Stockton faces depleted public services

Steven Greenhut: The state’s public employee unions justify their existence by claiming that they provide crucial public services. But we see again and again that the government serves the workers, not the public thanks to the undue influence of those unions. In Stockton, which is potentially going to be the largest U.S. city to go bankrupt, public services are eroding because the 81 percent of the budget goes to employees and retirees, including to 94 members of the $100,000 Pension Club. In my column in the Washington Examiner today, I write:

Stockton is in worse financial shape than most cities, but anyone who thinks it’s an aberration hasn’t been paying close attention to their own city’s wastrel ways.

Expect other dominoes to start falling unless politicians of both parties confront the unions that care so little about the public or the cities for whom their members supposedly work.

MARCH 8, 2012