Restructuring State Government for the Long-Term

The real fight to permanently restructure state government and get long term costs under control has begun. You will be seeing and hearing protests, media campaigns and lots of heated rhetoric in the press about the controversial proposals Governor Walker has proposed to fix Wisconsin’s devastating budget gap.

We all knew this day was coming. Our state and federal government has been living above their means for some time.

While the recession of the past couple years forced most employers - small, medium and large - to re-examine their overhead, restructure their costs of doing business and prepare for an economic climate of lower growth and a weakened consumer.  

The pressure on most small employers has been enormous. Many of our members have reduced staff and increased the workload on the workforce that has been retained. In some cases, it has become almost a survival type mode. Many economic estimates suggest that if small employers can tough it out, there will be positive improvements in the near future.

One thing is clear - we must have each level of government get its costs under control and become affordable again. As we have mentioned here before, the previous Governor and legislature chose not to be fiscally responsible and everyone is paying a price for that.

They chose to increase long term spending commitments with one time money, they raided numerous funds like transportation and spent it on unrelated projects and they dramatically increased debt but delayed paying down the principal because they didn’t have the money. It was irresponsible and the voters knew it. The election came and those most responsible were voted out of office.

The result is that we now have a Governor and Legislature that have promised to comprehensively reform our financial situation for the long term and WIB believes we should support that effort.

The most controversial piece of the reforms will be the showdown between state unions and Governor Walker. I believe the previous mismanagement has given Governor Walker no choice but to do what many of you have had to do- control your overhead, improve your long term financial outlook and focus on the priorities.

I believe Governor Walker has committed himself and state government to creating an environment that encourages private employers to grow jobs and increase investment. His actions demonstrate that he is prepared to do the tough things others chose not to and that he will work diligently to not increase your cost of doing business.

The Governor's actions show that he understands the difficult world many small businesses have been living in and that he realizes the most critical thing he can do is to stabilize state government’s finances without raising your taxes.

I know he would prefer not to have a fight with state employee unions - he realizes that many state workers perform valuable work and serve us well. However, he understands that the costs others have placed upon Wisconsin taxpayers simply cannot be afforded. It is a financial reality.

WIB is prepared to provide any of our member’s helpful information if you have any questions about the battle that has been engaged. We believe that if some of these proposals don’t become law, the alternative is to go much deeper into your pockets.  We believe small employers have it difficult enough without the government sticking you with higher bills as far as the eye can see.

It is really encouraging to see elected officials keep their word and we believe Governor Walker has done that.