Gov. Candidate Baker Registers Complaints against Public Workers in His "Baker's Dozen"
May 12, 2010
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker does little to hide his contempt for the public employees who keep Massachusetts cities and towns working. The featured video on his campaign web site lays out his "Baker's Dozen," a thinly veiled 13-point attack on unions, public employee health care, public employee pensions, and public employees in general.
Although he takes shots at Medicare and Medicaid spending, he reserves most of his venom for public workers. In one point, he explains that the state can save $400 million if it just "consolidates and shrinks state government" (read: lay off thousands of public employees). He takes particular aim at Health and Human Services, and any agency that deals with licensing, certifications, permits and registrations.
He also would like to give public-employee jobs to the private sector, where he would sell public services like highway maintenance to the highest bidder. Gone too would be workers who maintain state parks and buildings, collect tolls, and handle professional licensing.
Two of the first three points he makes attack public employee health care plans and pensions. Under a Charlie Baker administration, cities and towns would have unilateral authority to design health care plans, and collective bargaining over such matters would be off the table. He also wants what he calls "real pension reform" in order to control "overly generous payouts for state workers." Baker seems to think that state employees just get too much of everything—even in retirement. His last point in the baker's dozen calls for a restructuring of "overly generous public employee retirement benefits."