As governments go broke, public employee unions must share the pain

As governments go broke, public employee unions must share the pain Washington Examiner
"Their situation could be quickly and dramatically improved 'with the stroke of a pen.'
But that stroke likely won't be taken for the state's school districts for the same reason it won't for Michigan's desperate localities -- public employee unions reflexively oppose cuts in their tax-funded compensation programs, including salaries, retirement and health benefits.
White estimates that as much as $300 million could be saved merely by requiring public school employees to pay for 20 percent of their health benefits -- they currently pay nothing.
By contrast, private-sector employees with company health plans pay a nationwide average of 26 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
And Cooper says Hamtramck's police and firefighter unions have steadfastly refused to renegotiate pay and benefits contracts that eat up 60 percent of the city's annual budget.
'They kind of have the Cadillac plan, and we'd kind of like the Chevy,' he told the Times."