I have said on multiple occasions — and never wavered on this — that I was opposed to certain things the unions have done or gotten over the years. The problem I have with the anti-union rhetoric is that it does not originate from well-intentioned people who are looking out for Joe Sixpack, the taxpayer. I know, beyond any doubt, WHY the organizations and people who are behind this are pushing this anti-union agenda.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I’ve pointed this out, the same, uninformed lies and myths keep being bandied about on this and other blogs, etc. I’m fighting against the lies and propaganda, not trying to justify everything every union has ever done.
I’ve posted this in many place on this blog, but have never gotten any responses or other realistic, informed suggestions or solutions from anyone else. Note that I include unions in the groups that have to take losses.
[quote=CA renter]Once again, I’ve repeatedly challenged all the anti-union types to come up with actual solutions to our problems, but nobody has stepped up to the plate. As stated before, even if we change every public employee over to a 401k-style account, it will not solve our budget problems.
Public employees aren’t any more repsonsible for the economic crisis (and the resulting “pension crisis”) than anyone else here. They should not be expected to bear the entire burden for everyone else.
Here is my proposed solution…what is yours?
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1. Roll back the pension boost enacted by Gray Davis (and friends) from 3% @XX to 2% @ 55 (going forward) for public safety workers. I’m an ardent supporter of defined-benefit pension plans, but this increase was totally irresponsible, and I said so back then. Because this increase has been there for so long, and because many older workers have adjusted their finances because of it, those with 10 years or less left before retirement will need a lump sum payment, perhaps of $50K-$150K, basically something tied to the number of years they’ve already put in under the 3% formula (a drop in the bucket when compared to the relative savings) in order to make up for the fact that they are too close to retirement to make up the difference.
2. Cut pay of municipal and state workers by ~10%, if they haven’t already been cut (many have).
3. Get serious about illegal immigration, and either demand that the federal government supports all of the illegals and their children, OR charge the employers of illegal immigrants for **every single benefit** used by their workers AND their dependents (legal or not), and include infrastrucuture expenses AND the expenses related to administering this program.
[If we “fix” the illegal immigration problem, it will probably eliminate about 25-40% of the costs associated with education and prisons, and possibly “welfare” programs — all of these being the largest expenses in the state.]
What would be interesting is to see how “cheap” that illegal labor is after all the costs have been added in — these costs have been subsidized by the taxpayers. Who knows? Maybe employers would suddenly find out that Americans are “willing to do THAT work, after all” when employers are forced to pay the REAL costs of that labor.
4. Get rid of Prop 13 protection for all residences except a SINGLE, primary residence. There is NO excuse for making taxpayers subsidize landlords via cheap/under-market property taxes.
Eliminate inheritability of Prop 13 protection IF the heir intends to “step-up” the cost basis upon death of a parent.
5. Get rid of Prop 13 protection for all commercial properties except for a SINGLE property (held by an individual or a trust/LLC controlled by that person). Eliminate the ability to pass Prop 13 protection from seller to buyer via corporate/LLC loopholes.
Once those things are done, see where everything stands, and then raise certain taxes, if necessary. I have a feeling we’d end up with a surplus if we enacted the changes noted above, though.
I would also point out that the unions have already given on pay and benefits over the past few years. Governor Brown’s pension reforms largely address the issues I’ve stated above. They have reduced benefit formulas, increased retirement ages, increased employee pension contributions (by a lot..and this was the #1 most workable solution to the pension problem), etc. At what point do we stop bashing unions — who did not cause the economic crisis — and address all the other changes that need to happen in order to correct the problems? The unions did not cause the crisis, and they should not be the only ones to shoulder the burden.
