From Washington to Lompoc, taxpayers are finding they can no longer afford civil service workers with union-negotiated benefits, who in general exceed the income and benefits paid by the private sector for similar responsibilities. Civil service unions are the bane of taxpayers because, unlike private unions, there is no way to control them.
In the private sector, the motive is profit, and there are company directors who are motivated to control costs and therefore employee wages and benefits. In the civil service, there are no such controls.
The elected Democratic politicians—no matter whether they serve in federal, state, or municipal government—are beholden to their union fundraisers. The tax revenue used to pay union demands are not the politicians’ money, so they are not so reluctant to give out benefits as the private sector. The Democrats are happy to spend other people’s money for their own gain.
Unions extort dues from the workers and use the money to promote their own agenda, whether the employees like it or not. The unions almost always support tax-and-spend Democratic candidates or liberals of any stripe. Elected officials lack the backbone to say no after taking union contributions to get elected. The Democrats and their news-media buddies promote union causes to stay in power.
We taxpayers elect our representatives to be our watchdogs over the civil service, but our trust is undermined by the fact that the elected officials become civil servants themselves and are not eager to limit their benefits any more than the government employees they oversee. There is therefore a collusion of self-interests in which taxpayers are locked out. The result is always more benefits followed by more taxes to pay for them.
The worst offenders in this system are the police and fire employees and their unions. The police and firefighters view themselves, and are treated by politicians, as sacred cows above the other civil servants. They have their own unions and requirements that are different than other civil servants. The politicians fawn over them and seek their endorsements and funding in elections. And then they give them what they want in benefit negotiations. There is no limit to their greed.
Police and firemen are trained and outfitted by taxpayers. They are not special; they are a part of the whole civil service picture, just as are electricians, power workers, water workers, road workers, and data processors. However, because of their excessive demands and the spineless elected officials, they have become so expensive that taxpayers in more and more municipalities can no longer afford them.
The police and firefighters want to retire at 50 years old with generous benefits and entire salaries. This is patently unreasonable. If they cannot do their job, they should move to another job in the government or quit with reduced benefits. Otherwise, they should work to age 67 like everyone else should do, and their benefits should be reduced to what the private sector would pay. To be sure, police and firefighters provide important services, but the cost of their services must be brought in line with what taxpayers can afford.
The solutions to break this chain of benefits include:
• Eliminate all civil service unions.
• Review all civil service benefits and salaries, bring them into line with those in the private sector, and establish a two-tier system of salaries and benefits for the new hires, as was done in the auto industry after the recent declared bankruptcies.
• All efforts should be devoted to convert civil service positions to private-sector positions.
• Move all elected officials out of civil service negotiations and establish fixed stipends with no benefits as determined by nonpartisan elected commissions.
• Elect candidates who are dedicated to ending this benefit crisis through fiscal restraint and returning balance to our government as watchdogs for taxpayers.
As long as voters continue to elect Democrats who are beholden to unions and the media, our budget deficits will never be eliminated.
Justin M. Ruhge lives in Lompoc and is a member of Concerned Taxpayers I.N.C. Contact him via the opinion editor at econnolly@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 24-31, 2011.