Our View – Saturday

  The auto-pilfer

   Employees forced to fund special interests

   At a time of soaring food and fuel prices, the last thing public workers in Colorado need is a paycheck deduction that funds the special interest lobbying causes chosen by union bosses. In November, voters will have a chance to end these automatic deductions by voting for an Ethical Standards for Public Payroll Systems Amendment to the Colorado Constitution. Call it ESP.

   Back in 2001, then-Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, issued an executive order to provide for what's sometimes referred to as "paycheck protection." The order ended a union-friendly practice in which cities, counties, states, school districts and other government entities automatically collect union dues from their employees' paychecks, giving them limited and difficult options to opt out. The order caused unions to justify their dues - to sell membership and its costs to employees, convincing them of the value.

   Under the order, the Colorado Association of Public Employees union saw a two-thirds drop in membership. That means given a choice to opt in, rather than an option to opt out, most government employees decided the dues were not worthwhile. In most cases, employees who asked questions learned that a good portion of the dues went for lobbying efforts that didn't improve their lives, and in many cases offended them. They chose putting food on the table over paying to fund special interests that often opposed their own interests and values.

   Other states with paycheck protection have seen similar trends. In Utah, the income of government employee unions dropped by 85 percent when a 2002 law prohibited government employers from automatically collecting money from paychecks for special interests. A court struck down Utah's protection law on a First Amendment technicality, but Colorado's proposed amendment was written to avoid that conflict.

   Several attempts to end the automatic deductions in past years failed, including ballot initiatives and legislation, because unions campaigned against them. The executive order issued by Owens was negated a year ago when Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, issued his own order that reauthorized the automatic deductions. An amendment offers more lasting protection.

   Union membership can be a fine thing for some public employees. Law should never prohibit employees from giving to special interest lobbying causes. If an employee chooses to give an entire annual wage to a cause, so be it. But it needs to be a fair relationship between the union and each employee, without government acting as dues collector.

   Though special interest wage raids exploit public employees, they're also unfair to the majority of people who don't work in government. Why should the wages of public employees, provided by taxpayers, be eroded to pay for the promotion of a few pet causes of union leaders?

   We're thankful that in the wake of Ritter's executive order a growing number of lawmakers throughout Colorado are seeing the light. County commissioners in El Paso and seven other counties, for example, have already adopted ethical payroll standards to protect county employees from automatic special interest withholdings.

   The proposed amendment would allow governments to withhold only those payments required by law, such as: tax withholdings, Social Security and Medicare, judicial liens and garnishments, health benefits, pension and retirement payments, and charitable deductions, such as United Way contributions, pre-authorized by the employee.

   The amendment would bring all government entities in line with the growing number of county governments that are choosing to protect the wages of their employees from the autopilfering of special interests. We hope Colorado voters spread the word and pass the ESP Amendment in November. It's just plain fairness and common sense for all.

   Just choose health

   As the election nears, we'll hear the words "health care reform" until it's a distorted blur. But one public figure wants real health care reform, in the form of preventing chronic disease. "Preventable and poorly managed chronic diseases damage America's quality of life and cause health care costs to skyrocket," said Dr. Richard H. Carmona, who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 2002-2006, in a visit to Colorado Springs on Thursday.

   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that chronic diseases - such as obesity, alcoholism, diabetes and heart disease - are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths, killing 1.7 million Americans every year. A doubling in the rate of obesity since 1987 has caused a 30 percent increase in health spending.

   Carmona said the health care crisis is nothing more than a health cost problem that has resulted from a system designed to treat illness and not promote health. He wants politicians to stop promising pie-in-the-sky government solutions to a health care system that simply can't afford to keep pace with the increase in diseases caused mostly by bad choices.

   "The problem is that our health care dollars flow only to sick people, and never toward to cause of keeping people well," Carmona said.

   Carmona said a death knell to health care would be a government program that simply provides equal medical care to all, regardless of lifestyle choices.

   "It takes self responsibility for health right out of the equation," Carmona said. "It would only make things worse."

   In a perfect world, politicians would stop to hear what Carmona says. They would take his message to heart, then stand at the lectern and tell Americans they're responsible for their own health. But that's a hard way to get votes. It's much, much easier to promise voters that someone else will miraculously pay to keep them healthy and alive.