Politics
Tea Parties to Counter Public Employee Unions
'Save Our State' rally set for Capitol on opening day of Legislature
Around the State
Robin StublenTaxpayer and tea party groups say they will rally under a "Save Our State" banner at the Capitol on the opening day of the 2011 Legislature.
"We're going to be a voice for everyone else," said event organizer Robin Stublen.
Reaching out to 130 tea party and 9/12 groups around the state, Stublen said the consortium supports Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to reform the public pension program and cut state spending by $5 billion.
"Save Our State" activities, which will begin 7 a.m., will include a noon rally at the front steps of the old Capitol building, said Stublen, a tea party leader from Charlotte County.
The tea project arose in response to social-media buzz about an "Awake the State" rally by government employees opposing Scott's plan requiring public-sector workers to contribute to their pensions. Florida is the only state that does not do so.
Though Scott's reforms do not go as far as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's bid to end collective bargaining on benefits, the Florida governor has nonetheless angered public employees with his proposed tax and budget cuts.
"We are trying to coordinate all teachers, parents, firefighters, police, correctional officers and all Floridians negatively affected by Rick Scott's budget for a 10k-plus (10,000-plus people) rally so the House and Senate will hear our voices. Giving corporations a $2 billion tax cut off our backs in a state with one of the lowest already will not work," David Stokes posted on Facebook.
Details of the demonstration remain sketchy, and it's possible plans could fizzle by March 8, but heavy and passionate traffic on Twitter and Facebook suggests that wheels are turning "progressively." A crowd numbering 8,000 to 10,000 is touted.
"Awake the State is new enough that we don't know how big it's going to be at this point. We're getting hundreds of new people expressing interest every day and more and more events are being scheduled around the state all the time," Kenneth Quinnell told Sunshine State News.
Quinnell, who heads the Florida Progressive Coalition, said he will be participating in the Tallahassee rally.
"We have a great opportunity, and it's a no-brainer for Democrats," Paula House Eisenhart, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Highlands County, said of Awake the State.
Stating that "unions are the only reason we have a decent middle class," Eisenhart said Scott and his fellow Republicans are "leading an all-out assault on our way of life."
Picking up that cue, members of the Pinellas County teachers union plan to rally at three locations around St. Petersburg on March 4.
"We need every educator and friend of public education to join us," declared a union flier. "Wear RED and display a handmade sign calling on the Florida Legislature to Save Our Public Schools and Make Our Schools a Priority!"
On March 24, the Florida PTA will bring some 2,000 teachers, parents and students to Tallahassee to rally for more education funding.
"We already have seven buses of kids lined up from Miami-Dade County," said PTA legislative chair Mindy Gould.
But rallies -- even those sponsored by organizations as seemingly benign as the PTA -- risk a backlash from the public if they are seen as using children as "human shields" to promote a union agenda.
A Tallahassee rally of 8,000 to 10,000 could incur the wrath of parents and taxpayers if too many teachers and government workers go AWOL that day.
Stublen said the "bottom line" in demonstrations that seek to vilify Scott is a demand for an ongoing "subsidy" to benefit union personnel.
"Public employees are in honorable professions, but they are not so important that the workers at McDonald's or Wal-Mart should have to help pay and subsidize their retirements," Stublen said.
Comments (27)
anywhere else) had either the brains or the guts to not spend all the money during the boom, acting like it would never end, and due to the political power of the public unions.
To wit:
Amendment 8 would have been able to reduce our State budget deficit by at least half while still maintaining perfectly reasonable class sizes as the incoming student population continued to decrease (see domographics) AND would have prevented an additional $10 BILLION in State funds from being spent on continued (and un-needed) compliance over the next 10 years AND would have prevented another $131 Million from being extracted from state-wide local school districts in fines for non-compliance... $500,000 from SRQ alone, for FY 2010/2011 alone. (See Sarasota Herald Tribune article archives from 11/28 and the Collins Center study of the amendment, if you like).
S'pose down here in SRQ we could've added a couple teachers and protables for half a mil??
Amendment 8 failed due to the Teachers' Union's powerfully loud and false claims about State "money grabs" and 45/50 kids per class and being forced to teach two grade levels, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseaum.
1) The Union used taxpayer financed, county and state email systems to spread their B.S. to the teachers.
2) The Union is paid for by the teachers' salaries which means, by US, the taxpayer.
3) The Union, then, uses teachers' dues (our money) to finance the battle for or against an issue or a Politician's campaign.
4) The Politician is, then, obligated to (or at least compromised by) the union's demands.
5) The Union's negotiator, the union's members AND the state's negotiator (the politician) are ALL paid by US, the taxpayer.
6) The State's negotiator (the Politician) is obligated to the Union.
7) The Employer (US... the People... the Taxpayer) HAS NO REPRESENTATION, WHATSOEVER, at the table AND is, in fact, financing campaigns we may be totally opposed to. (Even WITH union opposition, amendment 8 only failed by 2%.)
Franklin Roosevelt (god of the left) stated his clear understanding of the
destructive power of public unions, in a 1937 speech, concluding that they
should never be allowed. (see: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/02/23/morning-bell-government-unions-vs-am... utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell)
The AFL/CIO Executive Committee released a public statement, in 1959,
stating their clear understanding of the destructive power of public unions,
concluding that they should never be allowed. (ditto)
That same, easily recognized, destructive power was on display over amendment 8 and is currently, vividly, on display in State Governments, all over the country.
Between fiscal/budgetary irresponsibility in government and public union extortion/bribery, the vast majority of the people of the State of Florida are taking a major financial hit and, at the same time, being deprived of their rights to proper representation and personal property (their earnings).
RALLY IN TALLY!
Unfortunately, the brain power driving innovation is increasingly coming from foreign born students getting PhD's in the US. What does that say about unionized teachers?
Until the conflict of interest permeating the public employee unions is eliminated greed and self interest will drive a downward sprial in our fiscal position.
No one wins then.
The issue of funding Local Law Police and Fire Pensions is a local issue. It always has been. These Pension Plans were created localy with local dollars coming from the paychecks of Firefighters and Police Officers and the communities they bravely serve. This is an arrangement between These Brave public servants and the people they serve. The terms of this arrangement have always been "because you are willing to protect our community for such little pay, our community is going to protect your future by helping you fund a retirement plan that a will allow you to retire with dignity once you become too old to serve". This is not a state issue. Our Pension Plans do not cost the state ANYTHING. The state actually charges and administrative fee to "oversee" the Laws which allow our plans to exist. The state budget will not benefit AT ALL from changing Local Law Police and Fire Pension Plans.
The attacks are being supported by the same politicians who have been mouthing their disdain of government bailouts. However many of the cuts these politicians are proposing are actually bailouts themselves. Here's why: The local pension plans that are being attacked are just that; LOCAL PLANS. These pension plans came to exist by acts of local government and are written in local law. Most of these plans represent the efforts of local governments to balance their budgets, attract and retain quality employees and keep the pay for those employees at "affordable" levels. All but a few of these plans are in excellent financial shape. And Florida's own state pension plan is by all accounts, among the strongest in the nation. However, a small percentage of the local law plans are experiencing some financial difficulty. Here is where the government bail out comes in. The difficulties these localities are experiencing are the direct result of local politicians underfunding their local pension plans. So now, because THEY have acted irresponsibly, THEY are asking the state to bail them out by passing legislation which lets them break their deal with the Firefighters, Police and Teachers by slashing their pensions.
PLEASE call your Florida Senators and Representatives and tell them not to break their deal with Firefighters, Police, EMS, and Teachers by taking away their ability to retire with dignity after a life of service.
We need to also take away all benefits from government employees. The private sector has done away with this to a large part (if people even have a job) and then have to look at bureaucrats enriching themselves at their expense.
Good for the Tea Party folks.
Don't think for a second you are EARNING money stolen from citizens. You are a cancer and growing and growing to the death of the country and our kids futures.
I will keep my personal issues such as my employment out of this as you should do also. (FYI, I proudly do NOT work for any government entity either directly or indirectly)
Quit trying to put yourself in the position of a caring individual and think that I am some uncaring sort. I would NEVER have put our men in harm's way overseas. And no women would be in the military as you can get hurt if you haven't noticed. I respect women, you obviously do not.
If you truly cared for the military, you would be protesting sending them overseas like Washington DC is doing. Do you care about the coffins coming back? I do which is why I am against it. Our military should be crossing the Potomac and arresting the President and Congress, and also on our border with Mexico, not in Iraq or Afghanistan or the 120 other countries they are in.
The problem with Public Sector Unions is that they don't negotiate. They sit on both sides of the table and negotiate with themselves and the taxpayer gets screwed. The negotiations must be with the taxpayers not with other union members. Let the negotiations be public, and give the public the vote on the contracts in the form of a referendum. If the unions are going to be pigs, they will lose. If they are reasonable they will get the public approval. They have been pigs in secret negotiations and got this country in this economic mess.
Yes there are a very bad eggs in the basket but look at lawmakers also! the average teacher after 21 years of service will take home 987. retirement. Look at ALL the Facts before going off half cocked! I will be lucky to take 2700. after 20 years of Firefighting/EMS of that 1500+ will go to health Insurance. I may only live 5 more years. How Did Wall Street get away with shifting the blame on this economy? Google it...I may be off by a few dollars but not much. oh. and by the way! Think of the 3rd Law Enforcement Officer To be Killed in a month in St. Pete. Do you think his family would be taken care of after the funeral if it were not for his Union involvement?
Thanks For your service to our community.! are you a Public Servant..?
Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. Teachers are professionals with college degrees, often a Master's degree. They teach your children, my children. As they say, you get what you pay for.
EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF THE WISCONSIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS VERSUS THE 5 STATES PROHIBITING COLLECTIVE BARAINING.
WISCONSIN
# 1 - Highest graduation rates in the country
# 2 - SAT Scores
Georgia # 46 & 47
North Carolina # 37 & 39
South Carolina # ? & 48
Texas # 36 & 45
Virginia # 24 & 23
What's a good enough education for your children.
Maybe collective bargaining improves education for your children. It includes bargaining:
-Class room size (the bigger the class size the lower the cost)
-Support services for students
-Curriculum
-Conditions of schools (which your children will be in along with teachers)
I don't want a down-trodden teacher workforce for my child. Walmart employees may value their child's education, and they certainly can't afford to and don't pay the full cost of their education. Private schools are not an option for low income workers. If they unionized maybe they would have higher wages, more benefits, better working conditions and a little more respect from their "greedy" corporate bosses.
M
Gosselin:
This quote of yours is a PURE falsehood. EVERYONE pays taxes and heavily.
Even if one pays no income tax (which is what you are referring to) we are taxed on everything we can think of and more than most people CAN'T even fathom. Sales tax, licensing, permits up the ying-yang, death taxes, gasoline tax, every tax imaginable that one can easily GOOGLE and find all the taxable, permitable, and licening ways the govenment destroys us and our ability to feed, clothe, and shelter our families.
We need a revolution. I only hope the mid-east rumblings come over here and start the inevitable revolution that WILL happen. It's only a matter of time and there is no escape unfortunately. Our children will have to come to terms with this cancer of liberalism, as presently, we can't seem to be able to fix it.
-Send their children to public schools & don't pay the full cost for their education; they can't afford private schools and they want a good school
-Expect fire-fighters to come when their house is on fire & charge into an
inferno to save any children trapped inside. Remember 911?
-Maybe the public and minimum wage earners could reduce their own taxes
by going out in a blizzard and shovel the snow off the intrstates themselves. -
-Or maybe even have a bake-sale to raise money to build a road - or put up
stop signs and traffic lights
-How about running prisons on you day off
-Who needs parks and playgrounds?
-Figure out your own garbage disposal system and collectively bargain with your neighbors who choose not dispose of theirs. There won't be any police or health and safety departments to help you.
Who'd want to work for you? Not me. Thankfully I have other options.
You get what you pay for.
Note that the retirement system was so healthy at one point that Jeb Bush actually raided it to pay for his tax breaks.
Per the state constitution the only time taxpayers will be on the hook is if the system is so badly managed that it loses billions which has yet to happen.
Now as for the sales tax. In it's current form it is a regressive tax and you appear to be uninformed I will explain it to you. The poor pay a disproportionate amount of their earnings in sales taxes than do upper and middle earners. Therefore, they are in fact shouldering a heavier burden paying for the retirement of public employees.
Finally, stop bringing up teachers, firefighters and police officers as they are the only ones being asked to pay into their retirement or as I believe you think are the only "important" individuals being asked to pay. The janitor at the school, the guy who is digging the ditch for the county, the office workers in state and county offices are being asked to pay. Why do you fail to mention them and only the others? Could it be that you believe you will receive sympathy if you shift the debate.
Sorry, you lose this argument. Have a nice day.