Morgan Liddick: Gov. Ritter might as well be resurrecting Hoffa

So, now we know. When he was running for the highest office in the state, we all heard a lot of promises from Bill Ritter: promises about consultation with Colorado’s major constituencies, collaborative government, moderation — all the “new Democrat” codswallop. Maybe you thought we had elected a “moderate.” But at this point, everyone on this side of the sod should know that we elected a weasel.

The governor’s plan to unionize government flies in the face of everything he promised during his campaign. At least, everything he promised publicly. Evidently, there were other, more serious, promises made behind closed doors.

We all know why Governor Ritter signed his executive order to unionize government: It’s a payoff to his political cronies in the labor movement, who worked very hard to elect him. This is Tammany Hall politics, pure and simple.

It’s not about increasing government efficiency, unless someone out there can point to a few examples of unionized workplaces functioning more efficiently than their non-union counterparts. Maybe we should look for one among, say, Detroit’s automakers?

It’s not about “collaboration,” “partnerships” or “communication,” either. If communication between the folks driving snowplows on I-70 or shuffling forms at the Department of Motor Vehicles and their respective front offices is so bad that the former have to rely on union goons to muscle their way to the boss’ desk, there may well be a simpler way around the problem than collectivizing the workforce.

After all, as the Governor reminded us when he signed this fiat, he’s in charge of state workers. So if something is not functioning well in the bureaucracy, might we all not remind ourselves who the boss is?

It’s not about pay either. Boss Ritter may talk a good game in favor of the “working man,” but according to recent studies, Colorado state government workers are already the ninth best-paid in the country: They make $46,341 on average. That’s more than their counterparts in any of our neighboring states, and about 5.6 percent more than the national average. Retirement and other benefits are also good — better, in most cases than for counterpart workers in the private sector.

Or on second thoughts, maybe it is about pay. The American Federation of Teachers will happily tell you that the difference between pay scales in collective bargaining and non-collective bargaining states is 14.2 percent, so it’s pretty obvious what they have in mind, come time to renegotiate their state educrats’ salaries. And I’m pretty certain that the rest of the state bureaucracy won’t stand by flatfooted. After all, “issues of mutual concern” in this new employees’ “partnership” include wages, staffing patterns and health care, so they would be fools not to grab as much as they can with both hands. Stand by for additional tax “adjustments” to pay Boss Ritter’s political debts.

We know, too, from examples elsewhere that the “union wage” becomes the going wage, so labor costs are about to rise in most sectors throughout state. Haul out your wallets, people. This is going to cost you.

By the way, forget about the assurances that the legislature and Governor can simply ignore any salary-fueled increases to individual state agency budgets. How did that “live within your means” argument work out with the Referendum C bunch, again? When the various branches of the State executive start whining about being strangled for lack of funds, do you really think the Governor (who created the situation) and the Democrat legislature (who wanted to make unionization without a secret ballot possible) will tell them to shut up and sharpen their budget pencils?

If you think there is even a remote possibility of that, then maybe there’s a reason the Governor thinks Colorado voters are dumb as a bag of hamsters ...



We also know how all of the above came about — by a stroke of Boss Ritter’s pen, when no one was watching. Early in his term, the Governor said he would veto the no-ballot unionization bill because he was disappointed with the process that created it. He termed it “overheated politics at its worst.” Now we know his alternative: no politics at all.

No discussion. No debate. No consultation. No examination, justification, counterarguments. Just a message from the Throne of Power: “Let it be done, and Colorado voters be damned.” Wow, Boss. Way to support the democratic process. I’ve seen this sort of thing before — but that was in Saudi Arabia.

Then again, no one should be surprised. There were political debts to discharge, and we can’t have messy debate and discussion and opposition get in the way of that, can we?

So maybe we can’t do anything about this slap in the face. But we all better remember it, come 2010. And act accordingly.

<i>Summit County resident Morgan Liddick pens a Tuesday column. E-mail him at mcliddick@hotmail.com. Also, comment on this column at www.summitdaily.com.<;/i>