WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |Collective Bargaining Bill: One Year Later

La Crosse, WI (WXOW)-- As Governor Scott Walker prepares for a recall election, other elected officials who supported that collective bargaining bill, have already felt the impact.

It's been a year since the collective bargaining proposal that sent Protesters to the capital for weeks.

"I'm not sure anybody would have expected the fallout that transpired in 2011," said former senator, Dan Kapanke. "Obviously I knew that there would be some concerns from a lot of different people but to the extent that we had so many thousands of people marching around the capitol and inside the capitol."

Former Senator Dan Kapanke voted in favor of Governor Walker's bill, and as a result lost a recall election to now-Senator Jennifer Shilling.

"Elected people are put in positions and at times we have to make difficult decisions," Kapanke said. "And we have to do it with the future of a municipality, a state or a nation in mind, not one's own political career."

Kapanke says part of why he stand by his vote is the progress he's seen since.

"We've seen some of the positive results of that decision," said Kapanke. "School districts saving millions of dollars, in Appleton I think it was 3.1 million, because of Act 10. And you can go around the entire state and cite examples where tax payer dollars were saved because of the vote that we took last year."

But democrats disagree, saying the collective bargaining bill was just another step in the wrong direction.

"We've seen more people hurting. We saw six months of straight job loss after the governor signed his budget. We've also seen people respond and we've seen people from all parts of Wisconsin sign these recall petitions, standup and say we need a new governor," said Mike Tate, the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

And while it remains to be seen if Governor Walker will be recalled, Kapanke says he has no regrets, despite losing his senate seat.

"I stood for what I stood for in my vote and I was recalled because of it," said Kapanke. "The citizens have spoken and I'm ok with that. I still believe we did the right thing, and I would make that vote again. Because, again, it's not about me, it's not about any one legislator, it's about the future."