George Rebane

Starting with the federal government, public service unions have contributed to fiscal calamities in every jurisdiction across the land where they have been able to get a foothold.  That is not to say that the leftwing chorus has stopped singing its hosannas to clandestine and corrupt collective bargaining.  Democrat controlled city councils and mayors, led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, are admitting that they have let the unions bring them to the brink of fiscal disaster.  Rating agencies are downgrading government debts at all levels.  Vallejo was the first dead canary, now the mine is filled with methane.  (New metaphor for the nimble reader, back to torpedoes later 😉

Meanwhile the Obama administration is continuing to back SEIU and other unions which outright bought the presidency in 2008 with over $85 million cold cash, the largest single special interest tranche of election spending in history.  One of the union payoffs is the imposition by presidential decree of “project labor agreements” for federal construction.

The PLA union-growing gambit increases total costs of projects by anywhere from 10 to 15%, and tilts the playing field away from the 85% of construction workers who are non-union.  Every government project infected by PLAs has suffered gross cost overruns.  Notable examples are Boston’s Big Dig, Seattle’s Safeco field, LA’s Eastside Reservoir, San Francisco airport, … .

One of the country’s leading socialists, SEIU president Andy Stern, can take credit for much of the growth of public service unions and the resurgence of union influence in America.  It was Andy who delivered the big checks to Obama, and got to sleep over a lot in the White House guest room.  (Can anyone divide $85,000,000 by 31 visits?)  Now, on top of his game, Mr Stern is bailing before some of the little excesses at the SEIU come home to roost and, mayhaps, put a smudge on his polish.

But not to fear, the gentleman will get to keep his seat on the President’s deficit reduction commission.  So here’s a solid socialist who’s never had a real job, whose every waking moment for the last twenty years has been to figure out how to increase deficits at all levels of governments, and who will now join the rest of the assembled worthies to advise how to reduce deficits (?!).  Maybe it’s like hiring an expert hacker to advise on setting up a computer security system – go figger.

Speaking of deficits and pension debt in California, David Crane, advisor to the Governator, points out (14apr10 WSJ) the hopelessness of handling the state’s $500B unfunded liabilities.  This year the state will try to “divert” $5.5B from universities, parks, transit, etc to pay into this cash chasm. The *current* unfunded liabilities are “almost seven times greater than all the outstanding voter-approved state general obligation bonds in California.” (Gives a new perspective on ‘pissing in the ocean’)  He notes that any mention of ‘pension reform’ in the Sacramento legislature is verboten to its Democratic majority, even in the face of rapidly rising pension costs beyond those already contracted.   Crane observes that –

(our politicians) have effectively turned the peroration of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on its head: Instead of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we have become a government of its employees, by its employees and for its employees.

On a happier note here in Nevada County, we see that the Board of Supervisors has finally started making public noises (as reported here) about pension benefit reform for our local county employees.  This comes almost three years after politely listening to presentations by organizations like the SESF point out the bubble wake heading directly towards amid ship.  The lesson here for the taxpayer is that even heads-up county governments like ours take heed slowly and respond glacially.  We’ll now see how they follow up, and if anyone in the rest of California is paying attention.  (Memo to BoS: file this under G as in goad.)