On the front page of this mornings Union Leader reporter Clyntnon Mamuo covers negotiations between the University of New Hampshire, and some 630 professors over their new contract. As is often the case with such things, there is some disparity between what the University feels is economically feasible and what the white-tower and it’s union representatives actually want.
Keep in mind that the article quotes inflation at around 0.5%, and we know that over the past few years the government method of calculating inflation overall have shown it almost flat. Using these figures along with what we know about pension issues and what Obamacare is doing to the cost of health insurance ‘the smartest people in the state’…
"…proposed a 12.5 percent pay increase, one percent of which would be merit-based, and no increase in health insurance premiums."
So the education establishment liberals in the university system think like the establishment progressives who ran up the state budget in the past four years. Screw the economy we deserve a huge raise. (The progressive political class gets their reward through a larger public sector union, which gives them money to try and keep them in office so they can rinse, lather and repeat.) And it is no surprise that they, democrats and educators, are fiscally (and ideologically) co-dependent.