Walker’s Act 10 to save Milwaukee taxpayers $110 million a year, study finds

By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — By 2020, Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial public-sector collective bargaining reform law will save Milwaukee Public Schools more than $100 million a year, according to a new report.

The report, released Thursday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning education think tank, calculates some of the less talked about savings due to provisions in Act 10, which gave school boards’ the authority to “make substantive changes” to post-retirement health benefits for employees.

Those Other Post-Employment Benefits, or OPEBs, include health insurance premiums, doctor and prescription co-pays for retirees that were previously covered under collective-bargaining contracts. Because teachers typically retire before age 65, when Medicare becomes the primary health insurance coverage, taxpayers and employees pick up the tab.

Taking pension costs and retiree health together, the Fordham Institute calculates Act 10 will save MPS $1,588 per pupil by fiscal year 2020, wrote Robert Costrell and Larry Maloney, the study’s authors.

MPS counts about 78,000 students.

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