Scott Walker doesn’t lose to unions. He’s the union-busting governor from Wisconsin who survived a recall and now wants to take Right to Work nationwide when he’s elected president in 2016.

That’s all true from 35,000 feet. But on the ground, here in Wisconsin, a band of conservative legislators are trying to take on the unions by themselves without any support from Scott Walker or Republican leadership. And unfortunately, they are struggling.

The prevailing wage, a law that benefits unions and big contractors by artificially setting higher wages for government projects, is in the crosshairs of conservative legislators who see an opportunity to score a win for taxpayers, local governments, school boards, and small contractors who wish to compete on an even plain for government projects.

A vote on repeal in the Senate Committee on Labor and Government Reform failed Thursday and the next steps for prevailing wage are uncertain. There is a working group that is looking to put a weak reform in the budget, while the 35 co-sponsors in the Assembly are restless and want a public hearing in their chamber.

So where is that notorious union-buster Scott Walker? Shouldn’t he be riding in like a white knight to push for this pro-taxpayer reform?

Nope. Scott Walker is nowhere on this issue. The candidate running for president on ‘big, bold’ reforms won’t stand with conservatives on an important issue like prevailing wage. He’s decided it’s a distraction, not unlike the Right to Work law that he is now cynically using in his stump speeches around the country.

For those who don’t remember, Scott Walker actually urged conservatives in the legislature to avoid Right to Work this session – the same Right to Work law he now champions. …

If he sits tight, unions will see their first victory in Wisconsin in the Scott Walker era. And that victory will come with a cost to the “hardworking taxpayers” Gov. Scott Walker loves to champion.

It is interesting to notice how often the prevailing-wage issue is now coming up. The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance estimated that prevailing wage inflated costs of government-funded building projects by up to $300 million. (In fact, there is a municipality considering having its EMS service run by the local hospital. One reason is that the hospital would be able to build an ambulance garage for less than the municipality, because the hospital would not be subject to prevailing wage, but the municipality is. The prevailing-wage issue also has come up in the Bucks arena discussions.) Similar inflation must be the case with road projects, which are a bigger share of what government funds in this state.

The prevailing wage requirement flies in the face of state law, which requires municipalities to select the lowest qualified bidder for projects. The prevailing wage encourages privatizing government services, one of those unintended consequences. There is no reason government should inflate the costs of government services, but that’s what the prevailing wage requirement does. Maybe the prevailing wage makes contractors more profitable, but it does so at the cost of taking more money out of taxpayer pockets in this grossly overtaxed state of ours.

If prevailing-wage repeal gets through the Legislature, it would seem the roadmap is Right to Work, something Walker didn’t favor until it appeared it was going to pass. That also means not listening to former Assembly speaker-turned-lobbyist John Gard, who like all the Republican opponents of prevailing-wage repeal is wrong on this issue.