Michael Barone: US News and World Report Blog 4/14/06

In many but not all states, public-employee unions have been forcing greater-than-economic-growth spending increases on state and local governments—spending that produces very little in the way of public benefit. (Steve) Malanga's most important point (in writing about New Jersey for the City Journal) is that taxpayers aren't getting much value from the huge spending increases, and neither are the intended beneficiaries of the huge transfers from affluent suburbs to decaying central cities. Huge increases in spending on central city public schools have resulted in virtually no improvement in test scores. They have resulted instead in bloated salaries, benefits, and pensions for teachers and other public employees. And of course for public-sector union officials. And, through the unions, large flows of money have gone to the Democratic Party. All this is, evidently, gratifying to the upper-income liberals who vote Democratic in order to preserve the right to abort fetuses…..many on the political left complain about the disappearance of the middle class, the alleged tendency of our economy to produce hefty income growth for those at the upper end of the economic scale and relatively little income growth for the large number at the lower end. Interestingly, this tendency toward income inequality is most pronounced in states that have been voting Democratic in presidential elections—especially New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Income inequality tends to be much less in many states that vote heavily Republican. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California have imported many high-income earners and low-income immigrants and have been exporting many more middle-income earners. This process is accelerated when, as in these four states, high-income earners have been eager to vote for Democrats backed by public-employee unions: The same people who have been complaining about this trend have been causing it.

This is an urban trend that began in 1960s New York under John Lindsay and has now extended to state and national politics. For the way public employee politics are playing out in Michigan see "Michigan Withers/Public Employees Prosper" below.