Wisconsin’s primary elections are next Tuesday. But it will be the general election in November that many believe will effectively be a referendum, another one, on the course Scott Walker has set as governor of Wisconsin.
In particular, it will give people in Wisconsin an opportunity to weigh in on one of the governor’s signature pieces of legislation; Act 10, which was passed amid a firestorm of controversy months after Walker took office. It greatly scaled back collective bargaining rights for many public employees in the state, and required them to pay increased costs for health coverage and pension benefits.
At the same time, those employee concessions were said to give public entities, such as cities, counties, and school districts greater budget flexibility.
Writer Erik Gunn explores the impact of Act 10 after three years in his articlefound in the current issue of Milwaukee Magazine.
"It’s been more adversarial," says Gunn. "Not intentionally, but because any time the administration might want to make a change, there’s an immediate pushback. 'Well, you’re only doing this because you can, because you don’t have to negotiate it.'"
