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By Sens. Andy McElhany and Nancy Spence

Our new governor has been quietly pushing to unionize our state government’s work force. It is a troubling move that will serve only his political allies in big labor and in his own party — at a tremendous cost to Colorado taxpayers in the years to come.

The scheme is being soft-pedaled to the public as a new “partnership” with Colorado’s 60,000 state government employees, the supposed aim being to give them a “greater voice.” Behind the window-dressing, however, is an unprecedented attempt to let unions collectively bargain for Colorado’s public employees.

The result would be disastrous.

It would mean hardball negotiations where unions would nail down binding labor contracts for entire state agencies. They would lock Colorado’s budget into across-the- board wage and benefit hikes for state government employees — already the highest-paid in the region — whether the state could afford it or not. If that development comes to pass, it would be a budget buster that would drain revenue from essential government services like education and transportation and set the stage for the next round of tax hikes.

Until recently, Gov. Bill Ritter and his staff wouldn’t even confirm this plan was in the works. Key details became public only after the news media forced the administration to release documents that revealed months of private strategizing between administration officials and the unions.
Why the secrecy? Maybe it is because they know collective bargaining is a train wreck waiting to happen. Just look at the cost incurred by other states that have gone down that path.

Washington’s state government, which began its experiment with collective bargaining in 2004, will spend an additional $1.6 billion in salary and benefits on its 110,000 employees over the next two years under that state’s labor contract. Members of Washington’s legislature have little leeway under the contract and cannot change it.

In Colorado, collective bargaining is even harder to justify. As the Rocky Mountain News reported this week, Colorado state employees earn about 25 percent more than their counterparts in neighboring states! Their average salary of $51,753 already ranks ninth in the nation, or 9 percent higher than the national average for state employees.

Colorado government employees already can join unions, and some do. What unions cannot and should not be able to do, though, is collectively bargain for all employees because it would lock lawmakers into a pay-and-benefits scale that our taxpayers ultimately cannot afford. It could be downright ruinous in the next economic downturn.

Why, then, are the administration, its Democratic allies in the General Assembly, and organized labor lobbying for collective bargaining anyway?

For the unions, the motivation is clear. Collective bargaining is sure to stoke their membership rolls and stuff their coffers with additional union dues.

For the Ritter administration, the benefit is also pretty clear: It was massive campaign contributions from organized labor that helped bring this governor and his party to power and this is his way of returning the favor.

For the rest of us, however, there is only a downside and a steep one at that.

If the governor’s agenda truly were just about building partnerships it would be great. And if all he really wanted to do was give raises to the snowplow drivers and prison guards, he is welcome to include that in his annual budget proposal to the General Assembly. It might even make for good policy.

None of that requires us to jeopardize basic state services and put taxpayers in the debt of big labor for generations to come.

Andy McElhany, a Colorado Springs Republican, is minority leader of the Colorado Senate. Nancy Spence, a Centennial Republican, is assistant minority leader.

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Hey Phil,
When the next scheduled payhike for the union employees comes around and costs $10 million, TABOR has frozen taxes, the state is in a recession (no increase from TABOR), what program are you going to cut the funding from (schools perhaps) to pay the increased union wages.

There already is a governnment employee union. Why do you think they work half as hard and have twice the benifits? The city attorney, police chief and manger are the union leaders. They are constantly lobbying for better working conditions. On my dollar to boot.

Uh, Phil....
As I said to you in the other thread on this subject...
TABOR Timeout.
Worked so well the first time, you can bet your bottom dollar the politicians will be back for more. Problem is, you are all to willing to bet MY bottom dollar on it, and I don't want to play that game.
I am not whining, I'm calling it like it is. Unionize the public work force, and we'll be faced with either increasing taxes or having current services shut down. Unions have a historical track record on this, it's not a debate, it a fact.

You can't bust the budget in Colorado because of TABOR, something Republicans conveniently forget to mention. What happened in Washington will never happen in Colorado because we have TABOR here. This is just a shameless attack by whiny Republicans.

If Ritter promotes unionism, he also promotes higher wages than the job calls for, more benefits, longer breaks, more vacations, more time-off and more work rules--all productivity killers. Service goes down, costs go up and prices go up. Taxes, inflation and higher interest rates all get a big bost. Try firing any of them? You gotta be kidding. Bottom line: Colorado's economy becomes less competitive and investment capital goes elshwhere, wherever its treated better--like Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nevada. Stagflation results.

Its hard to see how the typical Denver family, who has no union members, is going to benefit from any of this.

And the minute the union crowd doesn't get what they want, the revert to thug-strong arm tactics. We'll find out more about that later when the streets aren't plowed after a major snow storm.

Ritter is bogged down in an obsolete and failed 1950s quagmire with no exit strategy. His Blue Ribbion commissions are have left him handcuffed in Jurassic Park.

Oh Mary, Mary, Mary....
I'll bet you aren't against the teachers union whining about where Colorado falls in the National Average of money spent per student, are you?
Unionize the public employees?
Incredibly BAD idea.
But hey, don't do the math (or bother yourself with historical truths), much better to talk about how 'workers' are treated poorly.
And, of course, every one of those workers is not only treated like a slave, but forced to work for the government at the point of a gun, right?
Unions drive UP the cost of everything they get involved with. Colorado's tax payers might be just a little fed up with the double speak and lies of ALL politicians who only want more revenue.

You can always tell when the GOP is opposed to something that would benefit a worker (and they oppose virtually everything that benefits the legal worker - please note that since the number of illegals in this country has jumped from 3 million to between 12-30 million depending on the website you read) - they forget to tell what Paul Harvey would call "the rest of the story."

Here's the rest of the story - if the state pays more, it just might have everything to do with Colorado cost of living being higher than other states: gorceries cost 7.2% higher than national average, housing 10.6% higher, health care 4.6% higher, and miscellaneous goods & services 2.3% higher!

I'll believe the statistics when somebody compares apples to apples - comparing Denver to a city with at least a similar cost of living instead of 'national average' - or to cities which are way above the average costs (NYC, SF, Junea, etc) or way below it. I guess that is too much to ask

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