Unions lead the way in spending

No state budget is more out of control than in California and perhaps and the California Teachers Association can share in some of the blame. The Sacramento Bee is reporting the following;

The California Teachers Association has spent more than $200 million on campaign contributions and lobbying efforts in the last decade, leading what the Fair Political Practices Commission calls a “billion-dollar club” of moneyed political interests.

And there is also this…

The $211.9 million spent by the CTA is nearly twice as much as the $107.5 million committed by the second-highest spender, the California State Council of Service Employees, but after those two union groups, the remaining 13 on the Top 15 list are all either business groups, such as No. 3 Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America ($104.9 million), individual corporations or casino-owning Indian tribes, which have three of the 15 top spots.

Notice that the two largest spenders in California are public unions and they are using your tax dollars to lobby on their behalf.  It’s not big oil, or big tobacco, or big retail or any other phantom enemy that has the most power in the Golden State.  And don’t forget that $50 million of this was spent on defeating Governor Arnold Shwarzenegger’s prop 74 measure in 2005 to increase union tenure from just 2 years to five years.  Yes, you are reading that right: a California teacher can obtain tenure in just 2 years!   And how about the $1.25 million they spent on defeating prop 8 in 2008 (the ban on gay marriage).  What does that have to do with educating kids?

If we are ever going to have real reform, we need to defeat and dismantle the unions.  We can do it with competition through vouchers and tuition tax credits to put the power in the hands of individuals, not the state.  We can also vote out of office the politicians that have been bribed with union money and there are plenty of them in Minnesota.  Let’s do it this year!