Where’s the other side of the Labor Day story? The longLabor Day weekend will bring the annual package of mainstream media stories about how a stronger labor movement is needed to reduce income inequality, raise wages, improve working standards, and fix countless other social ailments. But where’s the other side of the story? This weekend, Californians should reflect on how public-sector unions have bankrupted the state, reduced economic and educational opportunity, kept classrooms closed, raised taxes, and chased away job creators of all sizes. Just don’t expect to read this perspective anywhere besides here.
Gov. Newsom shifts the reopening goalposts: Last Friday, Gov. Newsom announced a new state reopening roadmap for businesses and schools that is stricter than the previous one. The shifted goalposts especially affect Orange County, which had left the old watch lift and was poised to open some classrooms. For the rest of the state, the new guidelines confuse more than they clarify. Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner articulated the feelings of many Californians:
I’m trying to figure out: what is the science that said yesterday you could partially open your nail salons but today you can’t? It’s just hopelessly confusing, which undermines governmental authority. The public, when it looks at government acting erratically like this, they don’t want to follow any of it, and that’s really bad for managing this virus.
California’s legislators exempt their journalist supporters from AB 5: California’s legislative session ended this week, but not before legislators passed a bill to exempt journalists from AB 5, restoring their freedom to freelance. As the old saying in journalism goes, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” In this case, union-backed legislators are simply rewarding their media water-carriers for (mostly) uncritically advancing their agenda. Now safely removed from beneath this stupid law, expect news media to produce even more favorable media coverage of AB 5 in the months and years to come.
Government unions pounce to prevent another Placentia: Edward Ring recently covered the City of Placentia's innovative move to form its own fire department independent of CalPERS and its associated financial strain. He pointed out that Placentia could be a model for other municipalities looking to cut their onerous pension obligations. The unions must have got the memo. This week, the California legislature passed AB 2967, preventing cities from taking similar actions.
“The bill clarifies that a public agency may not amend its contract with CalPERS to exclude groups of employees that were previously included under that contract,” claim’s the bill’s backer. “Selectively limiting access to CalPERS robs entire classes of employees, including critical public safety workers like firefighters, of the pension benefits and financial security they deserve.”
As an OC Register editorial highlights, “Especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, with all of its known and projected impacts to local government revenues, AB 2967 only serves to lock local governments into arrangements that were increasingly unsustainable even in good times.”
How unions and municipalities operate from the same tax increase playbook: In his latest piece, CPC contributor Edward Ring exposes the union-backed scam of California cities using tax dollars to promote tax increase under the guise of voter communication:
When they decide to put tax increases on the ballot, city councils use public funds to hire expensive consulting firms to help them engage in “communications” with voters. At the same time, the public sector unions who arguably control these city councils – unions that need all that money to raise their pay and fund their pensions – hire political professionals to wage campaigns to voters that explicitly advocate these tax increases.
Selling city streets to finance public-sector union demands: Two California cities, West Covina and Torrance, are issuing bonds using their own city streets as collateral in an effort to pay down their unfunded pension liabilities. Expect to see more of these desperate funding measures to feed the insatiable government union beast in the years to come.
Lawsuits are families' last hope for getting kids back in classrooms: In an OC Register op-ed this week, CPC President Will Swaim explains how school closures are significantly hurting minority students in the state. He highlights, “If conservatives or libertarians backed a policy with such racially disparate outcomes, the left-wing establishment would tar us as racist.” Will argues that ongoing lawsuits, which hold that classroom closures violate the state’s constitutional requirement to education, are now families' best hope of getting their kids back in school.
Is school choice the wedge issue the Right has been looking for? In his latest piece, CPC contributor Larry Sand points out how diametrically opposed Donald Trump and Joe Biden are on the issue of school choice. He highlights how minority families overwhelming support educational opportunities and how this issue could help boost the president’s fortunes:
If enough poor, minority and working-class parents are fed up with the status quo, the Republican education message might just be enough to sway them to vote for Trump, and the children and taxpayers of America would be the ultimate victors.
The latest on Uber, Lyft, and AB 5: Will appears on a recent Fox Business online segment to break down where the fight over Uber and Lyft stands. Ultimately, the decision over the future of ridesharing in the state comes down to voters, who will settle the measure with Prop 22 on Election Day.
The threat of Prop 15: Will appears on the Thought Leadership Podcast to discuss Prop 15, which would dramatically raise taxes on state businesses at the worst possible time as they try to recover from the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis. What does this mean for ordinary Californians? Fewer job opportunities and higher prices.
Goodbye and good riddance to State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson: On the latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California, Will and CPC Board Member David Bahnsen discuss the end of state’s bill-o-matic legislative session, and with it the end of Santa Barbara senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s 14-year reign of error. David and Will consider Jackson’s Constitution-busting legislative history, and Donald Trump’s bizarre foray into the eviction-moratorium debate.
Police unions claim another scalp: California’s police unions succeeded this week in defeating SB 731, which would have created a commission to judge cops that have behaved badly and decide whether they should be decertified. Without accountability, systemic police violence will continue.
Golden State Pensioners: After the Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA Championship last year, California deputy officer Alan Strickland claimed that Raptors GM Masai Ujiri shoved him after the officer prevented him from coming on the court to join his team in celebration. Strickland launched a lawsuit and a workers’ compensation claim, but Ujiri defended his innocence. In his suit, Strickland alleges, he suffered such a “shock of injury to his nervous system” that he believes “will result in some permanent disability.”
Recently video footage vindicated Ujiri. It clearly demonstrates that Strickland was the aggressor, shoving a bewildered Ujiri twice in the chest, not the other way around.
What’s worse: that the union will protect this officer from the repercussions of his apparent fraudulent lawsuit and disability claim, or the fact that public records show Strickland makes $224,000 a year, not including benefits?
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