Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind by Mallory Factor

States
Texas
26.0%
 
California
10.6%
Florida
21.2%
 
New York
12.8%
Georgia
13.7%
 
Illinois
5.1%
North Carolina
17.1%
 
Pennsylvania
10.2%
Virginia
24.7%
 
Ohio
1.1%
Arizona
29.0%
 
Michigan
−7.5%
Tennessee
15.3%
 
New Jersey
9.1%
Average
24.9%
 
Average
7.8%
    Sources: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Commerce Department, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Labor Department
    Courtesy: National Right to Work Committee

Budget Busters
    In 1980, Frank Sinatra covered the song “New York, New York.” Today, we hear it every time the Yankees win a ball game. “Start spreadin’ thenews,” Frankie Blue Eyes warbles. “I’m leaving today. I want to be a part of it: New York, New York!”
    Unfortunately, in the ’70s and early ’80s, nobody really wanted to be a part of New York City. New York was a disaster zone. From 1965 to 1975, the city lost half of its million manufacturing jobs, rendering its increasingly bloated public sector payrolls unaffordable. 17 In 1966, the transit workers went on strike. In 1968, the sanitation workers went on strike, and huge piles of garbage bags were piled high in the streets. In the 1970s, in the state of New York, there were twenty teachers’ strikes per year. 18
    Eventually, New York recovered. But overly generous union contracts and terrible pension obligations are driving the Big Apple down the road back to the mid-1970s. Unless Gotham’s elected officials change course soon and begin aggressively reining in government employee compensation costs, the dark days of three and a half decades ago are bound to be returning soon.
    It isn’t just New York. It is the same in many states with a heavily unionized government workforce.
    “But,” you ask, “how can you be sure that it’s the unions that create this problem?”
    Well, let’s take a look at two counties that border each other: Montgomery County in Maryland and Fairfax County in Virginia. Both are home to many federal contractors and federal employees. Both are dominated by Democrats.
    One of these counties is not like the other, though.
    In May 2010, the
Washington Post
declared, “Montgomery County has just completed a nightmarish budget year.” 19 Montgomery County in Maryland was forced to jack up taxes because its deficit amounted to one-quarter of its budget. Meanwhile, Fairfax County in Virginia was “all sweetness and light by comparison.” Fairfax erased its far-smaller deficit much more easily.
    These counties not only border each other, but also have similar populations with similar demographics. So, what was the difference between Montgomery and Fairfax Counties? In Montgomery County, government employee unions wield great influence and hold collective bargaining power over teachers, police, firefighters, and other government employees. 20 In Montgomery County, the teachers unions in particularare so powerful that “politicians who received the teachers’ endorsement in the most recent elections reached into their pockets and wrote checks to the union,” instead of the other way around. And elected officials in Montgomery County can’t make budgetary policy unless their union masters agree to it. Even the far-left
Washington Post
was forced to admit that Montgomery County’s collapse was due to “irresponsible governance, unsustainable commitments and political spinelessness—particularly in the face of politically powerful public employee unions.”
    In Fairfax County, Virginia, in contrast, there is no collective bargaining for government employees. And that has made all the difference. As the
Post
confirms, “Fairfax, though facing tough choices and further cuts in an economy clouded by recession, has a brighter future.” 21

Featherbedding
    “What have unions done to cripple the Union states financially?” you ask.
    “How much time do you have?” we might reply. Government unions don’t just negotiate for contracts that increase pay and benefits for the workers. They also negotiate