The other union story from Tuesday

Hot Air ^ | June 7, 2012 | Jazz Shaw

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In the midst of the various celebrations taking place following Scott Walker’s victory in Tuesday’s recall election, it’s understandable if most of us missed another story which broke on the same day involving the relationship between government, taxpayers and public sector unions. This one takes place in Arizona, and long time readers will already be familiar with the efforts of the Goldwater Institute there to battle union abuse of public funds. I’ll provide some links at the bottom to our previous coverage, but the short recap goes something like this:

The City of Phoenix has been locked into some crippling contracts with various public worker unions for longer than anyone can remember. Such a sweet deal had been cut for the unions – and let’s be clear here… it’s for the unions and their officers, not the workers – that the city was laying out millions of dollars for “release time” where union officials would receive pay for doing “union work.” This included officials who were payed full time wages – including mandatory overtime – for doing zero work for the public in their supposed regular jobs, instead working full time on union activities.

The Goldwater Institute cried foul, claiming that such practices violated a clause of the state constitution which “prohibits gifts of public money to private individuals or corporations, requiring the government to prove it receives direct, tangible benefits from a subsidy it gives to a private entity.”

On Tuesday, a Superior Court Judge agreed with the complaint and put a halt to the practice while the case proceeds.

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BTTT!