Lawsuit Argues It’s Unconstitutional to Use Tax Money to Pay Union Officials
4th January 2017
If a lawsuit filed in state court in Jersey City, N.J. is successful, some teachers’ unions in the Garden State may no longer be able to bill taxpayers for that work. That’s because the state constitution prohibits government from giving taxpayer funds to private entities without a public purpose.
The new lawsuit is the latest example of a practice that is firmly ensconced among federal employees’ unions and is now being challenged with some success at the state and local government level. Some estimates put the cost of official time to the federal government at as much as $1 billion.
Under “release time,” teachers don’t teach, they instead perform unknown advocacy duties on a daily basis without having to dip into members’ dues.