Politicians make promises to labor unions in return for votes and campaign contributions, but the money to fund lifetime pensions for union retirees eventually runs out.

Watch Pennsylvania taxpayers get screwed again. It doesn't help that voters continue to return the same members of the permanent political class to Harrisburg every election.

From a report in Bloomberg by Romy Varghese:

Pennsylvania's two public pensions face a combined shortfall of $41 billion, and their costs will consume 62 percent of fiscal 2014 revenue growth, according to a report from the state budget office.

The State Employees’ Retirement System has 65 percent of assets needed to cover projected liabilities, and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System is 69 percent funded, the report said. The plans cover 817,000 people.

Read more about the pension time bomb in Bloomberg.

Marybeth Hicks: Chicago teacher strike is not for the children

The debate over the best use of public education resources that no one wants to have.

From The Wall Street Journal: Public-school employees have doubled in 40 years while student enrollment has increased by only 8.5% — and academic results have stagnated.

Read the full story by Andrew Coulson, "America Has Too Many Teachers," here.

George F. Will on why the U.S. Postal Service is doomed:

Labor costs are 80 percent of the USPS' costs (53 percent of UPS', 32 percent of FedEx's), in part because it has negotiated very friendly union contracts. The postal service did that because it is free from the tiresome need to make a profit and its competition is limited by law, which forbids anyone else to deliver a letter that is not "urgent."

Mail volume has declined 20 percent in five years and the decline probably will accelerate, in spite of the odd USPS ads seeking customers by saying letters "don't get lost in thin air," and "a refrigerator has never been hacked. An online virus has never attacked a corkboard." Surely privatization beats depending on the USPS for delivering the intellectual light that irradiates the republic.

Read the full column at the link below:

Privatize the postal service - pottsmerc.com

State and Local Governments Employ 16.6 Million Full-Time Equivalent Employees in 2010

Pennsylvania and the union representing 45,000 state workers have a reached a deal on a new contract.

Governor Corbett Announces Tentative Agreement with AFSCME Council 13

Pennsylvania State Education Association Unveils 'Solutions That Work' to Reform Public Education

This is what happens when organized labor gets too big. This explains the taxpayer backlash against unions.

Few employees denied step increases for poor performance - FederalTimes.com

Michelle Malkin on the runaway Democrats in the Midwest:

Faced with stifling debt, bloated pensions and intractable government unions, liberal Midwestern legislators have fled those states -- paralyzing Republican fiscal reform efforts. Like Monty Python's Brave Sir Robin and his band of quivering knights, these elected officials have only one plan when confronted with political hardship or economic peril: Run away, run away, run away.

Read the full column at the link below:

Fleebaggers: The New Cut-and-Run Democrats - HUMAN EVENTS

The Pennsylvania House overwhelmingly passed a flawed pension "reform" bill Monday that does little to reform the golden pension plans enjoyed by government workers and teachers and will end up costing Pennsylvania taxpayers billions of dollars.

A number of Republicans joined the lame duck Democrats in pushing the bill through.

The Commonwealth Foundation, an independent, non-profit public policy research and educational institute based in Harrisburg, offers some insight into HB 2497:

HARRISBURG, PA — The Commonwealth Foundation expressed disappointment with today's passage of House Bill 2497, which defers significant pension costs on to future generations while failing to adequately reform the state's largest defined benefit pension systems.

"We attempted to bring fiscal sanity to the pension discussion, but the reality was that self-interested unions were successful in drowning out the voice of the taxpayers," said Matthew J. Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation. "Despite arguments to the contrary, this bill didn't 'save' the taxpayers any money. Taxes will still be going up with this 'reform' next year — $646M more just to pay for PSERS and SERS — and every year thereafter. But it did prevent moving new employees into a Defined Contribution plan — a major victory for labor unions like PSEA, AFSCME and SEIU."

"Yet we remain hopeful that a new administration and new legislature will begin the process of fully reforming Harrisburg to protect the taxpayers in the future," said Brouillette. "Many lawmakers voted for HB 2497 as the 'first step' to pension reform. We look forward to working with lawmakers who understand this cannot be the final action, and with new leaders who understand the need for real pension reform and controlled spending."

The only silver lining on this cloudy day is the fact that the Legislature can revisit the pension fiasco in 2011 when both chambers will be controlled by Republicans and Gov.-elect Tom Corbett will take office.

The Commonwealth Foundation has posted a complete roll call of how the House voted here.

From USA Today:

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Read the full story at the newspaper's website.

This is a first. I've never heard of a group withdrawing its endorsement to a political candidate, but the Pennsylvania Teamsters, representing 92,000 union workers, is telling its members NOT TO VOTE for Bryan Lentz, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District.

Pennsylvania Conference Won't Support Lentz

Pennsylvania's largest labor union is backing Sen. Arlen Specter in the May Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.

I'm guessing Specter will be backing Card Check, Cap-and-Trade and any other job-killing legislation Congressional Democrats are pushing in return for labor's support.

The Pa. AFL-CIO also announced endorsements in five contested Democratic primaries for Pennsylvania Congressional seats. For the full list, click on the link below:

unionPennsylvania AFL-CIO Endorses Senator Arlen Specter in the May 18th Primary Election

Another addition to the long list of Obama broken promises.

Bush's union transparency rules retracted under Obama - Washington Times

Here's a perfect example of why secret ballots are essential when workers are asked to join a union.

Chester County prison guards overwhelmingly (155-35) rejected a move to join the Teamsters.

Imagine the pressure to join unions if the workers could not vote by secret ballot.

That's what the Card Check scheme pushed by Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is all about - forced unionization.

Prison guards vote against unionization - The Daily Local News

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State employee pension systems are facing severe shortfalls, and these growing liabilities threaten to drive many states deeper into the red, according to "State Pension Funds Fall Off a Cliff," a new 50 state study co-authored by Dr. Barry Poulson of the University of Colorado and Dr. Arthur P. Hall of the University of Kansas.

The report, published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the nation's largest individual membership association of state legislators, shows that as of 2006, states have accumulated nearly $360 billion in unfunded pension obligations.

The problem has gotten much over the past three years as politicians on both sides of the aisle have stuck their head in the sand instead of dealing with the ticking time bomb.

Pennsylvania is among the states that has swept the pension issue under the rug, especially over the past seven years under Gov. Ed Rendell. The ALEC report says Pennsylvania had $14.4 billion in unfunded pension liabilities on top of $8.8 billion in state debt. And keep in mind that these are 2006 figures.

Follow the link below for more information and a link to download the full report.

Pension Crisis Threatens Financial Health of States

The Workforce Fairness Institute has launched an online petition demanding Sen. Arlen Specter explain his position on the Employee Free Choice Act, aka Card Check.

The group refers to EFCA as Employee FORCED Choice Act.

Pennsylvanians deserve an honest and clear answer on where Senator Specter stands on the elimination of the secret ballot and mandatory, binding arbitration! Sign the online petition at the group's Web site, http://www.workforcefairness.com/SpecterExplain

Also check out this editorial in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review nothing that Specter changes his position on Card Check every other day.

The president of SEIU Local 668, the Pennsylvania Social Services Union, has a few choice words for Gov. Ed Rendell, who earlier this week gave state workers an ultimatum: Find ways to reduce costs or face furloughs and/or layoffs.

Kathy Jellison said in a statement that the governor is "negotiating though the press" and "not being honest with taxpayers."

Jellison said the union has "repeatedly given (Rendell) suggestions on ways to cut the budget, and he has ignored all of our ideas. Instead, he wants to focus on the most extreme option - laying off workers."

State workers are upset with Rendell because he has awarded more than $1 billion in outside contracts since he became governor in 2003. "Many of those contracts cover work that had been done by state employees," Jellison says.

"The first thing the governor can do to stop wasteful spending in the state budget," Jellison said, "is to cut out some of the private contracts he has given to outside companies to do work that our members can do better and at a lower cost."

While Rendell is threatening to implement a system of "rolling furloughs" to reduce personnel costs, the union wants the state to offer early retirement options to workers.

The ball is in Rendell's court.

Read Jellison's full statement at the link below:

SEIU Local 668 Says Governor's Threats Hurt Citizens of Pennsylvania

With the state facing a projected $2.3 billion budget deficit in its General Fund budget, Gov. Ed Rendell is looking to save money by putting the squeeze on state workers.

The Harrisburg Patriot-News reports Rendell is giving the unions representing state workers until the end of March to come up with concessions or face furloughs or layoffs.

From a story by reporter Charles Thompson:

"We've agreed to give the unions a couple of more weeks to look at the options and get back to us," Rendell said during a Capitol press conference. "But by the end of March, if we don't have an agreement ... I'm going to have to act."

Rendell said again that he is leaning toward a system of "rolling furloughs," in which certain, nonessential aspects of state government would close for a day at a time, causing cuts in hours for thousands of state workers.

"If there's a way that I can do this and minimize the number of layoffs, I will take that way," Rendell said. "I think it's better for everyone to lose X percentage of their wages than for 2,000 people to be thrown onto unemployment."

Union leaders have vowed not to take wage concessions back to their rank-and-file, making the case that they have accepted wage freezes and sacrificed in other ways during past contract negotiations with Rendell.

Read the full story, "Rendell gives unions ultimatum," at the newspaper's Web site.