Guest Column By Matthew J Brouillette
There's a major battle brewing between the taxpayers and the public sector unions across the nation
Wisconsin's new Gov. Scott Walker and conservatives in the legislature have rolled up their sleeves and already brought to the floor a bill to curb public sector collective bargaining privileges and require government workers to pay towards their pension and health care benefits.
Similar waves of freedom are being sailed in places like Ohio, Indiana and Idaho. In Pennsylvania, with 17 of the 19 union contracts with the Commonwealth set to expire this year, concessions from Pennsylvania's government employee unions will have to be made to reach a balanced budget.
We need to make sure those "negotiations" include a requirement that government employees move from defined-benefit to a defined-contribution retirement plan, automatic pay increases are discontinued, and that unions can no longer hold taxpayers over the barrel on unsustainable labor costs.
Today, I'll be on WHP 580 AM in Harrisburg from 3:00 - 6:00 PM (and again on Thursday this week). I'll be talking about what's going on in Wisconsin with the head of our sister think tank in the Badger State, the MacIver Institute. I'll also be chatting with Drew Ryun of American Majority Action, one of the organizers of the Tea Party counter-protest this past Saturday.
Rick Dreyfuss, our senior fellow, will also join me to discuss public vs. private sector pay and benefits. And I'm sure we'll also get into school choice and liquor choice with your phone calls.
Tune in if you're in the area, or listen online at http://www.whp580.com/, today and Thursday!
The opportunity to put Pennsylvania back on a course to economic prosperity has been charted. No doubt the seas will be rough, but with your help we can make sure we reach our destination of more freedom and less government.
Matthew J. Brouillette is the President & CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation
No comments:
Post a Comment