If ever you had any doubt that governments in California are run primarily for the benefit of public employees, look no further than $195 billion of annual spending by those governments on compensation and benefits awarded by elected officials who receive support or avoid opposition by public sector unions. If you want details, see * below.
That’s why public sector unions work so hard to control elected officials in California. Because of that control, public services are poor despite high taxes and elected officials constantly work to grow public sector employment and compensation. That’s why the conventional path to political power in California is to loudly talk about whatever appeals to the masses while quietly walking the public sector union path; see eg, Gavin Newsom loudly publishing a book about a low-bureaucracy, high-tech “Citizenville” and then quietly adding 40,000 employees.
Changing that dynamic by supporting state legislators who reject the demands of public sector unions has been GFC’s principal mission since 2011 but we don’t have much to show for it. The best we can say is that things would probably be worse had GFC not been there. We don’t see public services improving or tax rates stopping a ceaseless rise unless either collective bargaining for public employees is repealed or a large enough ecosystem of political philanthropies is created to protect and defend a sufficient number of lawmakers to reject the demands of public sector unions, or both. Such an ecosystem is developing and we are doing everything we can to help it flourish. The good news is that the ecosystem needn’t spend as much as the public sector unions spend because most lawmakers do not want to be under the thumb of the public sector unions, but its spending must be meaningful, persistent and never-ending. Our other focus is on the next governor. While governors don’t have sufficient power on their own, they set the agenda. Let us know of any questions.
* For $44 billion of state spending on salaries, see Schedule 4 of the enacted 2024-25 state budget. For $19.7 billion of state spending on benefits, see page 101 of that budget (to which in some years you must add supplemental pension contributions as noted in the footnotes there, which have aggregated an additional $20 billion over the last seven years). For $50.3 billion of K-12 school district spending on salaries and pension benefits, see page 81 here to which should also be added school district spending on active and retiree health benefits that’s not included here. For $32.8 billion of spending on salaries and benefits by California Community College, see here. For $37 billion in local government spending on salaries and benefits, see this analysis by Mercury News. For $11.2 billion of benefit spending by the University of California, see page 20 here.
