Now Hear This

By Lewis K. Uhler - President of the National Tax Limitation Committee

Mon, January 11th, 2010

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."

This sentiment, written over two centuries ago by Thomas Jefferson, is more applicable than ever today in the case of public -sector unions which collect mandatory dues from their membership to engage in liberal, big-spending, highly partisan politics antipathetical to many of their members who foot the bill.

In 2005 we spearheaded Proposition 75, the "Paycheck Protection Initiative," to require written consent of public employee union members before union dues could be taken from their salaries for political purposes. The unions outspent us 10-1 and only narrowly defeated Proposition 75.
In 2010 the outcome can be different -- for several reasons:

The "Paycheck Protection Initiative" currently gathering signatures is crafted differently. It prohibits the government employer (state or local) from acting as the agent for the public employee union in collecting political dues from public employees. I think it is stronger protection than Proposition 75.

During the intervening years public-employee unions have grown more arrogant and politically demanding and have taken positions on issues and ballot measures with which many of their own members disagree (such as the California Teachers Association's endorsement and funding of opposition to Proposition 8 -- the marriage initiative.)

Polling data reveals that public support for protecting public employees from forced union political dues has grown significantly since the Proposition 75 vote.

READ MORE HERE

Larry Sand just sent me a blog post he made that has some good information on the history of paycheck protection and the lengths opponents will go to defeat such initiatives. (Pay particular attention to the analysis provided by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.)

In January 2006, Mike Reitz, general counsel for Washington’s Evergreen Freedom Foundation, wrote an article called Paychecks Unprotected – Lessons Learned in California and Other States. He claims that, "Public sector unions are the 800 pound gorilla of California politics." (I think it’s safe to say that the gorilla has grown considerably in the last four years.)

The article spells out the extent to which unions will go to defeat a paycheck protection initiative. While the CPI is not exactly that kind of measure, its effect on the unions will be the same. As such, the unions will fight it doggedly and ruthlessly - using every penny that they can get their hands on. It would behoove anyone involved with this measure to read this piece.

Thanks to John Stossel for posting this endorsement of the Citizen Power Initiative! Here's an excerpt...

Normally only a tiny fraction of Americans choose to donate to candidates or political causes. Yet many government employee unions enjoy the power to compel virtually all of their members into supporting the unions’ advocacy, regardless of how the individual worker feels about that agenda.

Some members are fighting back. They propose a state-wide vote on what they call "paycheck protection."

California proponents of paycheck protection have begun circulating a ballot measure that if passed would get the state out of the business of collecting political cash for its government employee union officials. Political participation would once again become voluntary ...

The initiative is being called the “Citizen Power Initiative.” More information and petitions are available here.

I hope it passes. Whether you want to support a candidate or a political party should be your decision. Union bosses shouldn’t get to force you to give money to causes you may hate.

Read the full article here.

Watch this video to learn why the Citizen Power Campaign is so important.

Published in both the San Francisco and Washington Examiner ...

Petition process goes high tech
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Examiner Columnist
01/05/10 12:54 PM EST

California’s Citizen Power Campaign (http://unplugthepoliticalmachine.org/) needs 700,000 verified voter signatures to get an initiative aimed at stopping public employee unions from using member dues for political activities on the ballot in November. For the first time ever, they’re collecting signatures on an iPhone application.

Verafirma, a Silicon Valley tech company that develops electronic signature solutions for major government and financial institutions, has pioneered the Democracy Project, using the same technology for grassroots political activism. READ MORE...

 

Mr. Brown actually admits that politicians set up the civil service system as a part of the “spoils of war”. They had a place to employee their friends and relatives which basically made it impossible for the next guy elected to get rid of these people. I’m not saying every public employee is a friend of an elected official but it does beg the question of the ever expanding administration of government under the most dire of economic situations in California.
 
What is completely fascinating is that Willie Brown actually admits that it was the “labor unions” along with our legislators that set up this system of inequity with public employee jobs. After all public employee jobs pay much better than their private sector counterparts and they have job security. Who could argue with that right? Well it is all funded by us, the taxpayers!  So we are arguing that not only is the system rigged but it remains that way due to the unyielding influence labor unions have over our whole political process.
 
This brings us to our initiative and why we are fighting so hard to get it qualified. It means for the first time we have decided that the system “as is” should no longer be! The people are speaking, and their voices are rising up!
 
If you would like to read more about Willie Brown’s surprising confession of sorts click here.
 

Earlier this week, Tom Campbell became the first gubernatorial candidate to endorse the Citizen Power Initiative. As he states in this press release:

"...Sacramento is broken -- dominated by a political machine where the public employee unions have excessive power in influencing legislation and budgets. I saw how they worked to defeat the budget-balancing initiative in 2005, and funneled millions of state employees’ dollars into attacking the best hope we had to prevent the budget melt down we are now suffering. If state employees want to make political contributions, that’s their right, but their unions should not be able to make that decision for them without their explicit approval."

Read full press release.

 

 

 

U.S. Senate Candidate Chuck DeVore is the first California legislator to officially endorse the Citizen Power Initiative!

DeVore said: “California’s fiscal crisis will continue unless we can break the political machine. The political alliance created by legislators and the powerful public employee unions who bankroll their campaigns results in bigger government, more spending, and taxpayers are shut out of the process. Nothing will change until we get the government out of the business of collecting union members’ dues that are used for politics.”

Read the full press release here.