $7 million dollars. This is real money—the typical homeowner saw their first decrease in property taxes in more than a decade.

We had to make a lot of difficult choices in the last budget, but these numbers are another sign Act 10 is working and that Wisconsin is moving forward.”

State Sen. Alberta Darling seconded Knodl's reaction to the news from Walker's office.

"The reforms we passed this session mean more money will go directly into the classrooms," Darling said, "Before the hands of school districts were tied with locked-in costs that kept going up and up. Now there is flexibility to save money and put school children first."

"Not only do these reforms save money, they also let local officials use their common sense. The Village of Richfield can now enter into a contract with their local school district to share snow plowing services. That wasn't possible before the reforms were passed. Now this type of shared services will hopefully become common place."

The $1 billion in tax savings was made in less than a year from when the law went into effect, according to a news release from Walker’s office.

"This is a great day for the hardworking people of this state who pay for the expenses of government," Walker said in the release.

Melissa Baldauff, research director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, responded to Walker’s announcement by saying Walker’s numbers do not add up.

“Like pretty much everything else Scott Walker says, this claim is a distortion of reality that is a blatant attempt to distract from Walker’s real record of failure and dishonesty,” Baldauff said in a memo to reporters.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who is one of four Democrats running in the gubernatorial recall primary, said:

"Gov. Walker is desperate to distract attention from the fact that under his failed leadership Wisconsin lost 4,300 private sector jobs last month, and lost more jobs than any state in the country last year. What Walker isn't telling the people is that he made the deepest cuts to education in Wisconsin history, our state lost nearly 1,500 teacher positions over the past year, and we still have a $140 million budget deficit even though Walker raised fees on the people of Wisconsin by $110 million. This isn't a record to brag about – it’s a record that causes failed governors to be tossed from office."