With the controversial budget repair bill currently stuck in the court system, Republicans have been discussing ways to ensure Wisconsin municipalities still receive the tools Gov. Scott Walker said were contained in the bill which limited collective bargaining authority for public employees, including adding that provision to the biennial budget bill.

According to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s spokesperson
Andrew Welhouse, the tools necessary for municipalities to survive cuts
are in the bill currently making its way through the legal system.

With the legislation being held up, he said there is not a concrete
plan, but Republicans have had hypothetical conversations about placing
the most controversial provision of the stalled bill, limiting
collective bargaining authority on everything but wages, inside Walker’s
biennial budget.

The budget plan for the next two years includes large cuts to public K-12 and higher education institutions, local aid and municipal recycling programs. Mayors from high population centers across the state have said they were concerned with the cuts.

“The collective bargaining piece is a critical component of the larger budget picture,” Welhouse said. ” […] If the Supreme Court does not take it up before [the start of the next biennium] it would have to go in the budget.”

He added Republicans would like the budget repair bill to go through the proper legal channels and have the judges vindicate the process by which it was passed, something Welhouse said he was confident would happen.

A provision could be added to the biennial budget in two ways, by an amendment offered in the Legislature or by a Joint Finance Committee motion during the vetting process that began Tuesday.

Kit Beyer, spokesperson for JFC co-chair Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, said both co-chairs have mentioned specifically putting a provision in Walker’s biennium budget that would limit collective bargaining, though they would wait to see the outcome of the litigation first.

“Both co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee did say they are confident that it will run its course in the courts and we’ll come out victorious,” Beyer said. “But in case it doesn’t look like that, that was one option on the table.”

She echoed Welhouse’s statement that the savings incurred through provisions within the budget repair bill are tied to the larger biennium budget.

Although Republican leaders have mentioned adding the provision, Assembly Minority Speaker Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said he did not believe it.

“I would be surprised if they did that,” Barca said. “Obviously you’ve got so many Republicans being recalled and two-thirds of the state is strongly against [limiting collective bargaining rights].”

He said he was against the Republicans entire approach to fixing the state budget, including “permanently” taking away people’s rights.

The fiscal impact of placing limits on collective bargaining authority has been hotly debated over the past three months. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau listed that item as having no economic effect, while Republicans insisted it would free the budgets of municipal officials tied down by union contracts.

Earlier this month, Walker testified under oath in front of a congressional committee and admitted the changes to bargaining would not save any money.