‘Going into the street’

Nevada public employee union bosses gathered in Carson City on Thursday, condemning "big cuts" to public employee and retiree benefits and pledging to raise taxes themselves if their thralls in the Legislature don't get it done for them.

"If they can't fix it this time, then we are going to go into the street and fix it by the initiative process," said Danny Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, ignoring the fact the Legislature has raised taxes and fees by record amounts over the past seven years.

Mr. Thompson even said a corporate income tax may be proposed.

The bosses were protesting higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs and elimination of most dental benefits for active workers and retirees, which the Public Employee Benefits Board imposed July 1 in the face of dwindling tax revenues.

Lalo Macias, acting chief of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041, said salary and benefits reductions imposed on state workers threaten services and public safety. Really? What precisely do his members plan to do to "threaten public safety"?

"As state employees, like all Nevadans, we have had to learn to give more while living with less," said Lisa DeHart, an AFSCME member and state welfare caseworker. "Like many private businesses, our agencies are operating with minimal staff."

Earth to the unions: Government employment is the only sector which has grown during the current recession. Government worker pay has skyrocketed in recent decades till it's anywhere from 50 percent higher to twice what equivalent private-sector workers can expect -- despite the fact government workers have far better job security.

Unionized government workers complain about slightly higher co-pays when they still have defined-benefit pensions, unknown in the private sector; when private-sector workers generally pay far more than public-sector workers for their own insurance and contribute the vast majority of their 401(k) funds out of their own pay.

If unionized government workers decline to tighten their belts when the taxpayers who support them are wondering whether they can even keep their belts -- if they insist on turning this into a showdown where voters have to choose whether to tax themselves more heavily or else lay off vast droves of bureaucrats who "draw the line" at any modest austerity, closing entire government agencies unknown to and unneeded by our grandparents -- go for it, baby.

Make our day.