Someone sent me this quote today as part of a longer email:
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
— Thomas Jefferson
I can’t help but thinking that the debt we have created for our children will be the cause of their wars.
An independent investigation into spending by Chicago Public Schools’ board presidents has uncovered more than $800,000 in questionable expenses in recent years, including thousands spent at lavish restaurants and hotels at a time when teachers and the district’s rank-and-file were being asked to cut expenses.
It’s worth the click to read this brief story at Chicago Breaking News.
So someone tell me, how much more money should we be spending on CPS?
Also from the New York Times:
Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics. …
But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican governors and Republican statehouse majorities — officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions, including private sector ones.(Full story here.)
This is interesting because it’s the second NYT story on public unions in three days. Also, because it’s something that’s been on my mind over the last few weeks.
I got to thinking about what happens when union workers strike at a manufacturing plant like Ford or GM. The citizens have alternate sources for these goods. People can buy a Jeep, or a Toyota, or some other car. People can also buy a used car.
So the conclusion is that labor unrest at a manufacturing company may restrict consumer options, but it does not deny the consumer of the goods.
This is very different with labor unrest in a public employees union. In Illinois police are not permitted to strike. The reason is obvious. But school teachers are permitted to strike. That completely denies the taxpayer, the consumer, of the services. That seems unjust to me.
It seems that some other people, albeit in other states, were having similar thoughts.
For example, Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Maine, Missouri and seven other states plan to introduce legislation that would bar private sector unions from forcing workers they represent to pay dues or fees, reducing the flow of funds into union treasuries. In Ohio, the new Republican governor, following the precedent of many other states, wants to ban strikes by public school teachers.
Some new governors, most notably Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are even threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts.
“We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.
I’m not suggesting that we restrict collective bargaining, but we should certainly have the conversation about who should have what rights.
We should at least be allowed to have the conversation.
From the NYT a few days ago:
Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey, states where public unions wield much power and the culture historically tends to be pro-labor, even longtime liberal political leaders have demanded concessions — wage freezes, benefit cuts and tougher work rules.
Wow! That the NY Times would write such a story means you know things are tough for unions.
I’m not anti-union, I’m pro-taxpayer. We need an environment that is pro-growth in order to overcome the massive debt we’ve accumulated over the years. Pro-growth means pro-business. Pro-growth means low taxes. Pro-growth means balanced budgets, a talented labor pool, good infrastructure, and easy access to capital.
If we’re not pro-growth then we will NOT survive.
The legislative session that began today as the House convened will take aim at a budget deficit of at least $13 billion, including a backlog of more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and almost $4 billion in missed payments to underfunded state pensions.
The fiscal mess is largely of the lawmakers’ own making, and failure to address the shortages threatens public schools, local governments and other public services, said Dan Hynes, the state’s outgoing comptroller.
“We’ve reached a very critical and concerning point,” Hynes said in an interview in his Chicago office, with packing boxes stacked in the corner. “What’s missing right now is a general understanding by the public of where we are, of how bad it is, and what the fallout would be if we don’t deal with it properly.”
Hey Dan, I agree with you. But where have you been for the last four years? Now that you’re out you’re going to claim that “lawmakers” are responsible? Let’s just call them “politicians” because that’s what they are.
The full story is worth reading.
What the public may not appreciate, Wall Street does. Illinois shares with California the lowest U.S. state credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service, which in September forecast possible “further financial deterioration.” Unlike California, Moody’s assigned Illinois a negative outlook.
Illinois’s deficit, about half its $26 billion general-fund budget, puts it among the U.S. states confronting $140 billion in shortfalls in the coming fiscal year after closing $160 billion in gaps this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group.
In other words, we’re in real trouble. Sufficient trouble that people in the know, like maybe the State’s comptroller, should have been screaming bloody murder years ago.
Hynes’ puffing now is just too little too late if you asked me.