Tuesday's election, in which Gov. Scott Walker fended off a recall challenge from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, won't alter much how local government officials operate, they say, although union leaders express concern that it could mean more concessions down the road.
Ald. Don Hammond, who is chairman of the city's Finance Committee, said Tuesday's election won't alter the city's approach when it comes to drafting the 2013 budget.
"I don't think so," Hammond said. "We were operating on the assumption that the Walker bill would continue. Even if Walker lost, the Assembly would still be Republican. It wouldn't have changed how we did things last year or how we proceed going forward."
Walker's reforms passed last year, which spawned the recall effort and took away most bargaining powers of public unions.
Consequently, city, county and school district workers are contributing to their pensions and health insurance premiums, something many of them never had to do before.
Now municipalities, counties and school districts can unilaterally change how much their workers contribute to their pensions and health insurance.
County Administrator Adam Payne, for instance, proposed recently that health insurance premium contributions be raised for county workers beginning next year from 12.5 percent to 15 percent.
And, although there are no plans to do so, Hammond acknowledged that concessions already imposed on city workers could creep higher in the future, noting that private sector employees often pay 30 percent or more of their health insurance premiums.
"We'll re-evaluate it for 2013 to determine if any adjustment on the health insurance premiums or co-pays are necessary," he said. "But I don't think they're going to go up to that (private sector) level."
That has some union leaders worried.
Jill Krause, the new president of the Sheboygan Education Association, which represents teachers in the Sheboygan Area School District, said she was prepared for Walker to win the recall election but remains concerned about what that means for the future of education in Wisconsin.
"Gov. Walker, in my opinion, has not been the most beneficial for public education in general," said Krause, who is a teacher at South High School. "Gov. Walker's plans tend not to be putting money into public education. The tools he gave the district to work with were a very, very short-term fix. One of the things that's difficult for education in the budget is bodies. It's teachers. We don't have a lot of money in supplies and all that sort of stuff so if you're cutting the budget, you're cutting staff. That means larger class sizes, less help for students."
The district cut more than $13 million out of its budget last year, and the results include larger class sizes, fewer options for students and less flexibility in scheduling. Still, Krause said, the people's choice was clear in the results of the recall election.
"I'm pleased that 70 percent of the people voted," she said. "This is the direction the majority wants to go. I just hope they are OK with the impact on their children and grandchildren."
Rick Badger, executive director of AFSCME Council 40, which represents many county, city and school district workers in the Sheboygan area, said the new rules require a new approach from union leaders.
"We still intend to be a partner with these municipalities. We're taxpayers too and we're interested in maintaining services" at an affordable level, he said. "The role of the union will be working with employers to come up with solutions. Management doesn't always have all the information. We can help come up with other options. That's the role we have play now."
Another impact of Walker's reforms is that public sector workers now have to choose to join the union instead of being required to join, as was the case previously.
That's had a negative effect on membership, Badger said.
"We definitely aren't getting 100 percent signs ups. We are going to contract a bit and that's been happening for over the last year" since the reforms were enacted, Badger said.
Some labor leaders fear what could happen next following Walker's victory is that an emboldened state GOP will push for so-called "right-to-work" legislation.
Such laws prohibit union dues or membership from being a condition of employment at most private-sector companies. Walker co-sponsored a failed right-to-work bill while in the state Assembly in 1993, and the issue surfaced last month after a documentary filmmaker released a video from January 2011 of Walker discussing what he called a "divide and conquer" strategy with unions.
But in the weeks leading up to the recall election, Walker and other Republican leaders repeatedly said there are no plans to introduce such a measure.
Local private sector union leaders aren't convinced.
"I think it's a concern that's well founded," said Dave Boucher, president of the United Auto Workers Local 833, which represents more than 3,000 active and retired Kohler Co. employees. "Gov. Walker has been far less than candid and open in his plans for the state. I guess we will shortly see if indeed he wants to continue on his pathway to ideological extremism."
Local legislators denied they had any designs on right-to-work legislation, but said they saw Tuesday's vote as an endorsement of Walker's policies and a mandate to continue focusing on constrained spending and job creation.
"The No. 1 issue is to continue to work for job creation," Rep. Mike Endsley (R-Sheboygan) said. "As vice chairman of the Jobs Committee, I would hope we can take another look at the mining bill," that was defeated earlier this year.
"I believe you are going to see an increase in job creation. In my work over the last year and a half with the job creators, there were a number of them who told me to my face they were waiting for the recall to end. They were not about to invest in Wisconsin until this was over. I think we'll see an uptick in job creation, and I think we'll see it happen fairly quickly."

— Sheboygan Press reporters Josh Lintereur and Janet Ortegon contributed to this story. Reach Dan Benson at 920-453-5125.