Pay to Play
Gavin Newsom spent 8 long years being ignored by Jerry Brown and running to replace him. When the prize was finally in his grasp, he threw a multi-million dollar party to celebrate. He could afford the party, but, of course, he didn’t pay for it. Donors stepped up with alacrity.
Far and away the biggest contributors were public sector labor unions, closely followed by industry associations representing companies that do business with the state. If that ain’t pay-to-play, I don’t know what is.
The most egregious corruption is the unions. At least, there is the appearance of bidding when it comes to getting contracts. Public sector labor union may be an oxymoronic phrase.
The essence of organized labor is adversarial bargaining. Management wants as much productivity and as much revenue to the bottom line as possible. Labor wants work rules that render work less strenuous and as much revenue devoted to salaries and benefits as possible. Labor has the option of a strike; management can close the doors or move to a right-to-work state. No such conflict exists in a negotiation between government and its employees. The suckers paying the bill (taxpayers) aren’t at the table.
The way it works is that elected officials and union leaders collude. Salaries are set at a generous level, but not so high as to evoke public outrage. The goodies are in the benefits package — health care, vacations, and pension benefits. Those provisions don’t make it into the paper or local TV report, except perhaps in the last paragraph of a newspaper item. Worse yet, workers are not obligated to fully fund their pension benefits. The system is rigged to minimize contributions and the taxpayers are on the hook (usually as an obligation in the State constitution) to pick up the shortfall. Nationwide, the projected shortfall is about $6 trillion.
The real hooker is the automatic collection of union dues. Recent Supreme Court rulings allow individual workers to opt out, but the politicians and union leaders have rendered that process as difficult as possible. Years of litigation will be required to enforce the ruling.
And . . . where do the union dues go aside from the pockets of union leadership? It will shock you to know that the biggest source of campaign contributions is not the dreaded Koch brothers or Sheldon Aldelson, but public sector labor unions. Hundreds of millions, year in and year out.
Gavin and the California legislature are long since bought and paid for. Democracy is the loser. We should at least outlaw the opulent victory celebrations on corruption’s nickle.
