Whence Walker’s victory?

By James Sherk

The Heritage Foundation

The roots of Gov. Scott Walker’s recall victory in Wisconsin can be traced to Springfield, Ill. The same year that Wisconsinites first elected Walker, protesters swarmed the Illinois capitol, yelling: “Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes!”

Who protests for higher taxes?

Government unions do. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees helped organize the rally. The union wanted lawmakers to close the state’s deficit by raising taxes instead of reducing spending.

Illinois collectively bargains with its government employees, which lets the union veto reductions in their compensation. That leaves layoffs as the only way to reduce government spending. Obviously, the union’s members don’t want that.

So they chanted for the legislature to “give up the bucks” and “show me the money.” The protest was part of a growing phenomenon of government unions lobbying for higher taxes and more spending.

Meany’s view

Historically this is new. The founders of the labor movement did not believe unions belonged in government. They viewed unions as negotiating for a share of the profits their members helped create, not the taxes everyone pays. George Meany, former president of the AFL-CIO, famously opined that “bargaining collectively is impossible in government.”

Union advocates also believed the government had a duty to serve the public. They feared that government unions would obstruct essential public services. President Franklin Roosevelt considered strikes by government employees “unthinkable and intolerable.”

But in 1959 Wisconsin became the first state to negotiate with government unions. Many other states followed suit. Now most union members work for the government. Unfortunately, labor leaders’ initial fears were well founded. Unionizing government has not benefited the public.

Samuel Gompers was once asked what his members wanted. He had a memorable one-word response: More.

That is still the attitude of government unions. They use their collective bargaining powers to take more from the taxpayers. The average government employee makes more than they would in the private sector, especially with their benefits.

Government employees collect pensions at 55 in Illinois. Other states are more generous. The Michigan Education Association has been highlighting the plight of English teacher Terri List. She plans to retire in three years at 47. Her union thinks increasing her retirement age to 60 would be unfair.

As expensive as these benefits are, the effect collective bargaining has on public service quality is even worse. Research shows that having a good teacher can make a tremendous difference in a child’s life — and so can having a bad one. But unions make rewarding good teachers or removing ineffective ones almost impossible. They insist that schools base pay and layoffs on seniority, not effectiveness in the classroom. Unions press the government to put their interests first.

By 2010 Wisconsinites had had enough of it. The state had hiked taxes and still faced a massive deficit. The average government employee made 30 percent more than they would in the private sector — while Milwaukee Public Schools laid off their “outstanding first-year teacher” because she didn’t have seniority. The government was not serving the public good.

Trimming benefits

Candidate Walker promised to balance the budget without raising taxes. Once in office Walker limited collective bargaining and cut spending. Because he had limited collective bargaining, however, he could trim benefits instead of firing government workers.

Walker’s actions enraged government unions, who organized and funded the recall. But polls showed most voters supported the reforms once they took effect.

In the end, the only surprise about Walker’s win was its size; he won by an even larger margin than when he was first elected. Wisconsin’s voters decided not to follow Illinois’ path and “give up the bucks.”

While the Wisconsin protests and recall attracted national attention, politicians from across the political spectrum have done the same thing around the country.

In deep-blue Massachusetts, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick limited collective bargaining over municipal health benefits.

It turns out that making government serve the people, instead of vice versa, isn’t that radical after all.

James Sherk is senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.