Columbus
Dispatch Editorial...
Bipartisan effort
Democrats, too, are reining in the costs of public-employee benefits
On Tuesday night, the Massachusetts House of Representatives followed
the lead of legislatures in Ohio and Wisconsin in voting to limit the
collective-bargaining rights of public-employee unions.
The measure would reduce the ability of police officers, teachers and
city employees to bargain for health-care benefits. The aim, as in
Ohio, is to save millions of dollars for hard-pressed local governments.
States don’t come bluer than the home state of the late Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy. Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state
legislature. This sticks a fork in the idea that the cost of public
employees’ benefits is of concern only to Republicans.
States are in deep financial trouble. Unlike the federal government,
the majority of states are required to balance their budgets. The
burgeoning cost of providing health benefits to public workers and the
enormous unfunded public-pension obligations are genuine and
significant fiscal problems.
In order to rein in those costs, lawmakers in states where unions have
gained the upper hand in negotiations needed to regain management
rights.
If these efforts constitute a “war on the middle class,” as
public-employee unions like to claim, then the war enjoys bipartisan
support. Democrats around the country are joining in:
• California Gov. Jerry Brown has introduced a 12-point plan to reduce
the state’s enormous unfunded public-pension liability. California’s
teachers’ retirement fund alone has a $56 billion gap between assets
and future payouts to retirees.
His proposals include capping future pensions, raising the retirement
age and switching retirement benefits to a hybrid of pensions and
401(k)-style investments.
• North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed in her budget a couple of
months ago to eliminate 10,000 state-employee jobs, 3,000 of them
currently occupied.
In 2009, she also signed a law that dramatically changed the
health-care benefits of public employees, increasing their deductibles,
co-pays and premiums without asking the unions’ permission.
But then, Perdue doesn’t have to worry about public-employee collective
bargaining because North Carolina doesn’t allow it.
• In mid-April, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won a battle with the
state’s law-enforcement union to impose higher health-care
contributions, a three-year pay freeze and no automatic step increases.
This isn’t exclusively a blue or a red approach to the problem. State
lawmakers and governors of both parties are beginning to recognize that
they must bring labor costs in line with revenues.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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