Schwarzenegger: Lawmakers Protecting Unions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said California's Democratic-led Legislature is putting union interests over taxpayers' well-being.

The governor made cutting remarks in Los Angeles on Thursday as the state prepared to issue its first IOUs instead of payments since 1992.

Schwarzenegger said Democrats have resisted reforms he said must be part of solving the state's $26.3 billion shortfall. He said the state must cut out waste.

The governor recently proposed changes to cut state employees' pensions and adopt fraud-prevention measures for in-home caregivers. Democrats don't want policy changes to be part of budget negotiations.

Schwarzenegger said the Legislature's failure to pass a balanced budget revision sent a message that they expect Californians to make sacrifices but won't do the same.

www.kcra.com...

As it if is any surprise to us.

Do they ever take into consideration our well being??

California teachers are the highest paid in the nation.

"According to the CTA's parent union, the National Education Association, California teachers were the nation's top-paid, with $64,424 average annual salary in 2007-08.

Don't take just the NEA's word for it. The other mammoth national public school teacher union, the American Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO, said the year before the CTA study that "for the second consecutive year, California had the highest average teacher salary in 2006-07 at $63,640, or about 25 percent above the national average." r

www.politicker.com... nia-teachers-highest-paid-nation

These teacher unions keep demanding and cry foul trying to say that education and children should not suffer because of the economy. Ironic that California teachers also suck at teaching (47th ranked) and it begs the question...What exactly are they doing with all that money being thrown at them.

I can safely say that teacher's unions are only looking out for themselves.

This also goes with other state workers who get fat wages, fat benefits, and sit on their fat asses.

Arnold took on this problem years ago and got burned because he couldn't withstand the political might of state unions. Maybe it is time for a re-try.

reply to post by Kingfanpaul


Well is it any suprise that a bunch of Democrats wouldnt want to go against the unions, since a good basis for their votes come from union members.

Only a bunch of Liberals would see it as a good thing to protect people from loosing their job when they deserve to be fired. I dont mind unions negotiating a fair wage for their members, but it crosses a line when they support people being lazy or high on their job to the point that you cannot even fire someone who breaks the rules or doesnt contribute much during their 8 hours.