Save The California Budget - Vote On Public Employee Union Contracts
SOS! SAVE OUR STATE BUDGET!
This Proposed Constitutional Amendment's main component has been designed to shed light on and eliminate the conflict of interest that a growing number of elected officials as well as department head's experience when awarding public employee contracts by giving the power to approve these contracts exclusively and directly to the voters.
Over the decades since being given the right to collectively bargain, public employee unions have contributed significantly and consistently to the campaign coffers of politicians who constantly need to raise cash for their elections. At the same time, department heads often get the same raises they approve for the rank and file of their departments that they negotiate with. This explains the average $200,000 a year cost to employ 1 fireman after 3 years as well as why the City of Bell managers were awarding themselves salary packages with automatic raises that have brought some of them north of $400,000 a year. In short the result has been back room deals that have circumvented the Brown open meeting act and as a result have awarded bloated and unsustainable contracts to public employee unions that have far outpaced inflation, median pay, and our state and local budgets.
The second main component of this Proposed Constitutional Amendment would deal with politically difficult automatic cuts in public employee pay of up to 20% during deficit years in order to balance state and local budgets before borrowing would be allowed. This would result in dramatically less borrowing at high interest rates that we would have to cut into future services or raise taxes to pay back as the balance to be borrowed on would be dramatically less or eliminated altogether.
Both the public which needs services as well as the public employees who provide them would see some benefits. Service cuts to the public would be prohibited. Public employees would be protected from layoffs, furloughs and service hour cuts as this is stipulated in this Constitutional Amendment proposal. While this proposal will not prohibit municipal bankruptcies, it will go a long way to reducing their probability by automatically balancing most if not all of state and local budgets with prompt and politically difficult to enact pay cuts to the most politically connected and powerful public employee unions which have intimidated many elected officials from stemming the red ink in their budgets during these last few recession laden years.
Here are some of the results of our conflict of interest problem not being addressed.
HIGHER TAXES, FINES AND FEES
*The resulting budget shortfalls borne from elected official's over generosity to public employees who have little incentive to give back some of their historic gains in compensation over the decades have resulted in unpopular and ever increasing predatory fines, fees and taxes. 2009 saw California increase taxes to historical levels during the depths of what is now being termed `The Great Recession'. With unemployment in double digits and a double dip recession a distinct possibility, hard pressed Californian working families have to also contend with newly minted and very steep fines and fees. $500 red light tickets, rising sales taxes hovering at 10%, municipal ambulance fees near $1,000 are busting the household budgets of many struggling California working families unlucky enough to have contact with local police and fire representatives. It is sad when one considers that they do not have real access or influence with their state and local elected representatives to get some relief from this cycle of spending our way into a crisis that requires that we tax, fine and fee charge the common family even more.
FAVORING THE POWERFUL AND TURNING AWAY FROM THE MOST NEEDY AMONGST US
* Our Budget crisis has also hurt the most needy amongst us, resulting in cutbacks of essential welfare services such as Social Services, Foster Care programs, Health Care and In Home Care programs throughout the state just to name a few of the most notable examples. The average citizen might be annoyed by the one day a week shuttering of the DMV and other government offices that we are required to use from time to time especially when they find out that hour cut backs were made in order to maintain the historically high rate of pay of the public employees who provide these services. What's not defendable is that Parks and Libraries that act as sanctuaries to many children who otherwise might be left to chaotic choices at home or on the streets are being shuttered or their hours are being significantly cut back because public employee unions which feel confident that they `own' the politicians with their contributions and have thus given far too little back to offset the red ink in our budget caused by the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
IGNORING FUTURE CRIME VICTIMS OF BUDGET BASED EARLY PRISON RELEASES EXPOSES THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONGST US SO THAT THE POWERUL AND CONNECTED CAN KEEP THEIR RECENT INCOME GAINS
* Cut backs in Public Safety funding are not presently resulting in significant enough decreases in the law enforcement related compensation packages of the politically connected to offset the red ink. The gap in our budget resulting from public safety unions refusing to give significant ground instead is threatening the most vulnerable of our population directly by both layoffs of newly hired police officers and the early release of tens of thousands of state prisoners. Many cannot be held due to court orders regarding substandard conditions in a prison system where it costs California 2 to 3 times the national average per prisoner while during the last decade the prison guards have more than doubled their compensation packages. News reports of early release prisoners committing attempted rapes and having shootouts with the police have recently popped up over local media outlets. We can expect more crime that didn't have to be inflicted on us from the fruit borne from this conflict of interest if we don't fix the root of this problem.