Tag: Public Unions

Public Unions Need Revenue… They Are Attacking Janus

August 31, 2019

Labor leaders from public unions need revenue which has led them to launch a state-level counterattack the Janus decision. Janus is a Supreme Court decision. It declares mandatory union dues and fees for government workers unconstitutional. The Supreme Court rule is that mandating union fees as a condition of employment violates the free speech rights … Read more

I’d Like To Give A Tax Cut To Public Sector Employees

September 26, 2018September 13, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

As I understand it public sector employees pay taxes too. I’m quite sure I’ve heard that somewhere. So if they paid for their benefits and pensions right out of their paychecks, like most of the rest of us have to do. They’d automatically give themselves a tax cut.

Picture of The Day 4-17-11 (Save What?)

September 26, 2018April 17, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

Home made sign held by a student(?) hoping to save their ‘Pubic’ education, in Los Angeles.

The End Of The “We Pay Taxes Too” Argument?

September 26, 2018March 23, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

The only way it could ever be equal, is if we all paid the same taxes, and taxpayers paid nothing extra for benefits and retirement; you would have to fund pay all of your share of both at the same rates as the average private citizen.

Don’t Say There Is No Place To Cut.

September 26, 2018February 7, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

Privatize the public school system and shift the educators, staff, maintenance, and transportation and facility costs off the books, along with converting public benefits and pensions into the same kind of programs the rest of the private markets have, and you would see property tax rates plummet.

A Modest (Budget Cutting) Proposal

September 26, 2018January 28, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

Public Sector Unions Suck There are plenty of towns like mine trying to figure out where they can cut costs. But every conversation seems to end at cutting education or safety services. While I find it hard to believe that there is nothing else in a budget you can trim, I think I have come up with a reasonable compromise (if not just for the sake of our own rhetorical amusement) that can cut at least a little bit of money from the budget without affecting staffing or resources.

Any teacher, support staff, officer, firefighter or public employee who currently pays union dues will have the total amount of dues paid calculated and that amount removed from their respective department budgets (aka:paychecks). This will do the one thing no one ever seems willing to do; include the unions in the burden of cost cutting.

For Quite Some Time

September 26, 2018December 20, 2010

by Steve MacDonald

For quite some time more than a few of us out here in the private sector have been paying into our own retirement plans–if we can–for years. After the Housing bubble burst many of us began reducing the amount we contributed as a lousy economy consumed opportunities, wage growth and jobs–our neighbors jobs or even our own.

Companies, small businesses in particular, that were once able to provide some benefits and 401K matching dollars shifted gears, re-directing that revenue (if they had it) to keeping the business afloat so they could pay enough remaining core employees to keep the company "a company"–with desks, paperclips, sticky-notes, and a space to keep them in. We paid for our own retirement plans, owners and managers paid for theirs, took pay cuts, employees took pay cuts, millions accepted reduced hours, part time status, or were overcome by the recession and had to be let go.

At the same time various levels of government were handing out (or handed) billions and billions of dollars that did not exist, to prop up the public sector unions. These unions, collective bargaining groups (emphasis on collective) were the primary benefactors of the past two years accumulation of debt. Government rules favored them in opposition to all else and in contradiction to common sense, not just for cash handouts but the hand out of sparse jobs as well. Even at the local level, the public sectors union handlers, who are really nothing more than fat cat capitalists selling shares in human flesh for a profit, in the from of a dues check each pay period, have fought against the tide to raise union salaries, benefits, and keep or create more jobs that must be paid for by the people going the opposite direction.

So the public sector unions, operating as nothing more than a private business, whose goal is to grow revenue, continued to do just that at taxpayers expense, all the while whining about private sector greed and malfeasance. We need to call them out for this.