Posts tagged taxes
Opinion: California’s unions have built a $1B taxpayer-funded machine
August 31, 2026 // One group, more than any other, has cashed in on this arrangement: California’s public-sector unions. For them, higher taxes are good business. More taxes means more state workers, which means more union members, more dues, and more power for union bosses. The union bosses, in turn, keep the dollars flowing, agitating for more tax hikes, more spending, and more state workers. How powerful are California’s public-sector unions? In the calendar or fiscal year ending in 2024, 10 of the largest California-based unions with public-sector members collectively raked in more than $1 billion in dues and fees.
Dallas teachers union takes strike authorization vote
August 25, 2026 // A Dallas Education Association labor representative said a strike was not imminent, with the union having “no intention of setting a strike date at this time."
Pritzker says he won’t support new state taxes for CPS
August 3, 2026 // The final version included an amendment from board members aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, which agreed the state should provide the district with an additional $150 million to assist in covering the district’s deficit. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch told members of CTU a day before the board’s vote that he’s committed to putting forward legislation to give CPS more state funds, but didn’t mention how much he thought the state could provide. “I will lead that effort in the veto session. We got two weeks in November that we can get it done and you got my support 100%,” Welch said.
Op-ed: Kathy Hochul’s Get-Past-November Budget
May 28, 2026 // Now for the category of making the state less affordable: Democrats reversed some of the state’s 2012 pension reforms. Teachers hired since those reforms will now be able to retire at age 58, instead of 63. The budget also slashes employee contributions to their pensions, and allows police and firefighters to count more overtime pay toward their pension calculations. These pension sweeteners are expected to cost the state and local governments $557 million a year. That will invariably mean higher taxes down the road. Democrats are helping Mr. Mamdani pay for them by allowing the city to re-amortize its pension liabilities, which will save $2.3 billion between this and next year while increasing costs in the long run by $5 billion.
N.Y.C. Hotel Housekeepers Will Earn Over $100,000 Under New Contract
May 19, 2026 // “They’re going to try to offset that by raising rates,” he said. But how successful they would be is unclear, given that New York City already has the highest average room rates of any big city in the United States, at about $335 a night, Mr. Pequeno said. In the past year, New York hotels have also had the nation’s highest occupancy rate, at about 84 percent, he said. The agreement between the hotel workers and the industry comes about six weeks before the expiration of the current 14-year contract. For more than a year, union officials had been preparing for a strike in early July, just before the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States and the final of FIFA’s World Cup tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
March 7, 2026 // Mayor Daniel Lurie was already in a tough spot with San Francisco labor unions Monday when his administration delivered a sobering message: City Hall needs to eliminate hundreds of jobs. At least 500 positions are on the chopping block as the city seeks to reduce its spending on salary and benefits by $100 million, according to Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler. She told departments in an email that San Francisco “cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs” as it works to eliminate the recurring deficits that have plagued the city since the pandemic.
Lawmakers join Chicago Teachers Union to push for more school funding
February 12, 2026 // State lawmakers have introduced legislation backed by the Chicago Teachers Union to immediately increase evidence-based funding and additional public school services. Republicans say Illinois' taxes already are too high. State Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, is a former CTU organizer.
Union Activists Launch Full Scale Attack on Students, Families in AZ
February 8, 2026 // But now, the same sorts of union activists who called for shuttering schools during the pandemic and who unleashed unprecedented learning loss upon our public school students are now trying to smother the state’s flourishing ESA program. Despite the effort to paint this campaign as “protecting education,” it is nothing more than direct attack on students and families.
Illinois House speaker, unions push millionaire’s tax as lawmakers return
January 21, 2026 // Activists and union leaders held a virtual “Tax the Rich” press briefing on Thursday. Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers President Stacy Davis Gates said it is no longer good enough for Democrats to offer a tweet or a press conference. “It is enough that working people get united across this country and demand that statehouses like ours in Springfield make billionaires pay their fair share,” Gates said.
France learns (again) what sectoral bargaining means
October 9, 2025 // The public thought Truman hadn’t gone far enough. In 1946 it elected a Republican-majority Congress (the first since the Great Depression) and enough union-skeptical Democratic allies to pass the Taft-Hartley Act, with its limits on strikes for reasons other than immediate labor disputes, over President Truman’s (possibly entirely cynical) veto. The French political shutdown tactics would not be imported with the Burgundian wine and Normandy cheese.