Posted on 01/09/2005 11:47:35 PM PST by goldstategop
In the early 20th Century, corrupt railroad barons controlled the Sacramento statehouse, and even wrote the laws. Voters got so sick of it they ushered in reforms, including the ballot initiative and recall process. Now another bunch is spending huge sums, maneuvering legislators into office, and secretly ghost-writing the laws —just like the railroad barons. And just like the railroad barons, this crowd is out entirely for itself. The taxpayers and California can go blow.
If you guessed I'm talking about big labor unions — particularly unions that represent state workers — you must be a serious political junkie. Because the quietly subversive takeover of the Legislature by these unions has gone largely unremarked over the decades.
Indeed, some media still cover Sacramento as if the state's business leaders are the big power. As if, by some feat of magic, the largely emasculated Chamber of Commerce still throws its weight around.
So I was intrigued to hear Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State address last week. He never uttered the phrase "labor union" during his gutsy speech calling for massive reform, but the phrase was hanging over his delivery just the same. For example:
His proposal to institute across-the-board budget cuts during years of revenue shortfalls is not only a good idea, it's also a threat to the supremacy of government unions. Across-the-board cuts would mean that government departments, during years of revenue shortfalls, would probably institute layoffs in the sacred employment shrine that is Sacramento. Remember, virtually no state layoffs occurred amid the $32 billion budget deficit, because no politicos had the nerve to send out pink slips to powerful unions who make or break their political careers. So we borrowed instead.
Schwarzenegger says the $50 billion taxpayers spend annually on schools should be producing better results. Schwarzenegger blames in part the failure to reward top teachers with higher pay or to get rid of incompetent teachers. Unfortunately, thanks to the anti-reformist teachers unions, merit pay for teachers is banned here — yet it is allowed in Colorado. And, due to teachers union meddling, even grossly incompetent teachers cannot be fired by schools without a tremendous fight. California school administrators say a teacher generally must be involved in a crime or have severe mental problems before a school district can fire them. Good Lord.
Schwarzenegger thinks it's time to unsweeten the incredibly sweet state worker pension plans. Costs have exploded in part because state workers are guaranteed a set amount for life no matter how poorly the investment does, and worker pay-ins are fairly paltry. Taxpayers make up the difference. Ken Mandler, editor of Capital Weekly newspaper, which specializes in state salary coverage, says that because of huge state matching benefits, "The average state employee working as a secretary will have a pension worth nearly $1 million when they retire after 20 years." Mandler says state workers get matching funds "equal to more than 10 times what IBM just offered its employees as a pension match."
Unfortunately, I don't see the Democrats in the Legislature backing Schwarzenegger's dramatic reforms. The truth is, the ruling Democrats don't fear Schwarzenegger the way they fear the wealthy unions who put them in office, and who can spend endless sums ousting them from office.
Unions are capable of showing up on a moment's notice at any committee hearing in the Capitol, where they sit in their matching t-shirts and intimidate fearful legislators. Only 16.8 percent of California workers are even members of a union, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet unions dominate the dark recesses of the legislative mind.
So don't hold out much hope for change in Sacramento.
Lynn Daucher, a moderate Republican Assemblywoman from Brea who holds similar economic views to Schwarzenegger's, predicted that the special legislative session the governor has called "will start falling apart in a matter of days."
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata seemed to indicate little chance of any major reforms anytime soon, telling me he saw several of Schwarzenegger's proposals as "negotiating positions and many ideas that will be dealt with at later times."
I suspect Schwarzenegger will in fact take much of his reform package to the voters this year, but he'll have to do it largely without the Legislature. At one point in his speech, Schwarzenegger said, "And we all know what's going to happen. The special interests will run TV ads calling me cruel and heartless. They will organize protests out in front of the Capitol. They will try to say I don't understand the consequences of these decisions."
In 2004, the governor didn't do all that much to dampen the grip of the unions. But in this State of the State speech, he sounded very much like a governor mentally and emotionally preparing himself to take on some seriously nasty railroad barons.
The ads have already started, one set from the teachers' lobby, and I'm not sure which group is paying for the other one.
Didn't I read the Phil Angelides (sp) have a hand in the other ad?
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