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Mail Magazine 24
The Other Union
Takedown
by Arnold Ahlert
While most of the mainstream media focused their attention on Wisconsin
and Scott Walker’s victory Tuesday night, an equally, if not more
significant vote occurred in two California cities. Voters in San Diego
and San Jose overwhelmingly approved cuts to retirement benefits for
city workers. San Diego voters approved “Proposition B” by a 66-34
margin. It was even worse for government unions in San Jose, where
Proposition B was approved 70-30 percent. “The voters get it, they
understand what needs to be done,” said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a
Democrat who has called pension reform his highest priority.
It ought to be. Both cities are being crushed by soaring pension costs.
From 1999 to 2012, San Diego’s contributions to the city’s retirement
fund skyrocketed from $43 million to $231.2 million, an amount
equivalent to one-fifth of the city’s general fund budget that pays for
its day-to-day operations. From 2001 to 2012, San Jose’s pension costs
vaulted from $73 million to $245, equal to 27 percent of its general
fund budget.
Such expenses resulted in onerous tradeoffs. In San Diego, libraries
and recreation centers were forced to cut back their hours of
operation. Roads were left to deteriorate, and some fire houses were
temporarily forced to share engines and trucks. In San Jose, four new
libraries and a police station have never opened because the city
cannot afford to operate them-even though voters approved their
financing with construction bonds at the beginning of the last decade.
The real sea-change occurred in San Jose. Unlike reforms adopted
elsewhere, including San Diego, reductions do not apply only to new
hires. Current government employees will also see reductions in their
benefits, a reality that has union members seething — and suing.
Thus, Yolanda Cruz, president of the San Jose Municipal Employees
Federation, characterized the approval as “an unfortunate way to spend
taxpayer money fighting it in court because we will definitely take it
there. Taxpayer money would be better used getting services back,” she
added. Unions claim that years of court decisions demonstrate that
government employers may never decrease current employee pension
benefits without offering something comparable in return.
Mayor Reed counters that argument, noting that San Jose is a charter
city with the authority to reduce pension benefits not only for future
hires, but for current employees remaining years on the job. And even
if the unions win in court it’s a Pyrrhic victory at best. Proposition
B calls for the city to take the equivalent savings in pay cuts if that
occurs.
Government unions tried their utmost to keep these initiatives off the
ballot. The Municipal Employees Association in San Diego filed suit to
do so, but was defeated in court. Last month, Association general
manager Michael Zucchet attempted to defend the indefensible. “This
initiative doesn’t save anything,” he said. “You are basically cutting
off your nose to spite your face for pension reform.”
As the above explosion in pension costs reveal, Mr. Zucchet, like most
of his fellow unionistas, has lost touch with fiscal reality. Jon
Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association,
illuminated the impetus behind the landslide vote totals. “The appetite
for pension reform in California is huge,” he contended. Voter Howard
Delano, aged 60, echoed that sentiment. “It’s out of control,” he said
after voting. “Nobody gives me a pension.”
And much like Wisconsin, union supporters were outspent by those
advocating reform. In San Jose, government employee unions led by the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
spent more than $440,000 in order to defeat Measure B. Business and
taxpayer groups ponied up $682,000 to get it passed. In San Diego,
business groups backing Proposition B outspent union supporters by an
8-to-1 margin. Also like Wisconsin, a petition drove the effort in San
Diego, where more than 100,000 residents signed up to put the
Proposition B on the ballot. In San Jose, an 8-3 City Council majority
got the measure before the voters.
Progressives and their enablers have consoled themselves with the idea
that, in both Wisconsin and California, being decisively outspent is
what led to their defeat. But this is a misleading claim. The reality
is that the wages earned by union political operatives don’t get
counted as funds being spent on a campaign. Yet even if unions were
thoroughly outspent, that is hardly a comforting rationale: it means
more and more Americans are fed up with government employee unions and
are willing to spend money to say so.
The specifics of Proposition B differ in the two cities. In San Diego,
a six-year freeze on pay levels used to determine pension benefits has
been instituted, with a two-thirds majority of the City Council votes
required to override it. All new hires, except for police officers,
will be into 401(k)-style plans, instead of the current defined benefit
plans wreaking havoc around the nation.
In San Jose, current employees get to keep pension credits already
earned, but must pay up to 16 percent more of their salary to continue
that benefit, or they can opt for a more modest and affordable plan for
their remaining years on the job. Future hires will have to pay half of
their pensions costs. Furthermore, voters get to approve future pension
increases, “bonus” pension checks to retirees have been suspended, and
disability payments will be limited to those with injuries that prevent
them from working. “It’s novel but it’s certainly not radical,” said
Mayor Reed of the reforms. “Mayors across the country are very
interested. We’re at the leading edge but we’re not alone.”
That may be an understatement. It is one thing to see government union
power curtailed in a state like Wisconsin, where both Democrats and
Republicans have been in control of state government at various points
in time. In the ultimate progressive stronghold of California, where
unions have run roughshod over the interests of taxpayers for decades,
vote totals such as these, aimed at curtailing their power, are
unprecedented.
In other words, something truly profound has occurred. All of the
so-called current wisdom regarding government unions and their ability
to sway politicians with massive campaign contributions and/or thuggish
tactics is no longer current. In the space of a single evening, the
aura of invincibility government unions have long enjoyed has been
irreparably damaged. It’s as simple as taxpayers beginning to realize
that government should provide services to all of its constituents, not
just the privileged few-who have long viewed those privileges as
entitlements or rights. This toothpaste isn’t getting shoved back in
the tube anytime soon. Reform in Wisconsin alone could be construed as
an anomaly.
Voters in San Diego and San Jose have made it a trend.
Source: FrontPageMag
Read this and other articles at Mail Magazine 24
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