Colorado: Paycheck Protection in the Making
According to The Pueblo Cheiftain, and an initiative supported by AWF:
When Gov. Bill Ritter decided last year that state government would once again collect the dues of state-employee union members, the conservative Independence Institute started sharpening its petition pencils.
"It's our position that state and local governments have no business being the dues collector or banker for any special interests," said Jon Caldara, president of the institute, after a meeting with The Pueblo Chieftain editorial board last week.
Which is why the institute has a petition drive going for a ballot initiative that would stop that - preventing state and local governments from doing the dues-collecting for employee unions.
"We don't see why governments should be collecting dues for unions that will turn around and spend that money to lobby the same government," Caldara said, arguing that is a relationship that should be broken on behalf of taxpayers.
Public employee unions see the issue very differently, of course. They have fenced with the Independence Institute in the past and see this as its latest effort to undermine public-employee unions. The institute is working on a second ballot issue this year that would prohibit those same unions from making contributions to political candidates.
"There have been measures in other states to stop payroll collection and they've all been defeated," said Jeanne Beyer, communications director of the Colorado Education Association. "Our view is that once the employee has earned their salary, it's theirs to spend as they see fit and making a union contribution is their right...click to continue.
