Did Walker really save the state $1 Billion? Not if your honest about it.

WISC-TV's Reality Check does a pretty good job of digging up the truth. In this case, Scott Walker is shown to be a liar when he says he saved the state $1 billion. That doesn't matter much now, because Walker got the dramatic headlines he wanted and mileage he knows will be repeated by conservative voters forever. They'll think any corrections will be just the liberal media attacking Walker with numbers manufactured by union bosses.

Instead of finding out whether Walker's claims were true, before plastering the front pages with his campaign fictions, we're now trying to set the record straight. Too late. Here's just a sample;

Channel3000: The first thing to note is that for all the local pension savings, the website cites a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo from March 2011. It estimates pension contributions have saved around $464 million. But it's an estimate -- not actual savings.

Secondly, it's based on 2009 payroll numbers, and since the state lost thousands of public workers due to retirements since then, the savings are less.

Third, federal dollars are used to pay some local workers, and making them pay more for pensions doesn't save a municipality any money. Overall, it's safe to say the savings here are less than projected, but it's hard to put a number on how much that may be.

It's also important to note that the governor is taking credit for any savings reached in collective bargaining contracts negotiated before Act 10 was in effect. In Sheboygan, school district and county employees agreed to more concessions than were even proposed in Act 10, at about $10 million.

WISC-TV found at least 70 districts or communities that agreed to contracts before Act 10, for a total of at least $217 million in savings achieved through bargaining. Whether Walker should get credit for that is up to voters.

At Caffeinated Politics, there's even more....