Now the heroes who protect us and save our lives are also experts on energy and who knows what? That’s right, the Firefighter’s Union has decided they don’t like Proposition 87. How could it transpire that we now have firemen on television, using taxpayer’s money that was supposed to pay their salaries and maintain their equipment, making commercials telling us to vote no on Proposition 87? Some background is in order.
Something called global competition forced unions to start being reasonable in private industry about thirty years ago. But as reality took hold in private industry, the government beckoned as an inexhaustible source of money, with no competition to force it to operate efficiently. Union bosses who were driven out of private industry took over the government sector, and since the government has a bottomless pool of money, at first nobody noticed. But back in 2005 when California’s Governor called a special election to reform these unions, then the ones representing our heroes, the people we admire, decided they didn’t like our Governor any more. These unions directed their own people to deliver their attack; policemen, firemen, and others engaged in public safety, people who take risks for us, people we respect a lot. But they didn’t respect our Governor. They vilified him, on TV, while wearing their uniforms.
Back in 2005 and ever since, the unions supposedly representing these good and heroic people have gotten them on camera in uniform, and encouraged them to say all kinds of angry things about our Governor. Why are they so mad at him? Because he tried to eliminate defined benefit plans for incoming employees in their organizations, and he tried to limit the new defined contribution plans under the new program to only twice as much as your typical best case in private industry. What’s so bad about that? Just that one reasonable reform would save tens of billions every year of taxpayers money. Money we could use to hire more firemen, police, nurses, teachers, and build more hospitals, schools, freeways, high-speed rail, etc. No new taxes, no new bonds. Just a few common sense fiscal reforms.
There’s nothing wrong with providing extra pay and retirement security to people who take risks to protect the rest of us. But these benefits have grown to the point where the cost to fund a public employee pension is often equal to or greater, each year, than that employee’s base pay. And these unsustainable pensions, and other benefits, have been extended not only to public safety officers, but in large degree, to all unionized public employees. This excess is crippling not only our state government, but also every city and county in California. But don’t run for office if you want to point out the obvious.
Every year, several tens of millions of dollars of our tax money pour into public union coffers for the explicit purpose of exercising influence over our elections and our public policies. This isn’t news, although what is inexplicable is the continued public indifference, and media silence, regarding what is now nearly total control of California’s state, county and city governments by unions. These unions know that the benefits they have coerced and hornswaggled our politicians into granting public employees could never be enjoyed by everyone. They have created two Americas, a socialist wonderland for public employees, and a nasty, brutish struggle for the rest of us who pay the taxes that sustain them. When is the last time most public employees had to look for a job, or wondered if they’d have any health insurance at all, let alone a pension, a disability plan, 15 paid holidays, up to 25 paid vacation days, and 15 sick days a year with unlimited accrual and 100% cash-out, etc.? Plus “personal” paid days off and “comp time.” There is a staggering cost for all this.
Which brings us back to Proposition 87. Do you have an opinion regarding Proposition 87, the tax on Californian oil wells to fund alternative energy programs ran by state bureaucrats? You know, the guys who killed the electric car in the 1990’s because they love hydrogen fuel cells so much and are really experts at predicting markets and technology? I certainly do.
Apparently the firemen’s union has an opinion too, regarding Proposition 87. We all know this because they’re running an expensive television campaign, where during a spot lasting several seconds we’re lectured by a firefighter, wearing his firemen’s jacket, about why Proposition 87 is a bad idea. That firefighter is probably right about Proposition 87 – it’s probably a bad idea. But I’d like to know why a firefighter is an expert on alternative energy, or for that matter, any public policy outside of, say, firefighting.
The reason public employee unions are backing – or opposing – every initiative and candidate on the ballot, is not because they are especially concerned about something within their own fields of expertise. The reason they are now involved in politics not selectively, but in virtually every single electoral contest, is because they have money to burn – our money – and they are using it to manipulate the electorate and consolidate their power over the entire system. They are making sure their friends get elected, and their foes go home. This is not about principle, nor is this personal, it’s all about power. People in uniform who are public servants should think twice about associating themselves with this blatantly undemocratic abuse of public trust.
Ed Ring
Editor, Ecoworld
Have a contrary opinion, please email it to gillian@sacramentoexecutive.com or post a comment on this blog
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
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