Walker - high on Koch? (photo: mrbula)
Commentators are starting to figure out that the battle over Wisconsin public employee rights, couched by Gov. Scott Walker as an argument over the budget, has nothing to do with the budget. And we've discussed that in this space. You have the 200 legislative policy items stuffed into the bill; the cuts to Medicaid and centralizing control of the program in the hands of a Heritage Foundation writer who called for states to drop it; the measure allowing for no-bid contract sales of state-owned heating/cooling/power plants; and on and on. But I don't think anyone's broken it down as well as this story in National Journal.
The state's entire budget shortfall for this year — the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts — would be covered by the governor's relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state's debt.
By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state's public-employees, wouldn't save any money this year [...]
In January, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that the state would face a $137 million shortfall before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The governor's budget repair bill proposes a debt restructuring that would save the state $165 million in the near term, more than covering the shortfall.
The legislation would also borrow money from a federal welfare program to cover further state shortfalls, and it includes a provision that would allow the sale of the state's public utilities without a bidding process or public oversight.
While public unions have agreed to almost $30 million in pay cuts this year if they can keep their bargaining rights, Walker and other Republicans argue that restrictions on union bargaining are necessary to maintain the cuts over time.
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