(Image Credit: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES - At a Wisconsin voters' tele-town hall Wednesday, Mitt Romney threw his support behind embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election after he orchestrated a  law that cuts public employees' collective bargaining rights in the state.

"Governor Walker is, in my opinion, an excellent governor, and I believe that he is right to stand up for the citizens of Wisconsin, and to insist that those people who are working in the public sector unions have rights to effect their wages, but that these benefits and retiree benefits have fallen out of line with the capacity of the state to pay them, and so I support the governor in his effort to reign in the excesses that have permeated the public sector union and government negotiations over the years," said Romney.

This was the first tele-town hall Romney has held with Wisconsin voters ahead of next week's primary.

"This is something which a number of other states have confronted as well," said Romney, who talks daily about the need to reduce the size of government and curtail out of control spending. "The state of Indiana, even my home state of Massachusetts, has reigned in the collective bargaining excesses associated with retirement benefits for future retirees."

"I understand that current retirees are not having their benefits changed, but for future retirees collective bargaining will not include some of these retirement benefits, and I support the governor and his effort to bring fiscal responsibility to the capitol," said Romney.

Walker's recall election is expected to take place later this spring.