By Nikki Ackerman
Staff Writer

Approximately 1,000 area residents gathered at the Waukesha County Expo Center Jan. 7 to hear how Gov. Scott Walker’s budget reforms are working for Wisconsin.
Organized by the Wisconsin branch of Americans for Prosperity and the MacIver Institute, the “It’s Working!” event highlighted how the governor’s Act 10 Budget Repair Bill has improved the financial conditions of the state at each level.
Speakers included Rep. Robin Vos (R-63rd Assembly District) and Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas and Dr. Tim Nerenz, president of the Oldenburg Group Incorporated, along with representatives from the organizing groups.
Luke Hilgemann, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Wisconsin State Director, hailed Walker’s changes–the limiting of collective bargaining rights and having public employees pay a certain amount toward their pensions and health care benefits–as “probably the most important fiscal reform in state history.”
“They said the sky would fall, that thousands of public employees would be out of work, that our children’s education would suffer, that Wisconsin as we know it would no longer be,” he said. “But what happened? The sky is still there and Wisconsin is stronger than ever.”
Brett Healy, president of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, described 2011 as a “chaotic time at the Capitol.”
“There was a lot of shouting, a lot of gnashing of teeth, and now we need to get the focus back on public policy,” he said.
Healy then introduced a nine-minute video detailing why the budget changes were necessary and the positive effects they have had since their implementation, including a $1.5 million surplus in the Kaukauna school district, a $3.1 million savings in the Appleton school district and a $25 million savings in Milwaukee from employee pensions and health care benefits alone.
“Now the question is ‘Is it working?’ and the answer is a resounding yes,” Healy said at the conclusion of the video.
Vos, the next speaker, walked the audience through the reasoning process in Madison in regards to Act 10. He explained the simple mechanics of state spending and why it was crucial to make a change.
“We can’t print or spend money,” he said, adding that “every nickel” has to be spent on state programs, with the most going toward education and the next highest amount to health care for the poor.
Because of former Gov. Jim Doyle’s “dramatic expansion of Medicare and Medicaid,” and the fact that Obamacare made it impossible for the state to scale back in that area, another solution had to be found, Vos said.
“We made a decision not to increase spending on local governments and schools and to have people pay a very reasonable amount toward their health care and pensions,” he said.
Vos said that when people tell him the Legislature did not have to remove collective bargaining privileges, he reminds them that the unions left the bargaining table on their own volition in 2010.
“They were hoping for a better deal with Tom Barrett, but we won the election,” he said. “Then in December of 2010 they tried to ram through contracts in a lame duck session.”
He continued, “So it is important to remember that the unions walked away from the table when they had the chance to make a better deal. (When they tell you different), it is a lie.”
The state representative encouraged the crowd to get the word out on how the reforms have been a huge positive for the state.
“We need you,” he said. “For too long people would tap me on the shoulder at the grocery store and whisper, ‘You’re doing the right thing,’ then their voices got a little louder and now they are yelling that it’s working. We need to keep sharing the facts because we know the truth is on our side.”
Vrakas then talked about how Waukesha County has benefited from Walker’s changes and the event concluded with a question-and-answer panel discussion.