Virginia Democrats are poised to legalize collective bargaining for government employees. In November Democrats brought Richmond under their total control for the first time in more than a quarter-century. The new legislative majorities seem intent on ignoring the painful lessons of New York state’s half-century experiment with government unions.

In 1967 Albany adopted a public-sector collective-bargaining law, ostensibly to end a wave of destructive strikes and “promote harmonious and cooperative relationships between government and its employees.” Named for the professor who helped craft it, the Taylor Law gave unions special privileges like the power to draw dues from an employee’s paycheck, and set strict rules requiring public employers to sit down at the negotiating table.

Virginia’s House of Delegates approved a similar framework earlier this month. But while New York in the late 1960s was struggling with idled subways, closed schools and uncollected trash, Virginia lawmakers face no such crisis now. The move appears to be little more than payback for labor’s political support of the Democrats. The ruling class in Richmond looks ready to subject taxpayers to higher employee costs in return for a permanent stream of union dues nourishing their re-election campaigns.

The Old Dominion, one of a handful of states where public-sector bargaining is forbidden, benefited during the 2007-09 recession from the ability of state and local officials to control costs as tax revenue dipped. Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine saved $198 million in fiscal 2010 alone by postponing scheduled pay raises for state employees. Meanwhile in New York, officials had no choice but to pay 3% raises to the state’s largest public union in spring 2009, even as income-tax receipts dipped almost 6%. The contract forced the state to shell out 4% raises to the same union only a year later.

Virginia’s experience during the financial crisis also compares favorably with that of neighboring Maryland, where local officials struggled to address fiscal realities because of union opposition. The Washington Post editorial page noted Virginia’s advantage and floated the possibility of abolishing public-sector collective bargaining in Maryland as a solution: “Fairfax County [Va.] has managed well without it.”

There’s more at stake than employee pay. Labor contracts in New York’s heavily unionized schools and local governments dictate nearly every facet of public-service delivery. These managerial glue traps block the people’s representatives from making meaningful changes without first getting labor’s blessing. New York’s transit officials, for instance, had to get union permission before they could have subway stations cleaned properly by a private contractor. Captive to New York’s bargaining law, efforts to lengthen school days, trim overtime costs and even thwart crimes against disabled people under state care have all been stymied. Mayors and other officials are routinely saddled with deals negotiated in secret by their predecessors. Nothing in the Virginia legislation would spare its local governments from an identical plight once the ink dried on the first agreements.

While even the worst labor deals eventually expire, New York has a “contract continuity” statute that keeps terms in place until a new agreement has been negotiated—giving unions a much stronger hand at the bargaining table. Employers must keep paying experience-based raises while they negotiate. Other state governments—even the most union-friendly ones—have painstakingly avoided this mistake. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo vetoed similar legislation in 2017 and said New York “provides an important lesson” for other states. But Richmond isn’t hearing it: Virginia’s proposed legislation has contract-continuity language mirroring New York’s.

The damage done by the Taylor Law is arguably most pronounced in New York’s public schools. Census data recently revealed that annual per pupil spending on K-12 education in the Empire State is $23,091—the highest in the country. The biggest cost is “instructional salaries and benefits,” which are controlled primarily by teachers union contracts. New York, all told, spends almost 43% more on each student than does Massachusetts, where teachers are also unionized but under terms less hostile to school management—and taxpayers.

Virginia students meanwhile either matched or outperformed their New York peers by every major metric on recent National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, even as the Old Dominion’s per pupil spending was less than $12,000.

If Virginia lawmakers are dead set on making their government emulate New York’s, they shouldn’t be surprised when costs, and outcomes, do the same.

© 2020 Wall Street Journal

You may also like

Kathy Hochul’s ambition cancels out claims of coming ‘climate disaster’

New York politicians are extremely worried about the threat of global climate change. Their only bigger worry is that the voters will learn what they plan to do about it. More than one year past Albany’s self-imposed deadline to make rules for maj Read More

Cuomo’s suspect COVID statistics

Five years after the pandemic, Andrew Cuomo is still gaslighting New Yorkers about how many people died in nursing homes. The latest example came . When challenged about his handling of COVID in nursing homes, Cuomo cited what has become his favorite Read More

Push for electric school buses seems to be losing power

Last month’s local school district votes were notable for what was missing from most ballots — propositions to purchase zero-emission school buses.  Cost may be a factor. Bethl Read More

How NY businesses get shafted — as Albany boosts Idaho’s Micron with $5.5B

Every business owner in the state, looking at his or her own challenges, their tax bills, their regulatory burden, should be asking the question: How different would things be if my company was a politically favored project being announced by the governor? What favors would Albany do for me? What would Micron get? Read More

Can New York Survive a Cuomo Comeback?

Andrew Cuomo picked a portentous day to launch his New York City mayoral campaign. Sunday was the fifth anniversary of his announcement, as governor, of the city’s first confirmed case of Covid-19. Read More

Hochul invites havoc as wildcat prison strikes spread

A central provision of New York state law — its prohibition on public-employee strikes — is at risk of breaking into pieces, as Gov. Hochul frantically tries to tape the shards back together. Read More

NY’s own researchers warn of state’s off-the-charts school spending

What was expected to be a mundane state-ordered study into how Albany doles out cash to local school districts turns out to be required reading for New York taxpayers — and state lawmakers. Read More

Hochul’s mad Medicaid spending woos health honchos

Perhaps the most damning commentary on Gov. Hochul’s Medicaid spending plan — which made up roughly half of the $252 billion state budget she released Tuesday — was the silence of the attack dogs. Last year, the hospital lobby spent millions on TV ads falsely accusing Hochul of “cutting” the state-run health plan, which covers 7 million lower-income New Yorkers. This year, the ad campaign has gone quiet, a sign she is giving hospitals everything they could want and more. Read More