More proof that only suckers work in the private sector.

Let’s discuss why politicians love to write blank checks from your not-yet-born grandchildren’s bank accounts.

Antonio Villaraigosa (formerly Antonio Villar), a former labor union organizer gets elected as the Mayor of Los Angeles, the first latino mayor. By the way, I’m glad we got the “first” thing out of the way, so now hopefully everyone can focus on the best person for the job next time and not just getting the “first” of something into office.

But I digress.

So a labor union leader gets voted into office, who naturally promoted his cousin John Perez, another labor union leader as the Speaker of the California State Assembly. I guess Antonio had to start helping cousins since his sister, Mary Lou Villar was just appointed by Schwarzenegger as an L.A. County Supervisor Judge. She used to work for the Legal Aid Foundation which provides free legal advice to low income individuals. Does anyone see a trend yet?

So this is how it starts. Labor Union leaders make their way up the political chain becoming mayors, judges, governors and presidents. Their job is supposed to be protecting tax payer money, your money, from being spent frivolously and to efficiently run their city, county, etc…

Meanwhile, the myriad of Labor Unions prepare to negotiate with their local city, state and federal agencies to secure their members more pay increases, healthcare benefits, early retirement plans and guaranteed pension benefits.

So the leaders of the Labor Unions sit down at the negotiating table with the Politicians to strike a deal. One side of the table is asking for more money, and it’s up to the other side to say no or limit how much they get.

Wait a second…but…

But the politicians at the table, the ones that are “negotiating” with the labor union leaders, the ones that are supposed to protect our money, used to be labor union leaders.

So what happens when labor union leaders negotiate with former labor union leaders for your money?

“California public employee pension systems are worse off than anyone previously projected…the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California Retirement System (UCRS), which together administer pensions for approximately 2.6 million Californians…shows that the state would need to invest more than $200 billion, and possibly as much as $350 billion, today to return the fund to a minimum responsible level of funding.” Emphasis added. You can read the full report by clicking here.

When labor union leaders negotiate with former labor union leaders, you end up writing a bigger check for their benefits, every time.

Categories: Gov't Workers & Unions

Tags: $500 billion, California, CALPERS, CalSTRS, government workers, labor union leaders, pension, pension time bomb, retirement benefits, Stanford, UCRS, unfunded