PolicyGuy

Tuesday, September 30, 2003


Strike? Yer Out!
Minnesota state government workers are set to strike over health care benefits; 80 percent of voters of one union and 66 percent of voters of another have authorized a strike.

As a former government worker (at the federal level) and a taxpayer, I have little sympathy for the would-be strikers. Employees will still be getting step increases.

Union leaders complain that rising health care costs will offset the expected raises. Well, welcome to the real world, folks.

The state's employment boss says that every extra $1 million in compensation (either salary or benefits) beyond what is already budgeted would require 17 layoffs. That's over $58,000 compensation per position--pretty decent, especially with so many people out of work as it is.

Currently, employees pay $0 a year for single coverage (the national average is $508) and $708 a year (the national average is $2,412). They've gotten quite a deal so far. If they don't like the future, well, there's always the private sector.

"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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