Gov. Scott Walker stood firm late Thursday on his insistence on curbs on collective bargaining for public employees, saying massive layoffs of state and local workers hung in the balance.
The governor recalibrated his message only at the margins, repeatedly calling himself an optimist and reminding public workers he shared their fears about changes in store.
“I?d do almost anything to avoid laying people off,” a poised Walker said. “We need to avoid those layoffs for the good of those workers.”