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Tag: Public-Sector Unions

AP PhotoJuliet Williams

Cal Public Sector Unions Spending $1Billion Per Year

U.S. public sector unions are politically powerful because they collect and spend at least $4.0 billion in dues each year. But California unions are overwhelmingly powerful because although the state has just 11 percent of the nation’s population, California’s public

money_reuters

Exploding Public Pension Costs Hit Public Employee Wages

In the past, the Manhattan Institute has effectively highlighted how rising California public pension costs are cutting into “basic infrastructure maintenance, public safety, education, and quality-of-life services such as parks and libraries.” But in the newest report, “Pension Costs are Crowding Out Salaries,” by Senior Fellow Stephen D. Eide, the Manhattan Institute reveals how California public employees themselves are suffering. In a decade where pension costs rose by 135 percent and healthcare premiums by 85 percent, public sector wages grew 4.6 percent slower than private sector workers’ salaries.

Jerry Brown (Rich Pedroncelli : Associated Press)

Jerry Brown Takes on the Left

Once again, California Gov. Jerry Brown is heading for a confrontation with labor groups, social welfare groups, and Democratic legislators who want Brown to raise taxes and expand spending. The newly re-elected Brown successfully pushed through temporary sales and income taxes three years ago with Proposition 30, but refuses to continue whole-heartedly in that direction, preferring to let the taxes die by 2018.