Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has stripped public unions of their collective bargaining rights. Ohio Governor John Kasich has followed suit, although the law faces a recall effort.
Governor Rich Snyder of Michigan, governor of one of the most impoverished and industrially struggling states in the Union, has authorized "emergency managers" to step in and take over the financial affairs of local and county agencies facing fiscal crises.
New Jersey Chris Christie personified executive leadership at the state level, signing into law balanced budgets authored by a legislature controlled by the opposition party. He has negotiated effectively with public unions, depicting for them dire straits that are undermining the solvency of the pension and benefits funds for public employees. Cutting costs, cutting programs, and cutting the crap all the way, Christie is pushing hard against entrenched interests interested only in lining their own pockets at the expense of the state and its harassed taxpayers.
These governors are leading their states and setting the necessary example for fiscal restraint, for too long absent from state houses across the country. Facing huge pension liabilities, dwindling tax revenues, and massive unemployment, GOP Governors across the country are cutting away at Big Government.
Governor Jerry Brown has proposed massive reforms to the public pension programs in the state of California. He is certain to face fierce opposition in the Democratic legislature still behold to public employee unions. Let us hope that instead of kicking this problem further away, he follows the trend-setting tactics and examples of his gubernatorial colleagues and tackles the enormous financial problems plaguing the state.
If Brown articulates a clear message, hiding no sobering reality from the tax payers and the public employees, he can negotiate and enact much needed reforms without further imperilling the future of the state of California. The Golden States needs leadership from this governor, direction that will not cave in the face of public union pressure and voter insecurity. Let us hope that Governor Brown can muster the political will to do what needs to be done.