MADISON, Wis. — After focusing for weeks on his proposal to strip public employees of collective-bargaining rights, Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday presented his full budget — a plan that cuts $1.5 billion in aid to public schools and local government but avoids any tax or fee increases, furloughs, or widespread layoffs.
Walker said the cuts could be paid for in large part by forcing government employees to pay more for their pension and health care benefits. And the governor, whose cost-cutting ideas have stirred a national debate over public-sector unions, gave no indication he would soften his demand to reduce their power at the negotiating table.
“This is a reform budget,” Walker told lawmakers inside the Assembly chamber as protesters on the floor below screamed, banged on drums and blew horns. “It is about getting Wisconsin working again, and to make that happen, we need a balanced budget that works — and an environment where the private sector can create 250,000 jobs over the next four years.”
Walker’s legislation has drawn tens of thousands of demonstrators to the Capitol over the past three weeks.
Walker’s budget places “the entire burden of Wisconsin’s budget shortfall on our children, our most vulnerable citizens in need of health care and long-term care, and our dedicated public employees,” said Robert Kraig, director of the consumer advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin.
Doing so is Walker’s “own value choice, not an economic necessity forced on him by others,” Kraig said.
The governor released his two-year budget in part to support his argument that public-worker concessions are essential to confront a projected $3.6 billion shortfall. His proposal to eliminate most collective bargaining remains in limbo after Senate Democrats fled the state to prevent a vote.
Even though Walker isn’t ordering immediate layoffs of state workers, his budget will put tremendous pressure on schools and local governments, which will be asked to shoulder huge cuts without raising property taxes to make up the difference.
Polls indicate national public opinion favors unions in the dispute, but Walker has been resolute.
A Pew Research Center poll released Monday found 42 percent of adults surveyed nationwide sided with the unions and 31 percent sided with Walker. That poll of 1,009 adults had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
In Ohio, meanwhile, thousands of union supporters descended on the Statehouse on Tuesday to protest a proposal to sharply curtail bargaining powers of government workers.
Protesters accused lawmakers and Republican Gov. John Kasich of trying to use a budget crisis to destroy public-sector unions. Government workers did not cause the crisis and should not bear the brunt of it, protesters said.
