Nonprofit Group Financed by Billionaire Brothers Active in Wisconsin Union Fight
February 22, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
An advocacy group associated with the conservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch is taking an active role in the Wisconsin showdown over public-employee unions, according to The New York Times.
Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, spoke in Madison on Saturday at a rally for backers of Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut state spending by reducing union benefits and bargaining rights.
In an interview with the Times, Mr. Phillips said the group has worked behind the scenes since before the Republican governor’s inauguration last month to encourage the labor showdown.
Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit group started and partially financed by the Koch brothers, has had a Wisconsin chapter for five years and has seen its national budget grow from $7-million in 2007 to $40-million last year.
