Illinois Ranks Bottom of States With Worst Government Unions Accountability

31 Aug, 2011 by Warner Todd Huston

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-By Warner Todd Huston

A new study finds that Illinois ranks at the bottom of states with the worst climate of government union accountability in the nation. The Land of Lincoln ranks 47th in the nation of out of control, unaccountable government unions says the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s new “Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index.”

The index ranks every state on “23 individual aspects to determine the degree to which states favor organized labor and which favor taxpayers.”

The Index provides a national narrative on labor policy. Analyzing 1,150 labor laws and regulations throughout the country, it allows state-level policy makers to learn from the successes and mistakes of their neighbors, and therefore adopt labor policies that are in the best interest of their citizens.

CEI ranks the top most taxpayer friendly states as Tennessee, Utah, Idaho, Texas and Florida. The worst states, areas where unions control the debate and constantly push legislators for ever more favorable laws and rules favoring government unions at the expense of taxpayers and good government are Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.

The study looks at such things as the strength of collective bargaining, the lack of or strength of secret ballot protection laws, the adherence to open meetings laws, project labor agreement laws and the like to determine how the states measure up against each other.

It is quickly becoming painfully obvious that states that are government union heavy have the worst economies, they are the least taxpayer friendly, and are more indebted than those that favor government unions less. The best way to make government responsive to voters is to take power away from government unions and those states that have done so are in much better shape than those states that are under complete control of the avaricious government unions.

The simple fact of the matter is that government unions are antithetical to good government. But most people are not aware that government workers were not always unionized. In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt — the patron saint of the far left — was himself adamantly against government workers being unionized. He felt that unionizing government works made government unresponsive to voters and uncontrollable by lawmakers. We have seen his sagacity proven.

Government workers were not allowed to unionize until the 1960s and the concept didn’t really get pervasive until the early 70s, so the thought that government workers have always been unionized is erroneous.

The sad thing is that unions have become a leech on the treasury of governments at every level from the most local towns to the federal government. They give tax dollars they gotten to politicians so that the politicians will give unions favorable rules and laws, the politicians then do just that in exchange for even more campaign money and the circle continues over and over again. Notice who is cut out? The voter.

To make governments once again more flexible to tackle harsh economic realities and to make government once again responsive to voters and not union bosses, government unions should be made illegal like they once were only a few decades ago.