More on Chula Vista’s Prop G
The Washington Examiner’s Mark Hemingway says “the most significant election result this month might be” Chula Vista, Calif. voters rejecting government gifts to Big Labor by passing Proposition G, a ballot measure banning government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on city-funded construction projects (“Voters Fight Back Against Union Control,” 6/21). The lesson should be important nationally, as Hemingway points out:
With the White House now requiring PLAs, potentially billions of tax dollars are now being funneled to the 8 percent of the population that happens to belong to a union. It’s not a coincidence this same tiny minority spends hundreds of millions on campaign contributions electing Democrats. In reality, PLAs are a transfer of wealth from the middle class to a favored Democratic constituency.
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com offers a correction: The White House is not requiring PLAs, but rather strongly encouraging them via Executive Order 13502. Each federal agency procuring construction services will decide whether a PLA is required. A White House blanket PLA mandate would be illegal, but the White House is pushing this corruption to the legal limit. Despite it not being a mandate, the intent and negative impact of this gift to Big Labor on taxpayers and the construction industry wreaks of fiscal irresponsibility and cronyism.
Hemingway and the Wall Street Journal editorial board agree:
Speaking of constituencies, the Wall Street Journal reports both Chula Vista and Oceanside elected President Obama by significant margins. Even more liberal Democratic communities have no choice but to concede that union favoritism kills jobs and impedes economic growth. As the economy starts hitting local economies harder, Chula Vista and Oceanside might end up being the first of many cities that take the necessary steps toward limiting union excess.
There will be more cities fighting back against the “union excess” of government-mandated PLAs in 2010.