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Public Employees
If you live in a state like Illinois or California, you know what public employees can do to state and local budgets when lawmakers seek to ingratiate themselves with unions. Civil servants make your taxes go up.
As much as taxpayers rely on teachers, police, firefighters, and other public employees, government has made them something to resent. Pension debt in states offering more than they can afford to their government workers could pave the way for new laws permitting states to go bankrupt. Meanwhile, public officials in Washington continue to demand higher salaries for public employees that they know are not sustainable. Illinois’ recent retroactive income tax hike was in large part forced by pension debt, something the state legislature has still failed to address in any meaningful fashion, despite accolades for whatever short-term incremental fixes lawmakers manage to agree on.
How much do taxpayers know about public employee compensation? Do they understand that teachers in many places earn salaries far in excess of what they do? Do private sector workers know that many public employees continue to make close to, or even more in retirement than they earned while working, given generous provisions for post-retirement cost of living adjustments (COLAs)? 401(k)s don’t come with COLAs. The outrage that has met suggestions that public workers survive on the same retirement benefits the rest of us dutifully contribute to has effectively silenced most attempts at the kind of pension reform that will make a difference.
The Obama administration has gone out of its way to resurrect the myth of the neglected public servant. The president and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, hail from Illinois and should know full well just how highly teachers and other government employees can be compensated when lawmakers seek the support of big labor.
At issue is whether unions for government employees should be able to deny services to taxpayers that have already been budgeted and paid for. Can government afford to hand control of public employees to unions that exist to further themselves, not the public interest, and that will demand ever higher salaries and benefits because it is the only way they can survive?