by Edward Ring
California Governor Gavin Newsom is attempting to pivot to the political center in hopes of appealing to moderate Democrats in the 2028 presidential primaries. But Newsom is constrained by the same political machine that influences Democrats nationwide: public sector unions. Some would say this influence is absolute—and in California, that is almost certainly true. Over the past 15 years of Newsom’s political career, public sector unions contributed over $21 million to his campaigns, more than any other special interest group. In second place at $9.5 million were Democratic Party organizations, themselves primarily dependent on contributions from public sector unions.
This is the forgotten enabler of the so-called deep state. When we speak of an out-of-control administrative state, we must consider who organizes these bureaucrats, collects dues automatically from their taxpayer-funded paychecks, and then uses that money to make or break any politician they wish.
If you want to know the ultimate reason why California’s public sector is broken, bloated, inefficient, and tyrannical, look to public sector unions. They are the root cause of why California’s public school system is failing, the cities are still overrun with criminals and homeless drug addicts, and the cost of living continues to explode. Since 2000, the US Census Bureau estimates that more than 10 million people have moved out of California, along with thousands of businesses. One of the root causes of this misery, not explicitly identified nearly enough, is the political power of public sector unions.
Nothing about this is complicated. Public sector unions, understandably, are incentivized to maximize their membership and their dues revenue. Accordingly, these unions benefit when government agencies grow, regardless of whether these expanded agencies actually solve the issues of failing schools, rampant crime, or lack of affordable essentials such as housing and energy. Moreover, unlike private sector unions, public sector unions aren’t incentivized to be reasonable with “management” since they face no market competition like in the private sector. They just pressure politicians to raise taxes.
As for these “negotiations,” public sector unions have the unique privilege of choosing the politicians whom they will face at the bargaining table. Public sector unions in California collect and spend nearly a billion dollars every year and contribute hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle—both to support favored candidates and attack those who defy them. Their influence extends to every elected position, from the governor to members of local school boards.
One of the biggest special interests in the state is the California Teachers Association, with over 300,000 members and annual revenue well over $200 million. Along with their local affiliates, the CTA backs candidates who are elected to the state legislature to support their agenda. And it’s been a long time, if ever, since this union focused merely on negotiating pay and benefits for its membership. There isn’t a leftist cause imaginable that the CTA isn’t likely to be promoting in public, pressuring politicians to codify into new laws, and pushing onto impressionable students starting in kindergarten and lasting all the way through high school.
California’s teachers’ union has an explicit incentive to expand the state government. By law, they are guaranteed to receive approximately 38 percent of the state general fund every year, no matter how swollen the budget gets. Imagine the perverse incentive this creates. The powerful teachers’ unions will push for anything that increases the state budget, because no matter what the expenditure is for, they will get 38 cents out of every dollar increase.
Public sector unions have their hands in almost every law that is holding California back. They were instrumental in securing the passage of Assembly Bill 5, which took effect in 2020. AB 5 required companies to reclassify independent contractors as employees, wreaking havoc on essential industries. For example, owner-operator truck drivers were forced to either accept jobs as employees with major shipping companies or leave California to work in states where they were still permitted to work as independent contractors. At the same time, thousands of registered nurses were barred from working as independent contractors, and consequently, thousands of them—at a time during the COVID pandemic when they were most needed—opted out of providing their caregiving services and moved to other states.
Thanks to the nonstop political pressure by public sector unions, California’s state and local government budgets have nearly doubled in just the last decade, while not a single quality of life indicator in the state has improved. Their never-ending extraction of excessive pay, pensions, and luxury healthcare, along with their never-ending calls for more spending and hiring to support failing government programs, has left the state and most major cities with chronic deficits. Their answer? More taxes. Every election, public sector unions remind voters, in what amounts to thinly veiled threats, suggesting that everything from “trash collection to public safety” is at risk without more taxes.
Public sector unions have an incentive to grow government regardless of whether government is more effective. Failed government programs are merely an excuse to ask for more spending. There is an inherent conflict between what motivates California’s powerful public sector unions and what is in the public interest. Currently, two states, North and South Carolina, have totally banned collective bargaining by public sector unions. For the sake of every working family and taxpaying household, and business, California should do the same.
The political dysfunction afflicting California is replicated in every blue state. Illinois and New York are prime examples. Both states have large urban populations and high taxes. Most of the tax revenue goes to state and municipal government bureaucracies, allegedly created to serve citizens who are deemed underprivileged or disadvantaged. But while these programs are marketed as noble and necessary and definitely make moral sense from a theoretical perspective, in reality, their primary impact is jobs for public employees under a broken set of incentives whereby failure constitutes success. The more dependent and destitute that large segments of the population become, the more public sector jobs are created. This translates into more dues and more political power for public sector unions.
Well-intentioned voters and policymakers can disagree over the role and extent of government. But until public sector unions are outlawed, the debate and the ensuing policies will be fatally skewed by the power of public sector unions. Government should not serve itself, but as long as public sector unions exist, that is exactly what it will do. The problem is not restricted to blue, Democrat-dominated states. Wherever public sector unions operate, there will be a perennial, taxpayer-funded special interest perpetually agitating for bigger government. And whenever the size and scope of government grows, it becomes more authoritarian, making common cause with every special interest that benefits from the consolidation and centralization of political and economic power.
Public sector unions must be recognized as integral to the growth of the administrative state. To restore balance to American politics, they need to be illegal.
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Edward Ring is a senior fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is also the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. Ring is the author of Fixing California: Abundance, Pragmatism, Optimism (2021) and The Abundance Choice: Our Fight for More Water in California (2022).
Photo “California Teachers Association members” by California Teachers Association.
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