Not any more. If the unions had been interested in negotiating this, they probably could have encouraged the dem 14 to really engage. I have a feeling (just a guess) that the unions were encouraging the dem 14 to stay away and prolong the exercise as long as possible for the previously mentioned reasons.
As I stated, the bill that was passed is gong to save the distrcits/states a lot of money over a long period of time. You won't see this savings refelected in any estimate - because how do you really estimate savings on hypothetical expenses, but the savings will be real. I never saw final projections once the governor's full budget proposal is passed. Did you? I know a lot of budget cuts are coming - and this bill will make it a lot easier for the districts to deal with these cuts (another reason it was needed). But, do you know what the final tally was? After all of the cuts, what is the expected deficit?
Are you talking about police and fire unions? You would have a hella hard time to make me believe that exempting them was political payback. Out of the 300 some police and FF unions in WI only 4 endorsed Walker. The 4 that endorsed Walker were not even the biggest in the state. I believe the reason they were exempted was due to police and FF being very sympathetic characters. Basically, he thought that if they were included, the backlash and rejection of his plan would be a lot larger. It's likely that is true - but we'll never know for certain.
And, as you know, we are simply going to have a disagreement over wether tax cuts to buseinss end up paying for themselves or not. I am not too interested in getting involved in that again. However, as someone that lives in IL, right over the border from WI, I can tell you I do know of one business that has alrady left for WI (due to Quinn's tax increases) and another business that has plans on moving. This is outside of some of the stories I have read of in the local papers. I realize this is anectdotal, so make of it what you will. However, I have personally seen evidence of the tax cuts having the affect intended.