Republican candidate for Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker wants to save the taxpayers money by permanently eliminating vacant state employee positions.
The Wisconsin AFT's response to his proposal, below the fold.
Scott Walker is up to his old tricks.
Today Walker released the newest piece of his economic "plan:" to eliminate vacant state employee positions permanently. This maneuver would create long-term infrastructure problems and provide zero savings for taxpayers (after all, these positions already cost nothing).
Scott Walker and his anti-public employee campaign must be defeated. Click here to help AFT-Wisconsin's effort to save our pensions, maintain a tax system where we all pay our fair share, and keep public jobs out of private corporations' hands!
Earlier today, AFT-Wisconsin President Bryan Kennedy released the following statement, exposing Walker's announcement for what it is - a political stunt that he is using to advance his anti-public employee agenda:
"Scott Walker could benefit from an Economics 101 refresher. While he claims that cutting vacant state employee positions would help our state's economy, he doesn't take into account that vacant positions aren't being paid for now. In short, Walker's "plan" won't save taxpayers a dime.
"Once again, Walker is demonizing state employees to earn a couple of cheap political points. If he were serious about saving taxpayer dollars, he would support reforming outsourcing practices.
"Each year, the state outsources billions of dollars of work that could be performed more cost effectively by state employees. In several cases, the corporations responsible for these contracts fail, and Wisconsin taxpayers are left holding the bag for tens of millions of dollars in incomplete or botched projects.
"Walker is no stranger to failed privatization efforts. As Milwaukee County Executive, he oversaw millions of dollars in privatization schemes; schemes that ran deficits of millions of dollars. One is left to wonder if Walker's attack on public employees is anything more than a ploy in his misguided agenda to privatize public services. Scott Walker would be well served to stop treating public employees as public enemies, and start focusing on real economic solutions such as outsourcing reform."
Walker's attacks must not go unanswered. He has promised to look at outsourcing most work done at state agencies and promote outsourcing at the UW, technical colleges and K-12 school districts. We must make sure that Scott Walker is not successful in his campaign against public employees. To find out how you can get involved in our election effort, Click here, or contact AFT-Wisconsin Political Organizer Christa Peters (peters@aft-wisconsin.org).