Government unions set to grab more power in blue states

Government unions already wield enormous power in blue states, where they help elect the Democrats who negotiate their contracts and approve their budgets. After Tuesday’s elections, they could wield even more. Ballot measures in Maryland, California, and Colorado would weaken elected officials’ control over union contracts, make a temporary tax permanent, and dismantle limits on government spending.Maryland’s Question 1 would give unions more power to get their way at the bargaining table. Under current law, when a government union and the state can’t agree on a contract, an arbitrator offers nonbinding recommendations to resolve the dispute. Elected officials retain the authority to reject demands that they believe taxpayers either cannot afford or simply should not pay.Question 1 would amend the state constitution and activate legislation making arbitration binding, allowing an unelected arbitrator to dictate employment terms and force the governor to propose funding them. Unions that cannot persuade an elected governor to meet their demands could turn to someone taxpayers did not select and cannot fire. This assault on democratic accountability would give unions another way to raid the treasury and leave voters with fewer ways to stop them. In California, government unions want to make permanent a tax hike voters were promised would be temporary. Voters approved higher income taxes on top earners in 2012 to address a fiscal emergency, then extended them in 2016. Now Proposition 3 would erase the expiration date entirely. Apparently, “temporary” is how Sacramento sells a tax hike, and “permanent” is how it collects.California is again in a fiscal mess, but spending is the problem, not too little revenue. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) took office in 2019, the state economy has grown by about 50%, while the state’s General Fund spending has grown by almost 70%. Rather than restrain spending growth, unions backing Proposition 3 want to lock in the revenue that funds their members’ salaries and benefits and flows back to Democratic politicians. Each spending increase gives unions a higher starting point for the next round of demands, while taxpayers get the bill forever.Colorado’s government unions want their state to follow California’s lead. The Colorado Education Association is backing Amendment 87, formerly Initiative 195, which would replace the state’s flat 4.4% income tax with graduated rates reaching 8.4%. The measure would do more than raise taxes. It would also undermine the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which limits annual spending growth to population growth plus inflation.END THE U VISA FRAUD FACTORYBy exempting all education spending from that cap, Amendment 87 would allow legislators to spend an additional $4.5 billion a year, functionally repealing a central taxpayer protection. Colorado’s operating appropriations have already climbed nearly 77% over the past decade, with spending per resident up 17% even after inflation. Even that growth has not satisfied government unions. They want higher taxes and weaker spending restraints, and Amendment 87 would deliver both.Government unions will never decide taxpayers have given enough. They bargain with politicians they helped elect, turn spending increases into permanent obligations, and demand higher taxes when the bills come due. Taxpayers have little say in those negotiations, and binding arbitration would strip their elected representatives of the power to resist union demands. Voters in Maryland, California, and Colorado should reject these measures on Tuesday. Otherwise, they will pay more for a government over which they have less control.