Halting State: How state employee unions stole California

[unixronin]

Police officers and firefighters are widely regarded as underpaid.  So how come police captains in Vallejo, California can make $300,000 a year, then retire at 50 on 90% salary, adjusted for inflation, for life and the life of their spouse?

The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California’s largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone.  “We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory,” she says matter-of-factly to the elected officials outside the shot.  “Come November, if you don’t back our program, we’ll get you out of office.’

City Journal's Steve Malanga details the history of how public-sector state employee unions bought California's state government lock, stock and barrel. Their bought-and-paid-for politicians repaid the favors by bankrupting the state, looting the budget to fund ever more lavish salary and pension plans for public sector union employees.

Comments

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

There is one thing missing from all the arguments about whether the unions are good/bad. That is the simple fact that the state legislature made one of the biggest goofs of basic financial planning.

They negotiated contracts to acquire/deliver services with money they didn't yet have available to spend.

None of the rest of this would ever have been that big of a deal if the State of California had, first and foremost, never gone into debt to deliver the services it did. We, the taxpayers, should require changes to the law that MANDATE that all levels of government have the money in the bank before they agree to spend it.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

They negotiated contracts to acquire/deliver services with money they didn't yet have available to spend.

Yup, that was one of the biggest blunders of all.