Study from a year ago foresaw job losses coming from Act 10
In March of 2011, shortly after Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature forcibly passed Act 10 into law, UW economist Steven Deller predicted that the reduced purchasing power of state employees would create a loss of more than 20,000 jobs within the state of Wisconsin in the next year or two.Following the publication of that study, there were three months of job gains and six months of continuous job losses. The net result was 20,400 jobs gone since the study's release, including 35,600 jobs lost since June.
It should also be noted that the three months of job gains came about during a time when Walker's predecessor's budget was still in play. Net job losses began in July, the first month that Walker's own budget was implemented.
It was also the first full month that paychecks for state workers saw diminished wages, following a three-month court battle over whether Act 10 was passed in a legal manner or not. After that court ruling, state workers had to contribute more of their own income towards their pension and health plans, both of which were already supplied by differed payments to those workers. The result of that reduction in pay contributed greatly towards a loss in jobs in the state overall.
In other words, the premonitions of Deller seem to have been fulfilled (or exceeded), regardless of whether you start from March, when the law was passed, or July, when it was implemented. Jobs have been lost, and a big reason why is because of the cuts in pay to state workers, which has in turn diminished their purchasing power.
It was clear from the beginning that Walker's "reforms" wouldn't do a thing for job creation, would actually have a negative impact towards the economy in the state. Neither tax breaks for corporations nor pay decreases for state employees can create jobs for Wisconsin -- demand for work is stifled by both.
Economist Steven Deller knew this right off the bat, but it doesn't take a doctorate in economics to see, right now, that things AREN'T working under Gov. Walker's watch.