When Governor Scott Walker signed into law the most sweeping limitation on public sector unions in modern history, I wrote a glowing letter of support to my local paper in Torrance, California, a section of Southern California well-known for being fiscally conservative yet socially moderate. As a West Coast native writing to Mid-Western voters, I am writing to support Governor Walker’s drive to curb public sector union power in his state, which returned power to the voters while maintaining balanced budgets and retaining core public services.
In my home state, public sector unions dominate the state legislature. The strongest lobby in Sacramento, the prison guard union, has ensured pay increases on schedule, even while the shortage of housing for prisoners in over-regulated California has preempted the federal government to demand the rapid depopulation of our prisons. The SEIU has intimidated California's legislators for years, threatening swift retaliation against any politician who does not toe the union line. The teachers’ unions have protected the worst while permitting the best to be laid off in lean economic times, all while test scores are plummeting, and the second-largest school district in the country –Los Angeles Unified – struggled to shore up a record multimillion dollar shortfall. Unionization in California has gone from merely protecting workers from unscrupulous employers to scooping up easy money from depleting taxpayer coffers.
While grappling with multi-billion dollar deficits on an annual basis, the growing majority of Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento are still searching for more creative ways to tax wealth creators instead of cutting exorbitant salaries, pensions, and health care benefits. Governor Jerry Brown has mustered enough moxie to propose a twelve-point plan for pension reform, but only Sacramento’s GOP minority has risen in support of the plan. Things are not looking good in California right now.
In contrast to the tarnished future of California, the people of the state of Wisconsin should appreciate that Governor Walker and his allies are slowly returning power to all Wisconsin voters. Like the Dairy State, California bears a hefty legacy of Progressive politics, including a history of populism and recall efforts, including the successful ouster of a sitting governor, whose reelection the previous year ended up facing a growing deficit borne out of accounting gimmicks and heavy corporate taxes. Even with the Terminator taking the helm, the greatest drain on the Golden State’s economy– the golden parachutes of paychecks, pensions, and healthcare for public workers — were not limited effectively. Enacted during flush times, these emoluments to public unions are now flushing the entire state down the fiscal drain of bankruptcy. In a matter of time, California will suffer what Greece is already enduring, including the grossly underfunded pension systems, a dwindling tax base, and economic stagnation prolonged by political paralysis.
I am writing this editorial not as a foe of public union power per se, for all Americans have the right to assemble and petition their government peaceably. However, I am presenting the tragic, though not inevitable, fate of California as an instructive contrast to Wisconsin voters of what could have happened had Governor Walker and his brave colleagues not limited collective bargain rights, thus freeing up public agencies to enact cost-cutting and efficient reforms which saved jobs, spare public works, and restore Wisconsin to sound fiscal footing.
To the voters of Wisconsin, I implore you to support your Governor June 5th and keep him in office. Voters here on the West Coast wish that the same kind of leadership that would discipline the public sector unions in California, balancing underfunded budgets and ensuring a decent future for ourselves and the next generation.
