Experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the lawsuit could overturn longstanding state laws that have successfully balanced Wisconsin’s budget at the expense of reining in public employee unions.
Member of Parliament passed it In 2011, Wisconsin passed the Wisconsin Budget Repair Act (also known as Act 10) to reduce the state’s budget deficit, primarily to limit the power of public employee unions to demand higher pay and benefits, which were a drag on the state’s finances. The union coalition: Assert Despite previous legal challenges and the law’s success in resolving major budget issues that have plagued the state, a Wisconsin judge ruled the law unconstitutional starting Tuesday, emboldened by a newly liberal-majority Supreme Court that has threatened to strike it down, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF. (Related: ‘A deadly cocktail’: Why some Democratic-leaning states are still struggling with job losses four years into the pandemic)
“Wisconsin law unconstitutionally discriminates against most public sector workers, denying them the freedom to negotiate with their employers on issues other than base wage and to be represented by a union without jumping the hurdle of cumbersome annual recertification elections,” the Wisconsin Education Association (WEAC) argues in the lawsuit. Said In a press release after the lawsuit was first filed, the union said: “Our members have filed suit because of the appalling conditions in our workplace. Low wages, understaffing and poor working conditions undermine our ability to deliver public services to the communities that rely on us every day.”
Public servants who oppose the law argue that it violates Article I of the state Constitution, which guarantees equal protection, because workers classified as “public safety” employees, such as police officers and firefighters, are exempt from Article 10 restrictions. according to The lawsuit marks the first since the state Supreme Court received a liberal majority, and the law has faced several challenges since it was enacted more than a decade ago.
“I don’t think this is a very strong argument. Federal courts have already ruled on this argument,” Lucas Weber, deputy general counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), told DCNF. “They challenged the federal constitution’s equal protection guarantee, but made a similar argument and lost. To be clear, other plaintiffs are also challenging this in federal court, although not this exact argument.”
Weber believes the case could take months or even years to resolve, as various motions and procedures could prolong the process.
“By all measures, Act 10 has been a success,” David Osborne, a senior fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation, told DCNF. “Our colleagues at the Commonwealth Foundation found that Act 10 eliminated Wisconsin’s $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes, instead providing historic tax cuts and credits for families and businesses. Then-Governor Scott Walker implemented the lowest state property taxes since World War II and delivered $8.5 billion in tax cuts during his time in office. School choice has boomed and costs have fallen.”
The year before Measure 10 passed, the state had a $127 million budget shortfall that would add to a $3.6 billion structural deficit the following year, with lawmakers pointing to inflated pay for unionized public employees. according to According to the McIver Institute, Wisconsin could generate a surplus and save a total of $16.8 billion between 2012 and 2023 by reducing taxpayer contributions to public employee pensions and insurance and limiting unions’ ability to negotiate wages above the rate of inflation.
The law also placed further restrictions on labor unions, requiring workers to vote to recertify their organizations annually and barring government agencies from automatically collecting union dues and PAC contributions from public employees’ paychecks.
“Article 10 was also a success for public employees, who now had more choice as to which union officials represented them and whether or not they were union members,” Osborn told DCNF. “After Article 10, many employees chose not to be represented by the same union officials who had previously represented them, and those union officials who remained did so with a relatively high level of support from employees. In both cases, Article 10 clearly made union officials more responsive and better representative of the views of the rank and file.”
Measure 10’s reforms would reduce the percentage of Wisconsin workers who are unionized from 12.3% in 2013 to 7.4% in 2023, a decrease of about 112,000 union members. according to To the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ContrastMeanwhile, over the same period, the percentage of U.S. workers who are unionized only fell from 11.3% to 10.0%.
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“The only thing that changed, and that was the motivation for the lawsuit, was the outcome of the Supreme Court election last April,” Daniel Kelly, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and now NCLA senior litigation counsel, told DCNF. “The election of Janet Protasiewicz shifted the balance from a Supreme Court focused on the letter of the law to a more politically-oriented jury.”
Janet Protasiewicz would defeat Kelly in the race for a vacant Wisconsin Supreme Court seat in April 2023, giving liberals control of the Supreme Court for the first time in 15 years. according to To NPR.
“So now the left feels emboldened to work hard to overturn the court and reverse all the good policies that saved Wisconsin from the failed Gov. Doyle era that plunged the state into massive debt,” McIver Institute CEO Annette Olson told DCNF. “Proposition 10 has saved Wisconsinites $31 billion over the years. The bold reforms under Gov. Scott Walker’s first term helped save Wisconsin taxpayers money and also helped open Wisconsin for business.”
The large pension liabilities that Wisconsin was able to reduce with Measure 10 have wreaked havoc on the budgets of other states, particularly Illinois, which is projecting a $73 billion deficit for fiscal year 2024.
“More broadly, this will have immediate ramifications outside the state in the sense that there are really two competing schools of law on the court today,” Kelly told DCNF. “So, to the extent the court follows through, if it were to overturn the ruling in Madison Teachers Inc. v. Walker, which is a precedent case on this issue, it would signal that politicking on the court is rekindling and give other courts help and reassurance to do the same.”
The lawsuit could also backfire against unions because judges have discretion to strike down parts of the law to make them comply with the Constitution. Rather than striking down the law, Weber said, the judges could decide to eliminate the distinction between rank-and-file and exempt unions and make the rule apply to all public employees.
“One of the things we found in our study is that even when accounting for inflation, school districts are spending less on health care than they did before Act 10,” Will Flanders, WILL’s lead researcher, told DCNF. “The impact of a full repeal would be enormous, and I think it would send shock waves not just across the state but across the country.”
WEAC, SEIU Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission did not respond to requests for comment from DCNF.
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