The recently passed California Dream Act is another giveaway by liberal state politicians. It helps bring one more beholden group into their camp. It shifts some Cal Grant college funds from legal to illegal state residents. It turns out the cost projections are now four times higher than when the bill was recently passed, according to the state Legislative Analyst Office — expected to hit $65 million in 2013.

As a result, the GOP and Tea Party are on the warpath, concentrating on putting a repeal of the Dream Act on the November, 2012 ballot. Some conservative talk show hosts seem obsessed with the injustice, and with the rectifying proposition. The Internet is alive with the outrage at the Dream Act.

So what’s in it for the public employee labor unions? In a word, misdirection.

Apparently most California right wingers are now focused on a $65 million misappropriation, largely distracted from where the HUGE cost overruns are occuring — the state and local governments’ insane overcompensation of public employees. Labor union bosses across the state surely are delighted with this turn of events.

Was the left actually clever enough to foresee this “unintended consequence” of their bill? Did they actually PLAN to redirect the conservatives away from what really matters in this state? I think not. But who knows?

Intentional or not, the Dream Act is the best thing to happen of late to our state and local public employee labor unions. California is hundreds of billions of dollars in the hole for underfunded state and local pensions. We have huge unfunded liabilities for public employee retiree health care. We overpay most government employees’ salaries by 15% to 40%, compared to true private sector employees. But somehow all that is now less important than the $65 million that will be improperly paid to illegal alien students.

This holiday season, celebratory corks are popping at the union labor halls throughout California.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Blog Posts.