On Budgets and Unions

courtesy of my blog: http://cjferrara.blogspot.com/

We're talking about budgets a lot lately. New York's Budget is cutting education. Wisconsin's is eliminating their collective bargaining rights. When this happens, I think of my own budget.

From time to time, my wife and I sit down and try to come up with some sort of household budget. We weigh how much money we make, against the bills we have to pay. We try to create some kind of savings, and pay down some of our extra debt. We somehow make it work, but it's not easy. So I can't imagine trying to do a budget for a school district, or a business, or a state, or the entire country. But I CAN imagine that smarter people than me can do it; and that it's a similar process, just on a bigger scale.

Sometimes, we come to the conclusion that we need to make more money. I need a fourth job, or a consistent job for the summer, or my wife needs to work. Point is... More revenue is needed. Now, on the national scale, this means more taxes. A tax increase would certainly help. But no, taxes are bad, so sayeth the Republicans. And with last year's deal to keep the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, that's just not an option.

So, we need to cut our expenses. One thing we have to do in our house is to be realistic about what we can afford to pay out. I'd love to do a double payment on each credit card to pay it down faster, but we just can't afford that. So we pay close to minimum. We had a house phone as well as both of our cell phones. We realized this was redundant and expensive, so we cancelled the land line. Sometimes you have wasteful spending that needs to be cut from the budget. However, we'd never agree to cut our electric, or gas. Those things are vital to our household. Cable, not necessary, or even important; but something we consider to be a part of the budget worth preserving. So, we prioritize. What's really important to us, and what could we lose without giving it a thought.

So, when Gov. Cuomo, who is significantly smarter than former Governor Patterson, proposes a budget whereby he cuts funding to public schools, or caps property taxes so that public school districts can't cover their own expenses; this shows a frightening thing about his priorities: that Public Education isn't one of them. Wisconsin is a different story, the governor there is cutting benefits to public workers, and only allowing them to receive State benefits if they give up their collective bargaining rights. Still this shows his priorities, Governor workers aren't one of them.

I think of this when I hear the justification for calling the healthcare law a "job killing healthcare law." The thinking is that with all this added expense in taxes and premiums, they "have no choice" but to cut back on staff. Really? There's absolutely NO other part of your business's budget that can be cut back or eliminated? The Christmas Party? Use cheaper office supplies? Cut back on travel expenses?  Freeze YOUR OWN salary? Anything? Apparently not. Those things are priorities, employees are not. This makes me suspicious about the motivations of employers. Not all employers, of course. My bosses, for example, are amazing generous and good-hearted, intelligent individuals.    :)

We need Unions because some employers are scumbags. If there were no scumbag employers making millions in profit on the backs and shoulders of the work force, trying to get as much work out of them without paying them or guaranteeing them a decent living; then we wouldn't need Unions.

I owe my success and longevity in my chosen career to Teacher's Unions. Without them, I would be working at a 7-11 today. (Not that there's anything wrong with working at 7-11; unless you're 40, went to college to be a music teacher, and don't particularly like working retail.) And considering the apparent priorities of our politicians and employers, I'm happy that Unions are here to fight for fairness.