Because of Proposition 13, the unions representing California’s government employees — employees that are the highest paid in all 50 states according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — have a huge stake in who is elected to the state Legislature.

While most Californians are aware that Proposition 13 limits increases in property taxes – they can be increased by two percent annually – they are less familiar with the requirement that new or increased state taxes receive a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature. Proposition 13 authors Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann included this provision because they feared that if they were successful in saving taxpayers money, lawmakers, no doubt with union support, would turn around and attempt to increase the tax burden in other areas.

So the government employee unions are constantly working hard to increase their support in the legislature, with the goal of achieving a super-majority of compliant lawmakers to increase taxes and make even more money available for payroll. This explains why the government unions have been making all-out efforts in special elections that are often overlooked by the general public.

Please click here to read the entire column http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/%E2%80%8Blook-for-the-union-label/

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2015 at 2:24 am and is filed under Blog Posts.