The For Sale sign at upstate Michigan’s Maxon Lodge, a $33-million UAW education center and resort, was the twist in this Washington Times feature under the Sunroom Desk paperweight last week. That article, and other stories, point out the path that overreaching union influence is taking these organizations, their members, and the rest of us – toward financial ruin.
The Glendale News-Press weekend editorial, A Tale of Two Districts, contrasts recent Glendale Community College staff concessions with the Glendale Teachers Association’s refusal to accept reduced benefits. I heard the GTA president speak last week, and was struck by the union’s lack of awareness. Almost everyone else these days is making do with fewer health benefits and paying more for health insurance.
Class War: How public servants became our masters shows (with most examples in California) that benefits and pensions allocated to public employee unions are more generous than private-sector packages, often politically motivated, and clearly unsustainable.
Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports the following data to back its claim –
Approximately 85% of the state’s 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%. State revenues increased only 24% over the same period. A Schwarzenegger adviser wrote in the San Jose Mercury News in the past few days that, “This year alone, $3 billion was diverted to pension costs from other programs.” There are now more than 15,000 government retirees statewide who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.
Meanwhile, the LA Times reported this past week that CalSTRS is facing a $43 billion shortfall; the Orange County Register Watchdog blog continues its series on retired educators receiving more than $100,000/year in CalSTRS payments; California Pension Reform maintains a list of “top ten” CalSTRS recipients (number one gets $285,460.92 yearly); and CalPERS held a one-day forum on “ensuring future retirement security”, attended by public pension managers, union representatives, and government officials (one pension reform advocate was invited).
So many articles have been published just in the past week on this subject that they won’t all fit under the Sunroom Desk Paperweight. Pension Tsumani’s sidebar, with an extensive daily archive, is a good source for more reading on the subject.
Very interesting! I find it even more interesting that people see Madoff as this horrible person (which I agree with by-the-way) and here we sit looking at CalPERS and CalSTRS in a very similar situation. They are going broke and have promised people the moon and the stars. I look forward to see what unveils. More will be revealed. Thank you!
–Melissa Serenity (http://www.melissaserenity.com)