The War for Control of California Governments
by Michael Ferrall, Ph.D.                                              

                                                                     The war for control of California’s state and local governments is under way. The first major battle, the recall election in 2003, was won by the antigovernment forces led by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The second battle, the “special” initiative election last fall, was won by the pro-government forces led by government employee unions.

The antigovernment- taxpayer forces claim that large government employee unions have taken political control of governments for their collective personal benefit at the expense of taxpayers. The pro-government-tax-user forces claim that taxpayer organizations are trying to punish such government employees as teachers, nurses and others who do critical work.

With this heated war under way, it is worthwhile to take a brief, “big picture” look at a basic cause of this conflict – the size and cost of government employment in California.

First, how many workers are employed by state and local governments in California? Government data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2003 (the most recent year available) reveal the following fulltime equivalent employment numbers (rounded): state – 389,000; local – 1,416,000; total – 1,800,000. (If fulltime and part-time workers were added separately, the total would be about 2.3 million employees). Local governments total more than 4,400 in number, and local workers include those working for the 58 counties, 475 cities, 1,047 school districts and the 2,830 “special districts.” Special districts include such single-purpose governments as fire protection, transportation, water and environmental districts.

A further breakdown by the Census Bureau of the 1.8-million state and local government employees shows that the five largest employee groups by function are as follows (rounded): education – 896,000 (K-12 – 684,000 and higher education – 212,000); health/hospital – 156,000; police – 101,900; welfare services – 89,000; corrections – 82,600. (The education employees are further divided into instructional vs. non-instructional, with K-12 instructional at 442,000 and higher education instructional employees listed at 63,000.) Most importantly, these five separate employee groups make up more than 70 percent of the total 1.8-million state and local employees.

What size role do government labor unions play in California politics? At last count there were 21 major statewide government employee labor unions that, over time, have had a significant impact on state and local government policy decisions.

These include, for example, more prominent unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees (AFSCME); the Services Employees International Union (SEIU), representing employees ranging from nurses to janitors; the California Teachers Associations (CTA), representing K-12 teachers; the California Police Officer Association (CPOA); and, the California Professional Firefighters (CPF). 

The other 16 unions represent similar or other categories of state and local employees, such as university faculty and state correction officers.

These statewide unions, of course, also have many local chapters identified by the city, county or school district where employees work. All of these unions are also connected to a national union that represents workers and promotes political goals nationally.

Finally, how much do these 1.8 million state and local government employees receive in compensation for the work they perform? Again, using U.S. Census Bureau data, these employees received the following in paid compensation in 2003 (rounded): state workers – $21.6 billion; local workers – $74.2 billion; total – $95.8 billion. In the 2003 state budget year ending June 30, total state and local government revenue collections were approximately $210 billion from all state and local sources (not counting about $54 billion in federal revenue). This $95.8 billion in employee compensation was about 46 percent of total revenue collected by all state and local governments in California that year.

There is no doubt that working conditions for government employees have greatly improved over the past several decades. High salary levels, very good health insurance, legal job protections and excellent retirement pensions make government jobs very attractive, and the labor unions have played a major role in making these improvements a reality. The decades-long costly effort to elect favored politicians and to lobby for supportive and protective legislation has paid off handsomely for the unionized workers.

Are there too many government employees? Do they get paid too much or have too many costly benefits? Are employee labor unions too powerful, and do they exert too much influence over elected officials? The voters, of course, will ultimately decide these basic issues.

The current size and scope of government resulted from incremental growth over many decades. Neither a single election nor the passage or defeat of ballot propositions (or the recall of a governor) will bring an end to this political war. The war between the taxpayers and the tax users – quite likely a long and bitter war – has just begun.