Texas vs California Steel Cage Match!
And, Texas emerges victorious! Mainly, due to low taxes.
But sad, slow, lumbering California does win in one area:
In what respects, then, does California “excel”? California’s state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California’s public retirement funds. The “dues” paid by taxpayers in order to belong to Club California purchase benefits that, increasingly, are enjoyed by the staff instead of the members.
The reason? Taxpayer abuse like this at all levels of California government:
And no government worker should receive permanent taxpayer-funded pensions that allow them to retire at the ripe young age of 50, with 90 percent of the final year’s pay guaranteed forever (and that’s before the worker taps into any number of dubious pension-spiking schemes that allows many employees to retire with pay well above their final year’s salary).
Always remember,
Unions exist for one reason and one reason only:
TO GET MORE MONEY AND BENEFITS FOR LESS WORK
Which is the exact reverse of what you want in either teachers or government workers.
Unions killed the American auto industry. Now they’re killing the states.
UPDATE: Hmmmm, this sounds familiar.
Hat tip: Ace
