Legislation approved by the California Assembly would embed tax credits in the state budget so that the union dues of government employees can be funded by taxpayers.
Section 3 of Assembly Bill 158, also known as the Workers Tax Fairness Credit, promises to subsidize up to a third of annual union dues for public sector workers.
“Governor Newsom has a bill on his desk right now enacted by the California legislature that’s just waiting for his signature to become law,” said Timothy Snowball, litigation counsel with the Freedom Foundation, a union watchdog.
Public sector employees include firefighters, police officers, school teachers, county and municipal workers, state agency employees, and any worker who's within an established bargaining unit that is already represented by a union.
“One of the potential distortions here is that the unions now can raise membership dues to whatever number they want and no matter what, the government is going to subsidize a third of that cost,” Snowball told the Southern California Record. “If you are a union boss, what incentive do you have to keep union dues under a certain amount if the government is going to step in and pay up to a third not to mention the fact that if the government can cover a third of someone's union dues, why not 50% or 60%?”
There were 16.2 million members of unions in California in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and if the proposed legislation is signed by Newsom, it will be the first of its kind in the United States.
“You’d be hard pressed to say that as a citizen who enjoys living in California that taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for some portion of taxes to help maintain public benefits and services,” Snowball said. “The distinction would be unions are not public entities. They are private entities and so what you basically have is the state stepping in, taking your money that you pay in taxes and giving it to a private entity that benefits the politicians who enacted that bill.”
Snowball further argues that requiring taxpayers to pay any portion of a union employee’s dues is potentially a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Now, the taxpayer in California is going to be on the hook for paying money to a union who will then use that money to go out and advocate for extreme and radical politics,” Snowball added.
“It would be a strange result indeed if it violates the First Amendment to use an employee's money directly that way, but wouldn't be legally questionable to simply shift the burden onto the taxpayer to now be funding radical politics for which they don't agree.”