For decades, public sector unions at the state and local levels have hijacked the public appropriations process via collective bargaining agreements. These have bound the hands of legislators to ever-increasing salaries, pension and health care benefits, who often are unable to modify such agreements. Once negotiated, many legislatures can only approve or reject them.
This is in essence makes public sector unions an unelected fourth branch of government across the country, placing increasing pressure on taxpayers. The point of such arrangements is to cement job security for public employees while setting the bar for compensation ever higher. The agreements ultimately make state budgets inflexible, and the political process becomes polluted as the unions work to buy votes via campaign expenditures in favor of pro-union candidates.
All but twelve states have such arrangements, but that may be starting to come to an end, as noted by the Wall Street Journal. Incoming Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to end the practice as a means of handing control of the state’s budget completely back to the elected branches of government.
Get full story here.
No comments:
Post a Comment