Guest column: Public employee unions: bankrupting Oregon one legislative session at a time

From the now-infamous carbon tax, to increases on hotel and car sales taxes, as well as new taxes on construction, home sales and even the very mattresses we sleep on — Salem Democrats are once more shaking the public piggy bank in search of a paltry couple billion more dollars

Didn’t they pass more than $3 billion in new taxes just last session? Didn’t the state just bring in record revenue, $2.1 billion more than originally expected? Why are they raising taxes again?

The answer is that Oregon’s lawmakers have a spending problem, and I submit they’re being egged on by one of the state’s largest bad actors — government unions.

It’s no secret government unions have a vested interest in local and state government. After all, it quite literally is their lifeline.

Gone are the days where public employee unions like SEIU, AFSCME and their ilk can pretend they serve a legitimate purpose. Today, government unions exist to perform two functions — growing government and increasing taxes.

Last year the OEA and SEIU 503 were two of the loudest advocates for one of the largest tax increases the state has witnessed in the past decade — the poorly named Student Success Act, better known as the corporate activity tax.

Supporters promised the tax would generate an extra $2 billion per biennium for Oregon’s desperately underfunded public schools. What the public wasn’t told is that the legislation actually didn’t and couldn’t dedicate all the funds towards education.

This session will likely be no different, with AFSCME Local 75 already hawking around a poll geared toward getting elected Republicans to bend the knee to the new Cap and Trade carbon tax.

You can expect most of the money generated from these proposed taxes to find its way into the ailing state retirement system, which is in desperate need of a legitimate fix.

Unfortunately, Oregon’s big government unions resist any attempts to put PERS on a healthier and stronger footing. Just last year, these unions vehemently opposed legislation that attempted to avert the looming train wreck, vowing to pull endorsements and financial support from any elected official who dared to support the modest reforms.

Sticking with this playbook is the last hope government unions have to preserve the few shreds of credibility they still possess. As these new taxes are passed, the scope of government continues to expand into most aspects of our lives, a fact which historically would’ve meant more dues dollars flowing into the unions’ coffers.

Fortunately, public employees are now taking action to limit the unions’ destructive influence on our state government.

Thanks to their newly affirmed rights under the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision – which recognized public employee’s constitutional right to opt out of union dues — workers across Oregon are recognizing government unions like SEIU for the scheme that they are and leaving in droves.

The dichotomy between the union leaders’ priorities and those of hard-working employees has never been clearer. While SEIU 503 has recently boasted it has grown with the scope of government to now represent around 72,000 public employees, what they don’t tell you is that only 44,910 are dues paying members according to their latest filing with the Department of Labor.

That breaks down to a 62% membership rate — a new low for Oregon’s largest public employee union.

This is great news for working Oregonians, public and private . As more workers are empowered to stand up for their own best interests, government union greed, corruption, and even power will continue to diminish.