Willie Brown is worried about union power in California…
Willie Brown is calling for an “honest dialogue” on California’s public employee unions. Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and longtime Speaker of the California Assembly, has pointed out the obvious – that our civil servants now “[run] the show” in California. They have “job security for life” and “pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers”. Standing against them, says Brown, is “politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders”.
Willie Brown made the following comments in his San Francisco Chronicle column:
If we as a state want to make a New Year’s resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it’s time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we’ve become.
Take the civil service.
The system was set up so politicians like me couldn’t come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives.
Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show.
The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.
But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers.
Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.
Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I’m kidding, just look at [the bankrupt city of ] Vallejo.
Re: “But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels…”
Really? You don’t have government bureaucrats making 20 million a year like CEOs.
This state has problems because of the Enron raid of our surplus in 2003, Prop 13, excessive prison spending, the car tax cut which blew a 4 bilion dollar hole in the budget, and the fact that we pay more in taxes to the federal government than we get back in services. Add to that an ignorant buffoon for a Governor. Notice how nobody mentions those things. They just want to lower people’s standard of living even more by gutting their paycheck and their pensions.
The vast majority of us in the private sector aren’t 20 million dollar per year CEO’s. Most of us make far less than that. And most of us don’t get the benefits that state workers do (as Democrat Willie Brown points out).
The state’s problems are due to unsustainable runaway spending. Spending increased 50% in the years 2003-2008. The state hired (on average) 48 workers per day in the years 1997-2007. That’s not sustainable.
Spending on these things reduces people’s standard of living because they must be paid for out of individual savings and private investment.
To blame the state’s problems on Enron is beyond laughable.
Enron was behind the recall election. Davis and Bustamante had filed a lawsuit against Enron to get back the billions they stole during the “energy crisis.” They wanted their own Governor in there, somebody who would drop the lawsuit.
Before Enron’s energy crisis, California had a 17 billion dollar surplus generated by the tech boom. Enron robbed that surplus leaving us with a 6 billion dollar debt. Davis then raised ther car tax to pay off the debt. People had a fit, elected an uneducated buffoon who cut the car tax, blowing a 4 billion hole in the budget on top of the 6 billion that was already there.
Then said buffoon cut education spending and increased prison spending. Then he borrowed billions. Then the housing crash happened and compunded the debt we already had.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml
http://tabacco.blog-city.com/enron_the_california_energy_crisis_gray_davis_recall__ar_1.htm
http://tabacco.blog-city.com/enron_the_california_energy_crisis_gray_davis_recall__ar_1.htm
GREG PALAST: Ah, well, the worst thing — these guys fear one thing more than jail, and that’s giving back the money. The State of California under Gray Davis — you just had him on saying, you know, ‘God bless this jury’. Gray Davis had demanded that after Enron got and their buddies got caught nicking the state for $9 billion-plus, he did the obvious thing, he demanded that the money be returned.
So Lay panicked. He did two things: He went to meet with Dick Cheney in Washington, but he also held a meeting with Mike Milken, who had just gotten out of jail for his multi-billion-dollar stock fraud. Milken and Lay invited Arnold Schwarzenegger to a private meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, and, you know,Schwarzenegger used to do these private hotel things where he’d go down to his Speedos, but now this is in 2001, and they suggested that they needed — if only they could get the State of California to agree to basically a sweetheart fake settlement, where the people would get back, instead of $9 billion, would basically get, you know,
donuts instead of dollars, next to nothing.
Right after that, the recall drive starts against Gray Davis,who is demanding that the money be returned. Schwarzenegger becomes — the Terminator becomes the Governator, and literally within days, the Lay plan from the Peninsula Hotel
goes right into effect, and Schwarzenegger just starts signing off with every one of
these power companies to give dimes on the dollar, so that the public in California
just never got its money back, just got virtually nothing.
It’s easy for Willie to say these things at this point in his life and career. That does not necessarily mean he is correct.
There is no doubt that to get out of this budget problem that state workers will have to sacrifice some. But we live in a state with some of the highest living costs in the country. So we must pay our public servants at least a decent wage.
Rather than using sledge hammers over each others heads the Governor the legisature and all interested parties should come to the table open minded with every option on the table.
I tend to agree that it is likely that bankruptcy and/or a new constitution free of the current restraints that the many propositions have put on the state are the likely only solutions left with a chance to work.
Sunny,
I try to not to insult people. But, many find your Enron narrative a bizarre and silly leftist paranoid fantasy comic book view of the world. I mean really.
Jim,
I agree – bankruptcy (or something like it) is the way out.
Without some additional reforms that change the restraints that the previously passed propositions and mandates the Federal government has put on the State Bankruptcy would only be a temporary solution.
Enron stealing 7-9 billion did not help, but that would only begin to fill the hole we are in. Repealing the car tax reduction which I beleive has been done for the most part is not enough to close the gap either.
Prison Spending has to go up because of Three Strikes, the lowering of the Age of chargable felonies to 14 by prop 21, the addition on many more crimes to the felony lists by Prop 21,and other mandatory increases in sentenceing passed by the voters and the legislature. I beleive their has to be a better solution, but our hands are tied by previous propositions.
Much of School funding is required and in part restricted in how it is spent by propositions. Many taxaes and fees are locked in place by propositions. The Redevelopement scandals are a direct result of Cities and counties taking advantage of a tax loophole created by a proposition.
This is just a brief list. We need to start over with a fresh slate.
The state is so messed up I don’t even know where to begin. Cut it all!
Re: ‘But, many find your Enron narrative a bizarre and silly leftist paranoid fantasy..”
Those are the facts. Sorry if reality has that effect on you. It’s too easy for the rich to dupe the voters. That’s why I am starting not to have much hope for our state. Once Arnold is gone they will find somebody else just as corrupt as he is to finish looting our state.
Fact is, Willy Brown is right. The man worked in Sacramento for years and he understand the issues. We have significantly INCREASED the number of state employees during what we continue to call “the worse economic disaster since the depression”. How is that? Really, can ANYONE stand up and say that is a smart idea? We have doubled state spending over the last 10 years, but I certainly can’t say we have doubled the value of our state government. What have we gained from this bloated bureaucracy? You can blame California’s problems on corporate greed or evil gnomes, I don’t care. The facts are clear, and, as Willy said, we had better wake up now and do something before it’s too late.
The Enron raid was bad…but let’s not live in the past…public unions pushed and passed the three stikes law…pay levels, pensions, and other benefits for public employees will be the undoing of this state and many county and city governments…the only way out is to fix these by going bankrupt as Vallejo did.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/daniel-borenstein/ci_14150059 is a good example of the problem. Why the hell does some dude make $250k a year in retirement when he was a damn civil servant? Give me a break…