STOP THE LIES: PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS AND THE SERVICES WE PROVIDE ARE IN JEPOARDY

Rochester, N.Y.-- The multi-billion dollar corporations that own most media outlets are unjustifiably hellbent on cutting the pay and benefits of public-sector workers who are just barely hanging on to a middle-class way of life.  On top of this, and if certain Governor's get their way, the vital services we provide will surely devastate our local communities.

The idea that a schoolteacher, librarian or a highway worker can retire with a pension of $1,500 to $3,000 a month is directly at odds with their view of world order-- even though most employees pay into the system for their enire career. They believe that government exists to redistribute income from everyone else to those who already have it-- those who are rich and powerful. To these people, the money that is going to pay the wages and pensions of ordinary workers should be turned over to the private equity firms and Wall Streeters that killed our economy.

The economic crisis caused by the collapse of Wall Street and the housing bubble has created a great opportunity for those who have maintained disposable incomes. State and local tax revenues plummeted as employment fell. Lower property values also meant lower property taxes. This meant that state and local governments across the country suddenly faced severe budget shortfalls. All these developments, coupled with a media campaign that has been relentless, provided a ripe opportunity to attack the pay and pension packages of unionized public-sector workers. This has been in the works for sometime-- and the anti-labor forces are loving every minute of it.

As disheartening as it is, it is difficult not to admire the brilliance of the attack on middle-class public workers. The country's powerful and well connected, with the Wall Street high rollers at the forefront, wrecked the economy through a combination of incompetence, greed and outright fraud and middle-class families are now taking the fall for it. They have pitted private-sector workers against the public-sector workers in the fantastical tale we repulsively call the "race to the bottom."

As tens of millions of workers are still struggling with unemployment, underemployment, involuntary part time work and underwater mortgages, this gang of thugs now turn around and demand that middle-income workers take pay cuts and give up part of their pensions-- and a complicit, ignorant citizenry says, "Why not?"

What is so perverse about this trend is just how vastly it misunderstands what went wrong in the first place. And what makes this go-around extraordinary is that big corporations and national political leaders from both major parties have been pushing that same agenda-- and sadly, this is the way America now works. Multi-billion dollar global outfits are now calling the shots for the political hacks that now inhabit our nation's capital.

When balencing budgets, start trimming from the top

While there can be no doubt that many states face a serious budget squeeze as a result of the economic crisis we now face, that doesn't mean the average citizen can be educated to some simple truths. Or can they?

Most union represented public-sector workers get paid no more than their private-sector counterparts, but there are, nonetheless, a small number of very well-paid public employees. The Boston Globe recently reported on the 6,400 state employees in Massachusetts who earn more than $100,000 a year. Topping the list was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School who earned almost $800,000 in 2009.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, there were 11 presidents of public universities who earned more than $700,000 in the 2008-2009 academic year. The top earner on this list was the president of Ohio State University who pulled down more than $1.5 million. That's a lot of pension years for custodians or schoolteachers who are supposed to take big cuts to help state budgets. Why is it that these salaries are never brought up in conversation when discussing public employees?  Is it because they are not unionized workers?  Or, is it because they are just untouchable wealthy donors who contribute to the political machinery?

There are plenty of high wage earners in the public sector if we identify where the money is actually going. Before we make glittering generalities about union represented public employees, why aren't we taking a long hard look at all the confidential/management and political appointees to the New York State Executive Branch, the NYS Unified Court System and state Legislative Branch? It would seem to most reasonable people that taxpayers would be getting a better bang for our buck if we investigated the outrageous salaries, waste and abuse of these non-union public employees. Shouldn't we be re-evaluating their pay and pensions too?

The Voice Reporter already knows the counterargument: these people will go somewhere else if they didn't get their huge salaries here in New York. Well, we don't buy it. For the most part, this is probably not true, but in the cases where it is, there will be little loss to the state when you consider the bigger picture.

After all, there are plenty of extremely bright, hardworking people who still consider $200,000 a good salary. Besides, aren't the budget cutters demanding that government will have to change; what better way to start than getting rid of some highend wage earners at the very top-- the overpaid prima donnas we read about everyday in the Gannett Newspapers?

States overpay firms to mangage their funds

This is not the only place to look for budget savings. One reason that state pension funds have less money than they should is that they often overpay the people who manage their funds. This is not always an accident.

Wall Street honcho and former Obama adviser Steve Rattner agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges that he had made payoffs to public officials to get control of a portion of New York State's pension fund assets. It is likely that public officials outside of New York have also been willing to sell off control of pension fund assets. It doesn't take many sleazy deals like this to add up to real savings for the taxpayer.

States could prevent this sort of corruption by putting tight restrictions on management fees, requiring that they match the lowest cost in the industry. Preventing Wall Street rip-offs could go a long way toward making up pension shortfalls, while bringing greater efficiency to the country's financial sector. The CSEA Voice Reporter and CSEA knows it is very lucky to now have Tom DiNapoli watching over our pension funds in the State of New York.

Our budgets are in trouble because of Wall Street not Main Street

We should never forget that the bulk of states' budget problems are the result of the economic crisis brought on by Wall Street greed, deregulation and incredibly bad economic policy from eight long years of the Bush 43 administration. As much as possible, we should be holding the people at top responsible for the damage they have caused our economy. It makes no sense to beat up on library clerks, schoolteachers, firefighters and other public-sector employees, who just want to support their families and send a kid or two to college.

As we said in an earlier post, the "greater good" of the general public sometimes gets lost in this conversation. Neither economic efficiency nor the people's welfare motivates the current attack on New York's public workers.  We know this for a fact because we see it and hear it everyday working on the front lines of the urban public libraries, colleges, DMV's and healthcare facilities all across New York State.

Ultimately, we all have to ask ourselves who deserves to be the first group marginalized by the budget choices the Governor and the state legislators make? Will it be those who are financially insulated from any harm and who caused our problems in the first place? Or, will it be the jobless patron who depends on a public library computer to electronically submit an employment application?

-Ove Overmyer
The opinions expressed here are the views of the author only and does not represent CSEA as an organization.