Boston Tea Party. Is it time for NH to dump the Democrats overboard?
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Some arguments are just made to go beyond face value into the realm of high philosophical debate. Such is the union-building legislation passed by the New Hampshire state Senate, SB-88. Consider the details, as reported by Bob Cook of the Citizen (Laconia, NH):
Labor unions would get big boost from Senate bill
Administrators in Wolfeboro, a summer resort community on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, are watching a bill that they say could tie their hands in contract negotiations with employees..Town Manager David Owen said 45 town employees, including firefighters, public works employees and administrative support staff, belong to two collective bargaining units. Voters at town meeting in March approved a one-year extension with a 3.5 percent pay raise for town workers after their three-year contracts expired in December 2006, he said..Selectmen had frozen pay raises after the contracts expired, Owen said..But towns wouldn’t be able to freeze raises in such situations if the state Legislature approves Senate Bill 88, he said..Towns also could end up negotiating with several mini-bargaining units, he added.
Aside from the multiple new mini-union possibilities, it’s the inability for locally elected representatives and local legislative bodies (town meetings) to have any say in spending that is especially problematic. Again, from Cook’s article, he reports that SB-88
would establish an "evergreen" clause for all public-sector contracts.
Under an evergreen clause, if an employee had received annual 5 percent pay raises in a contract covering 2000 to 2005, for example, those raises would continue to be applied during negotiations on a new contract, even if negotiations lasted years beyond 2005.
Do you understand what this means? Automatic tax increases and increased local spending. Selectmen? City Councilors? Who needs ’em?
This is not about unions or contracts. This is about taxation without representation.
Just one more example of what Democratic rule brings to the Granite State…
