First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh and others suggest that states could reduce public employee salaries by the amount needed by the union to engage in collective bargaining, and then allocate that amount of public funds directly to the union.
Originally these clauses were added to prevent states from gifting public lands to railroads, but recently taxpayers have made Gift Clause challenges to state funds provided to public employee unions.
When Jersey City taxpayers sued, arguing that the release time was an unconstitutional gift of public funds to the teachers' union, the trial court disagreed on the theory that the union officials engaged in "Peacemaking" activities that justified the use of taxpayer funds.
Public employee unions in California face a particularly high hurdle because, in addition to the state constitution's Gift Clause, a state statute prohibits the "Waste of public funds." In 1990, the Supreme Court held in Keller v. State Bar of California that attorney members of a mandatory bar association could not be forced to subsidize the State Bar's political and ideological activities.
In County of Ventura v. State Bar of California, an appellate court agreed, equating payments to support Bar politicking to a "Direct contribution by the agency, on its employee's behalf, to a political party or candidate or an ideological organization," which "Would be worse than totally unnecessary or useless or without public benefit - it would be a wholly inappropriate encroachment by government into the political arena, and thus a waste of public funds." The court acknowledged that public employees can make political contributions as they choose, "But government should have no part of it."
As a result, the Ventura decision would apply, rendering any direct allocation of taxpayer funds to the union's collective bargaining an illegal waste of public funds.
Rather than seeking a legislative end-run around public workers' First Amendment rights, public sector unions should turn their focus inward and find ways to increase their value to workers, who would then choose to join and support the union voluntarily.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/07/public_sector_unions_and_gifts_of_public_funds.html
Originally these clauses were added to prevent states from gifting public lands to railroads, but recently taxpayers have made Gift Clause challenges to state funds provided to public employee unions.
When Jersey City taxpayers sued, arguing that the release time was an unconstitutional gift of public funds to the teachers' union, the trial court disagreed on the theory that the union officials engaged in "Peacemaking" activities that justified the use of taxpayer funds.
Public employee unions in California face a particularly high hurdle because, in addition to the state constitution's Gift Clause, a state statute prohibits the "Waste of public funds." In 1990, the Supreme Court held in Keller v. State Bar of California that attorney members of a mandatory bar association could not be forced to subsidize the State Bar's political and ideological activities.
In County of Ventura v. State Bar of California, an appellate court agreed, equating payments to support Bar politicking to a "Direct contribution by the agency, on its employee's behalf, to a political party or candidate or an ideological organization," which "Would be worse than totally unnecessary or useless or without public benefit - it would be a wholly inappropriate encroachment by government into the political arena, and thus a waste of public funds." The court acknowledged that public employees can make political contributions as they choose, "But government should have no part of it."
As a result, the Ventura decision would apply, rendering any direct allocation of taxpayer funds to the union's collective bargaining an illegal waste of public funds.
Rather than seeking a legislative end-run around public workers' First Amendment rights, public sector unions should turn their focus inward and find ways to increase their value to workers, who would then choose to join and support the union voluntarily.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/07/public_sector_unions_and_gifts_of_public_funds.html
No comments:
Post a Comment