From 1994 to 2002, I was the Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Public Employee and Retirement Systems (we called it the PERS committee).  If that committee is not hell for Republicans, it certainly is purgatory.  Every single committee hearing was filled with Government Employee Union Lobbyists coming in and asking for higher pensions. I used to refer to this gang of lobbyists as the Red Brigade.

 For eight years, I sat on that committee voting NO on every single request for increased pensions, and talking about how these requests were going to bankrupt the State.  In the Dot Com boom of the late 90’s, CalPers and these lobbyists talked about how wrong I was, and about how the increase in the value of CalPers investments would more than cover the increased pension benefits, and that "taxpayers would never have to pay for the pensions again."  I endured harangue after harangue from these lobbyists and from my Democrat colleagues, both in committee and on the floor, for speaking up against this massive giveaway.

One of the Democrats who dished up those criticisms was Bill Lockyer, then President Pro Tem of the Senate.  He had sentenced me to this committee as punishment for beating his Senate candidate in 1994, and he told the Senate on more than one occasion that I was exaggerating.  The money for large government employee pensions, he said, would last forever.

He has now realized the error of his ways.  He should be congratulated for his newfound insight, and again, I want to welcome to the Haynes fold another disbeliever.  First, it was Joe Mathews, now it is Bill Lockyer.  The Governor is getting there on judges, and hopefully he will also be there on budgets.  I hate to blow my own horn on this one (well actually I don’t, sometimes I feel like gloating), but the important thing is people are starting to see what many of us who were called too radical saw in the years leading up to this collapse.

The important thing is that the Government Employee Union bosses are thieves.  They steal from their employees, they steal from the taxpayers, they justify their existence by using the power of government to increase their own power at the expense of everyone with whom they come in contact.  They have driven the pension funds to bankruptcy.  They have driven the state to bankruptcy.  They have an unlimited amount of money with which to mercilessly punish those who would stand up to them, and as a result, they often have their own way with anyone who comes into contact with them.

The wall is cracking, however.  When someone with Bill Lockyer’s past dares to stand up to these bosses, and deliver the truth on pensions, it is clear that the situation is dire.  The Legislature needs to stand up to them.  The Democrats in the Legislature need to recognize that it is no longer just nut balls like Ray Haynes who are sounding the alarm, but one of their own.  We are standing on the edge of the precipice.

It is time to start evaluating Miller/Milias/Brown, the law that allowed the creation of government unions, signed by Jerry Brown in 1975.  If we do not limit or disband these unions, they will destroy the state.  Unfortunately, the damage may be too great to fix at this point, but we ought to at least try.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.