San Luis Obispo unions

San Luis Obispo unions call economic study biased

San Luis Obispo’s firefighter and police union are discounting recent cost saving recommendations because they claim the proposals are biased towards the business community. [Tribune]

City Manager Katie Lichtig personally selected the 32 Financial Sustainability Task Force members. The task force recommendations included cutting staffing costs and eliminating binding arbitration.

City fire and police unions are opposed to changes in binding arbitration or to their pension plans.

Union leaders contend the facilitator of the task force, Michael Gunther, is connected to the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce and biased in a pro-business direction that includes providing more public funds for private businesses. In addition, union leaders claim that the 32-person task force was laden with members of the business community, management officials and former chamber members.

According to the Tribune, the task force was made up of 40 percent from the business community, 15 percent non-profits employees, 28 percent city employees and the remainder a mix of people affiliated with community organizations or Cal Poly.

In San Luis Obispo County, local government employees account for approximately 13 percent of the work force, according to data recently released by the state Employment Development Department.

News From: calcoastnews.com

Earmarks Reid Dismisses Obama's Call

Reid Dismisses Obama's Call For Ban On Earmarks

Barack Obama's top ally in the Senate Tuesday brusquely rejected the president's call for a ban on the practice of stuffing home state projects known as earmarks into spending bills.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the president "has enough power already" and that Obama's reported embrace Tuesday night of an earmark ban promoted by Republicans is just a "lot of pretty talk."

Reid made his remarks at a news conference in which he otherwise praised Obama in advance of Tuesday's State of the Union address.

Reid is a skilled practitioner of earmarking, in which lawmakers direct projects like new roads, grants to local police departments and community development grants to their states and congressional districts.

Obama has frequently said he opposes earmarks but he has repeatedly accepted them in larger spending bills. The earmark ban has been driven chiefly by House Speaker John Boehner, who vows not to send Obama any spending bills containing them.

Opponents of earmarks say they too often divert money from worthy projects into wasteful ones. An explosion of earmarking under GOP control of Congress in the late 1990s and early 2000s sparked a "pay to play" culture in which lobbyists and business executives seeking earmarks lubricate the system with campaign contributions.

The earmark ban is one of the few areas where Obama and tea party activists are in agreement, but Reid said the idea unfairly "takes power away from the legislative branch of government. And I think that's the wrong thing to do."

News From: www.npr.org