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[red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone)]

What does collective bargaining have to do with this argument?

If, like most Engineers ( for  example), the public employee had to
negotiate for himself, would it make any difference in the overall
government fiscal picture??   No.  

The company's advantage ( or in this case, Government's advantage) to
collective bargaining is to make the process of employee relations easier
and more efficient .....one stop ...... rather than 10,000 or 20,000, or
whatever individual negotiations.....   The disadvantage is that the
contract is so large that it is close to impossible to renegotiate anything.
Why should a contract be renegotiated?  Because there is a change in the
world that is affecting the contract: NO MONEY.  Something needs to be done
to balance or attempt to balance budgets, and there are only a few ways to
save money.

Let's look at the issue of breaking off collective bargaining as a way to
correct past cost ( read that  as .. payroll and pension)  increases in
contract negotiation....  now you can go ahead with your arguments....  as
an issue of contract negotiation and especially re-negotiation..... to
reduce costs.

In truth, something NEEDS to be done to balance the recent lower income of
government taxes....   it is now out of hand..... as shown by the number of
states that are about to go bankrupt ( in the technical sense) by decreased
tax income and increased or fixed but too high spending.....  Think of it as
your family finances... what is the first thing you do if you have a big
drop in income?  You STOP SPENDING.  And then you look for ways to balance
your personal expenses.....  Why should anyone think Government is or should
be different?

Government spend in 3 ways.....debt repayment on previous projects, current
projects, and pensions.  Debt repayment is renegotiated by calling higher
yielding bonds and issuing lower yielding ones..  Current projects can be
scaled back or cancelled ( ever see that one happen?)  Pensions are one big
pot of $$$ that could be modified to save costs.

Pension reform is coming..... if only by the mandate of bankruptcy... no tax
revenue money = no government money = no pension money = no payouts.... 

Don't even think about floating bonds to make the issue go away... been
there, did that, it is what put us in the mess we are in right now.....it
only puts off the inevitable 

Sorry for all of you out there that do get a pension ( teachers, other
government employees, and you too commercial Union pensioneers, etc....) but
the reality is that we are living longer,  we put $$$ into the system with
the "old" statistics, and the funds that are there are  not getting the
returns they used to....

When it runs out, it runs out.

Pension is NOT a bottomless pit.

Collective bargaining is or should be efficient, not unassailable......

Frank Filippone
Red735i at earthlink.net



public employees are taxpayers.
reducing their income further reduces tax revenue, as well as spending
within the economy.

It seems extremely short sighted
to imagine that stripping anyone's bargaining rights and decimating their
income some how equates to "standing up for the taxpayer;"
unless you're referring to corporate and mega-wealth tax dodgers as
taxpayers.