We have noted before that the public employee unions in California are a large part of the state's financial problem. As Steven Malanga has
written in
City Journal, three groups of unions very nearly control state government in CA: teachers, public safety workers, and the SEIU representing many other state workers.
The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is, sympathetic politicians who would grant them outsize pay and benefits in exchange for their support.
How well has this paid off for the public employees?
The state’s public school teachers are the highest-paid in the nation. Its prison guards can easily earn six-figure salaries. State workers routinely retire at 55 with pensions higher than their base pay for most of their working life.
What is the result for the state economy?
What was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and jobs escaping high taxes and stifling regulations.
Companies and jobs escape to low cost states, taking their contributions to the tax base with them. It's a long, detailed article but a good one. Hat tip to Mark Tapscott at the
Washington Examiner for the link.
