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| Lamont and Democrat Union Supporters |
When Voltaire, a bitter critic of the clericalism of his day, was stretched out on his death bed, the church sent around a priest to give the dying man Last Rights. When the priest came to that portion of the rite in which Voltaire was asked “Do you reject the Devil and all his works?” Voltaire bestirred himself and said, “Now is not the time to be making enemies.” Reputedly, these were his last words. Some “fact checkers” have cast doubt upon the last words of famous figures, but most of us will agree that if the quote is spurious, Voltaire ought to have said such words as a final tribute both to his wit and his anti-clericalism.
There are no last
words in politics, as we know, but the ruling Democrat Party in Connecticut has
generally operated on the principle that an election year is not the time to be
making enemies of state employee unions.
Such has been the
guiding principle of two powerful Democrat governors, former Governor Dannel Malloy
and his successor, present Governor Ned Lamont. Biting the hand that feeds you
is not sound political strategy, no matter what fussy moralists and cost conscious accountants tell us.
State employee
unions are the most useful and used friends of Democrat governors and the
ruling party Democrats in Connecticut’s General Assembly. They get the vote out, provide
a reliable stream of political campaign donations, and Democrat Governors unfailingly
show their appreciation by acceding, after a public fake battle of resistance, to the most
extravagant demands of SEBAC, the union conglomerate authorized to make deals that
have been beneficial to both unions and Democrat politicians in the state.
This
post-Coronavirus period, after the Democrat dominated General Assembly had been
in hibernation for nearly two years -- leaving important decisions resting in
the hands of President Pro Tem of the State Senate Martin Looney and State
House Speaker Matt Ritter, both progressive legislators -- unions have, as usual,
arranged tolerable deals with Governor Ned Lamont.
“Gov. Ned Lamont
defended raises and bonuses Tuesday that could boost state employees’ pay close
to 7% this year,” CTMirror tells us, “calling them vital to the state’s
ability to recruit talent and preserve services amidst high inflation.
“But the Democratic
governor also confirmed that workers could accept $2,500 of the $3,500 in
bonuses offered under a tentative contract deal — and still retire before more
stringent pension benefits take effect on July 1.”
In a private market, still reeling from Coronavirus related gubernatorial impositions, such
beneficent increases in salary and benefits would be considered lush. Inflation
– most accurately defined as “too many dollars chasing too few goods” --
increases when state and federal governments increase spending, increase taxes,
increase regulations and enforce policies that reduce labor participation in
what is left of the free market in Connecticut and the United States.
But, we are told,
the public and private spheres are apples and oranges. In a free market
economy, prices and benefits are set by a buying and selling public purchasing
goods and services to their liking while, in the public sphere, salaries and
benefits are set in stone by governors, supposedly representing state tax payers
who foot the bills, and tax thirsty public employee unions. In a Kabuki theatre
struggle between Connecticut governors and public employee unions, the unions generally
win hands down in the long term. Public employee SEBAC contracts arranged
between obliging governors and tax thirsty union heads --- enforceable by courts, not
squeamish state representatives – tip the tax tables to benefit unions.
Lamont has offered a
justification for the boosts in union salaries and benefits. The state of
Connecticut, the governor said, needs a “salary structure that allows me to recruit
… the best and brightest. That’s not always easy” – largely because the state
is reluctant to sift the wheat and the chaff after state employees have been
hired, retaining the wheat and throwing the chaff into the fiery unemployment furnace. Over
the years, as a result of "negotiations" with state officials, powerful
unions have been able to erect legal barriers that make the firing of incompetent
state personnel nearly as difficult as depriving incompetent politicians of
their decades old sinecures.
It would be
relatively easy to retain once-hired-never-fired public employee workers by
stretching out the retirement age for Connecticut employees and taxpayers from
age 63 to age 66, one year above normal retirement age for non-public employee workers
in Connecticut, all public employee workers who retire before age 66 to receive much reduced benefits and retirement pay.
A sturdy retaining
wall of this kind would not leech early state employee retirees to points south, where the cost of living is less, taxes are lower, and state legislatures are
not the cats-paws of powerful union leaders. Lamont’s “proposed salary increase
close to 7%,” his “$2,500 of the $3,500 in bonuses offered under a tentative
contract deal,” and any additional payouts to state employee union workers, are,
of course, portable. And they will be written in judicially enforced contractual stone.
Connecticut could
eliminate contracts with public employees altogether by having public worker salaries
and benefits set unilaterally by a constitutionally “born again” legislature that
would jealously retain its constitutional and statutory getting and spending prerogatives.
This would represent
a real non-Kabuki theatre reform.
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