Friday, July 13, 2012

How union power plays could crash spectacularly in California

The arrogance displayed last week by California’s legislature and its union comrades-in-arms can scarcely be exaggerated. In rejecting Governor Jerry Brown’s surprisingly ambitious pension-overhaul plan in favor of a proposal that defines minor tinkering as “reform,” Democratic legislative leaders have ignored how crippling the pension crisis has been for local governments, as well as the bipartisan support that exists for serious reform. And in approving on Friday Brown’s plan to spend $5.8 billion in federal and state funds on a troubled high-speed rail project—the so-called bullet train—Democratic leaders have dismissed mounting public skepticism about the project as well as substantial evidence from independent evaluators and journalists that it could become one of the world’s biggest public-works boondoggles.
If there is any good news here, it is that the legislature’s contempt for common sense and public opinion should only fuel California voters’ building anger toward the Sacramento establishment. This anger seems increasingly likely to deal two huge strikes against the status quo in November.
The first involves the California budget. Brown’s $92 billion spending blueprint for 2012–13 relies heavily on voter approval of a November ballot measure to hike the state sales-tax rate and impose higher income taxes on the wealthy. Brown claims these moves will raise $8.5 billion. If voters balk, $6 billion in already-set “trigger” cuts would kick in, with by far the biggest chunk taken out of public schools through a reduction in the school year from 175 days to 160.

Read more: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0710cr.html

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