is stark with a $3.6 billion budget shortfall, he can either limit collective bargaining and make them pay more for health care and pensions, or lay off 6,000 workers. lawmakers are watching to see which way it goes. ohio has a similar measure. protests broke out with union supporters marching in the state house and tea party members outside. on tuesday issues the state senate is scheduled to vote on the bill limiting collective bargaining. the ohio democratic party is already calling for demonstrators to bring down the measure. they re also using it as a fundraising opportunity. in addition to wisconsin and ohio, bills limiting collective bargaining for some public employees are being debated in tennessee, indiana and nevada right now and other states may follow suit. florida s governor is calling for pension reform. the governors may have momentum for some of the measure, but the unions have plenty of money to fight them. according to the cato institute, during 2007 and 08, public se
on campaigns and ballot measures. this year it s estimated unions could spend $30 million to fight bills in dozens of states. many union backers in wisconsin say they understand governor walker s dilemma, but don t want to hand over that much of their power and paychecks to the statehouse. the governor says he has no other choice. jamie, back to you. jamie: thanks. kelly: wisconsin said to be one of nine states with republican governors looking to cut public union workers wages, pensions and end their right to collective bargaining. will we see more protests like the ones this week taking place in wisconsin and what needs to be done to resolve the issue? let s bring in patricia powell, the founder and ceo of the powell financial group. thank you for joining us. when you look at the situation going on in wisconsin, you got to wonder will this happen to other states like ohio and some of the other following suit. so many people are watching wisconsin because this is where
for pension benefits and more than 12% for health care plans. jamie: don t forget to tune in to fox news sunday tomorrow. chris wallace has an exclusive interview with wisconsin s governor, scott walker. he s behind all of this, about the budget problems in his state and the massive protests resulting there. you ll want to check your local listings for the time and channel for fox news sunday. governor walker isn t alone in his idea of cutting union workers benefits to balance the budget. virginia governor bob mcdonald spoke to america s news headquarters in the last hour. the governors are taking the tough stance and making the tough choices to balance the budget because we have balanced budget requirements. so i applaud the governor for saying look, i ve got a $3.7 billion deficit over the next couple of years. there is no way we can get there without having some reduction, some shared sacrifice, and i applaud him for his leadership. we ve done that in virginia as well. i ve had