Forced Unionization's Effects on Tax Rates

[SapereAude]

While obviously Objectivists are against forced unionization anyway I thought some of you might be interested in the actual numbers.

The site this is linked to I don't necessarily recommend for other news due to a heavy right-wing slant but the numbers and graphs in the article are correct.

http://drscoundrels.com/2011/03/04/top-10-states-with-highest-tax-rates-are-forced-union-states/

[Dante]

That article basically points out a correlation between forced unionization rates and tax rates, but there's little effort made in the article to support their chosen avenue of causation, which is that forced union members subsequently vote in higher taxes. I find it much more reasonable that the types of states which are politically amenable to forced unionization are also those that are willing to have such high taxes. Perhaps if the article delved into the history, and showed that forced unionization laws and increases in forced unionization rates are usually followed by tax hikes, that would help the argument, but I doubt they'd actually find that in the results. If we're gonna try for political change in these areas, its important to identify the root causes and go after those directly.

[SapereAude]

That article basically points out a correlation between forced unionization rates and tax rates, but there's little effort made in the article to support their chosen avenue of causation, which is that forced union members subsequently vote in higher taxes.

Did you click the external links? Greater detail of their position is supported through those.

It's a fairly brief article so it certainly doesn't go into great depth on that (I chose to highlight the article because of the hard numbers provided which one doesn't find too often in mainstream media pieces) I think you may have missed that it does address that very thing referencing instances of public sector union support & lobbying for tax increases.

Here's some part, the external links provided at the end of each one give additional information:

"California . The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spent $1 million on a television ad campaign pressing for higher oil, gas, and liquor taxes instead of spending reductions.[18]

Maine . Mainers rejected a ballot initiative in November 2009 that would have prevented government spending from growing faster than the combined rate of inflation and population growth and require the government to return excess revenues as tax rebates. The Maine Municipal Association, the SEIU, the Teamsters, and the Maine Education Association collectively spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaign against the initiative, and it ultimately lost by a wide margin.[20]

Minnesota . AFSCME Council 5 unsuccessfully lobbied state legislators to override Governor Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a $1 billion tax increase in the spring of 2009. Two Democrats joined all the Republicans in the state House to uphold the veto. In response AFSCME endorsed a primary challenger to one of the Democrats.[21] AFSCME is now lobbying state legislators to raise taxes by $3.8 billion.[22]

New Jersey . Democratic State Senator Stephen Sweeney, now the president of the New Jersey Senate, opposed a 1 percent increase in the state sales tax in 2006. In response, the Communication Workers of America sent giant inflatable rats and protestors in hot dog costumes reading “Sweeney the Weenie” outside the former labor leader’s office.[23] The tax increase ultimately passed."

Clicking the links in each example will give you a great deal of the information you deemed lacking in the article itself.

This issue is close to home for me as not living in a "right to work" state my wife is forced to be in a union (or choose another line of work). It is of concern to us that the money forcibly taken from us is used to endlessly lobby for more taxation & public sector spending as well as used to campaign politically for candidates that support the same.

As I mentioned, if you get a little time to start examing their reference links I think you'll find the info you seek.