Even Californians Are Rejecting Backward Government

Yesterday I offered my opinion that Wisconsin’s recall vote was evidence that “taxpayers of all political stripes are beginning to realize” the excesses of government benefits to public sector unions. It turns out Wisconsin wasn’t Tuesday’s only evidence. There were also ballot proposals in California. As NPR reports:

In San Diego, two-thirds of voters favored the pension reduction plan. And the landslide was even greater in San Jose, where 70 percent were in favor…

San Diego’s payments to the city’s retirement fund soared from $43 million in 1999 to $231.2 million this year, equal to 20 percent of the city’s general fund budget, which pays for day-to-day operations…

As the pension payments grew, San Diego’s 1.3 million residents saw roads deteriorate and libraries cut hours. For a while, some fire stations had to share engines and trucks. The city has cut its workforce 14 percent since 2005.

San Jose’s pension payments jumped from $73 million in 2001 to $245 million this year, equal to 27 percent of its general fund budget. Voters there approved construction bonds at the beginning of the last decade, but four new libraries and a police station have never opened because the city cannot afford to operate them. The city of 960,000 cut its workforce 27 percent over the last 10 years.

Payments and benefits for government employees are costing these large Californian cities so much that they are having to cut back on traditional local services and lay off workers. This is the “backward government” I wrote about a few months ago – the government is benefiting a few individuals at a cost to the overall community.

It’s hard to cut these generous benefits due to various contracts and promises that were made long ago, but it’s even harder to pay these benefits if the money simply doesn’t exist. Now, even taxpayers in large urban cities in liberal California are realizing that things need to change. Tim Carney, discussing Wisconsin, thinks he knows why:

A politically connected class of people who get paid much more than their neighbors, thanks to tax dollars supplied by these same neighbors, cannot pass itself off as an oppressed minority…

Anyone on the Left who thought the middle class would side with government unions was badly misunderstanding the populism of the post-bailout era…

When government unions collectively bargain for more money, it’s not a fair negotiation. They’re not bargaining with the people who pay them — the taxpayers — but instead with politicians, many of whom were elected on the strength of union support and union dues…

Of course, the labor unions won’t go quietly. NPR says the unions in San Jose and San Diego have “launched potentially lengthy court challenges,” and who knows what’s going to happen next. But the trend seems clear.

It’s one thing when a Republican governor of a blue state tries to cut back on public sector unions. It’s quite another when 70% of Californian residents do the same. Yesterday a pundit said “Governor Walker’s Victory Spells Doom For Public Sector Unions.” Someone may be writing doom on the wall, but I don’t think it’s coming from Wisconsin. It’s coming from California.