In 2011, Wisconsin made national news headlines when then-Gov. Scott Walker attempted to reform public sector collective bargaining as a part of his push for fiscal responsibility. At the height of the Tea Party movement, what became known as Act 10—which restricted the areas public sector employees could collectively bargain over—quickly transformed into a political hornet’s nest.
Democratic state lawmakers infamously fled the state for Chicago in an effort to block a vote on the bill as it was winding its way through the legislature, and Walker eventually faced a recall election.
He survived. This year, Act 10 turns 15. By all available evidence, it has worked exactly as intended. But despite the law’s positive impact for Wisconsin taxpayers and the state fisc, it is facing a questionable legal challenge that may finally doom it.
When Walker took office in 2010, Wisconsin was staring down the barrel of a $3.6 billion budget deficit. One of Walker’s primary responses was to push Act 10; the law allowed bargaining over wages but not things like pensions and health insurance. It also put state government employees on the hook for covering 12 percent of the premium costs for their government-provided health insurance plans, in addition to mandating more employee contributions to pensions.