{"id":1685,"date":"2026-08-26T08:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T08:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T08:07:24","slug":"some-unions-actually-have-the-power-to-save-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1685","title":{"rendered":"Some Unions Actually Have the Power to Save California"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There is no special interest in California more powerful than unions. While they aren\u2019t significantly represented in the private sector, where they are present, they have disproportionate influence over what public works are prioritized by the state. And in the public sector, union members dominate the public workforce in almost every agency and department, from the state level down to every city, county, school district, and special district. They exercise nearly absolute control over the state legislature.<\/p>\n

Read more Children Last<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to briefly reiterate why public sector unions are uniquely powerful and very different from private sector unions. Their members, and hence their dues, are paid for by taxes. This means that unlike private sector unions, their wage and benefit demands are not held in check by a competitive market that might put a private company out of business if they\u2019re too generous. Moreover, union employees elect the politicians tasked with managing them. Public sector unions in California collect and spend approximately $1 billion per year, allocating a sizable percentage of that money to political campaigns and lobbying, along with \u201cnon-political\u201d activities such as public information campaigns, voter registration, and vote harvesting. Finally, public employees operate the machinery of government. They can influence what permits are expedited and which ones are denied. They can influence what legislation may favor an industry or target it for retaliation. There is no special interest in the state with comparable resources that willingly picks a fight with these unions.<\/p>\n

The results are dismal. The inherent incentive that governs any organization is to grow and thrive. For government unions, that means bigger government and higher taxes, since that is how they grow their membership. The interests of public sector unions are inherently in conflict with the interests of private citizens, because a failed government program is a de facto success for government bureaucracies. A program didn\u2019t work? Spend more. Raise taxes. Hire more staff.<\/p>\n

Government unions don\u2019t just waste tax revenue. Many of the most powerful among them are also driven by leftist ideology. The teachers\u2019 union has been controlled by leftist fanatics for years. California\u2019s K-14 public schools automatically receive 40 percent\u00a0of the state\u2019s entire general fund, despite the fact that the general fund has nearly\u00a0doubled over the last decade\u00a0while total\u00a0enrollment is actually down. But the teachers\u2019 union has ruined the public schools. They\u2019re producing a generation of semi-literate and innumerate graduates who are indoctrinated to become communist agitators.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), also dominated by leftist fanatics. They\u2019re responsible for\u00a0putting a wealth tax\u00a0on the November 2026 ballot. The mere chance this extortionate measure will be approved by voters has already driven dozens of California\u2019s wealthiest citizens to\u00a0move out of state. When they move, they take with them their energy and entrepreneurship, their companies, all the income taxes they would have been paying in the future, and the jobs they create.<\/p>\n

But there are two powerful sectors where union leadership has an opportunity to help all Californians. They are the unions representing workers in public safety and heavy construction. The employees represented by these unions do heroic work, and the culture of these unions does not embrace leftist ideology. Members of public safety agencies confront real-world danger every day. They do tough, necessary work. Their politics tend to lean conservative. Similarly, people who build highways and bridges and stadiums are intimately immersed in the world of things, not ideas. The work they do guarantees we keep the lights on. Without them, we wouldn\u2019t have a civilization.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, right now, these unions, despite the fact that their members perform vital, even heroic tasks, are letting California down.<\/p>\n

The public safety unions in California are supporting legislation that will\u00a0increase their pension benefits. But public safety employees are already the highest-paid public servants in the state. Have a look at this list of pay and benefits for active employees in Costa Mesa, a Southern California city. Of the top 50 paying positions, 44 of them are public safety employees. This is typical. Here\u2019s\u00a0San Jose\u201445 of the top 50 paying jobs are for public safety employees. San Diego\u201444 of the top 50, and three of the six non-safety employees in the top 50 are \u201cRetirement Administrator,\u201d \u201cRetirement General Counsel,\u201d and \u201cRetirement Chief Investment Officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

No reasonable person disputes that public safety employees should be paid well for the work they do. Those of us who respect real work can relish the fact that bureaucrats exercising their fingers at keyboards while sitting at desks and looking at images on screens don\u2019t make as much money as people who carry badges and guns. But the average pension benefit for a retired public safety employee is\u00a0more than $80,000 per year. That average understates reality, because it includes retirees with less than 30 years of service, and it includes administrative personnel. A more representative example is the average for retired California Highway Patrol officers, which is more than $114,000 per year.<\/p>\n

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Back in 1999, during a stock market bubble, public safety employees successfully\u00a0lobbied for pension benefit increases. Then, when the market corrected, taxpayers were on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars of unfunded pension liabilities. It took years of negotiation for bipartisan legislation spearheaded by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2012 to enact modest reductions\u00a0to pension benefits. Even after these reforms, California\u2019s state and local governments\u00a0struggle to afford pension benefits. Now, as stock markets reach new highs, public safety unions seek to undo the reforms of 2012. They should face a common-sense fact: what goes up must come down. Boosting pension benefits today will crush government budgets tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Instead, California\u2019s public safety unions should use their extraordinary political influence to pressure legislators to change the rules that affect their ability to do their jobs. The state legislature needs to fund enforcement of Prop. 36, the 2024 state ballot initiative, approved by 68 percent of voters, that\u00a0made crime in California illegal\u00a0again. And the firefighting unions need to directly confront the\u00a0environmentalist radicals\u00a0that have made it all but impossible to engage in timber harvesting, prescribed burns, mechanical thinning, and grazing.<\/p>\n

These two actions\u2014empowering police to enforce the law and reducing the density of California\u2019s overgrown forests\u2014will improve the morale and effectiveness of California\u2019s public safety employees while also greatly improving the quality of life for all Californians.<\/p>\n

As for California\u2019s nearly half-million employees engaged in heavy construction, a high priority for their union is to keep\u00a0funding intact for high-speed rail. This union also strongly\u00a0supports floating offshore wind. There\u2019s nothing wrong with these unions supporting projects that will guarantee good jobs for their members. But these two megaprojects, each of which is certain to cost taxpayers more than $100 billion, are not worth the investment. Completing these projects will not only impose decades of debt payments onto California\u2019s taxpayers. The operating costs will also impose a permanent economic drain on Californians. High-speed rail\u00a0will never attract ridership sufficient to pay operating costs, nor will it remove more than an immaterial fraction of vehicular traffic from California\u2019s freeways. As for\u00a0floating offshore wind, it is the most expensive way to produce electricity in the world. Californians already pay\u00a0twice the national average\u00a0for their electricity, and every floating offshore wind turbine that is completed will force Californians to pay even higher rates than they\u2019re already paying.<\/p>\n

Instead, the unions representing California\u2019s heavy construction workers should support projects that, once constructed, will yield permanent economic dividends over time. Improve the quality of existing railroads. Widen and upgrade the state\u2019s highways and freeways. Build another nuclear power plant, and build large-scale seawater desalination plants. Build the proposed Sites Reservoir to store 1.5 million acre-feet of floodwater every year. Restore the state\u2019s degraded aqueducts and pipelines. Restore the channels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by dredging out more than 50 years of accumulated silt.<\/p>\n

The people who enforce the law, put out wildfires, and build the infrastructure of the future should not be accepting the political status quo in California. They know better. They need to take on the leftists and the extreme environmentalists, because if they did, it would tilt the balance of political power in the state. If that happens, the social and economic benefits of good policies and projects would lower the cost of living, create jobs, and make the state great again for\u00a0everyone<\/em>, including members of these unions.<\/p>\n

This is the opportunity that California\u2019s public safety and heavy construction unions have. This is the gift they can give all Californians.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Orders Flags to be Lowered to Half Staff to Honor Dolly Parton<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no special interest in California more powerful than unions. 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