Posted on 09/26/2012 7:42:56 PM PDT by WilliamIII
If taxpayers want to curb pension costs with a ballot measure, do they need an OK from unions before they start collecting signatures?
San Diego’s Municipal Employees Association seems to think so. The MEA, which represents 6,000 workers on the city payroll, wants government unions to have a gatekeeper role in the initiative process — a right to advance review of certain ballot proposals that would affect employee benefits.
Disturbingly, the courts have declined, so far, to set the union straight.
Triggering the controversy is Proposition B, the pension-reform plan that San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved on June 5.
Prop. B would shrink the city’s pension-fund shortfall by switching to 401-k-style retirement plans for new hires, and capping how benefits are calculated for current employees.
Taking the initiative – against the initiative process
A challenge was expected, but MEA’s unprecedented ploy caught a lot of people by surprise. The union raised an eccentric procedural argument, proposing something like a panel of inquisition for certain initiatives that tinker with public-sector compensation, even if mountains of petitions from members of the public have been submitted in their support.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxandhoundsdaily.com ...
No. That would be insane.
That would be California.
That would be California.
[uses Leonidas from movie "300"] Madness? This is California!!!!!!
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