Remember the stories of the auto worker making $40 an hour to push a broom? That image became the icon of waste, industrial decline, private sector greed and union-bashing in the 1980s. It didn’t matter if there was no such worker, it was a great image: an expose of waste we could pound our chest and feel good about. Politicians would gleefully rally crowds with speeches saying, “Look over there, at the wasteful auto industry and those nasty unions.” The distraction technique usually associated with card-table hucksters fooling tourists with three shells and a pea.
The trouble with the hucksters is that this information age in which we’re stumbling along is making the shells clear, and everyone can see where the pea is. And the hucksters are the politicians, who’ve proved they will do anything to keep their own jobs even if it means eliminating yours. And the people walking away from the table are voters, who are saying, “We just don’t want to play anymore.”
Unfortunately for state politicians, people now identify them as icons of waste, industrial decline, public sector greed and, yes, even union-building. Because the largest unionized labor force in New York, and the entire country, is now the government employee. And a state retiree pays no state tax on their check.
A reader of this newspaper forwarded me the tax issue information and I ignored it. I did so because I’ve heard this issue a dozen times and was callous to it. I can remember a caller to the television show I used to host asking about this on-air, live, 10 years ago. The state politician answering the question acknowledged that this inequity should be reviewed and he’d look into it. Over 10 years, a state legislator will be paid roughly $1 million in salary and stipends. Over the same 10 years, this issue hasn’t changed one bit. How’s that for a raw deal?
Because I ignored this, I’m worse off for it, and so are you. We can’t afford to ignore it anymore.
Here’s the deal: U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that in most cases, government workers earn significantly more than private workers doing the same job. One national study showed the number at 42 percent more. But salary is only the tip of the iceberg. The state pension system for government employees is the richest of its kind in the nation. Factor in the no-tax issue, which exists in NO private industry and only a handful of other states, and you’ve got a toxic structure.
Why is this the case? Many years ago — and we’re talking 50 years or more — private sector jobs were prevalent and you could quit one factory job in the morning and get another one later that afternoon. Working for the government didn’t pay as well, so the attraction was that the benefits were gold-plated. Cadillac health benefits, untaxed retirements, etc; nothing was too good because, and after all, politicians were giving those benefits to themselves, too. Today, government has grown to be the largest employer in Western New York, pay exceeds that of the private sector, layoffs are unheard of and your retirement will be untaxed. At least 10 years after our own local politician was asked to look into this, nothing has changed.
What is the cost today? Studies estimate the state is losing $1 billion this year alone because of the untaxed retirement checks sent out to government retirees.
Space does not allow me to list all the details. Google Stan Linhorst’s 2009 article in the Syracuse Post-Standard for more details. It will make you throw up.
State politicians completely — and I mean 100 percent — control the salary and pensions of millions of state employees. They make the rules and can change the rules under which their employees are reimbursed for their services. And they are completely — and again 100 percent — against making any changes. Why? Because those government employees are organized and vote, and sadly, nearly no one else votes. Politicians need votes, they don’t need profiles in courage or fancy econometrics. Logic doesn’t put food on the politicians table, votes do, and government employees vote.
If you pay one dime more to register your vehicle, buy a pack of cigarettes, a six-pack of beer or even cross the Grand Island bridge because of “budget troubles,” it will be because your state politicians are afraid of their own employees. And this fear continues to make — at least in Western New York — the only option for employment the government.
State politicians have pulled off the perfect coup: they control the economy.
Tom Christy is founder of FAIR Government, a foundation dealing with local government issues. Visit www.fair-government.org. Contact him at aim1986@mac.com.
