By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
    
TRENTON, N.J. – Over the past few years, New Jersey lawmakers have tried to put a dent in government corruption with a “pay-to-play” law which limits “the amount of campaign donations business and professional firms are permitted to make if they have big state contracts,” reports Trentonian.com.
    
In other words, people with contracts to do work for the state or local governments shouldn’t be allowed to bribe the elected officials who award those contracts with big campaign donations.
    
The “pay-to-play” law is widely regarded “as one of the most significant good-government reforms in decades,” notes the Trentonian.com.
    
But the law has one major loophole: New Jersey’s teacher unions and other public-sector  unions are exempt from campaign donation restrictions, even though their members’ salaries and benefits are directly linked to the policies and budgets crafted by elected officials.
    
State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., a Republican, wants to close that loophole by requiring unions to abide by the same rules as businesses. Under Kean’s proposal, any union that receives $17,500 or more in state contracts could only contribute $300 in state political donations.
    
That would apply to every teachers union, which means the law would drain the New Jersey Education Association of much of its political power.
    
Teacher unions enter into contracts with local school boards. Those contracts stipulate how much union members are compensated for their work. They also stipulate that the schools deduct union dues from employee paychecks and turn the money over to the unions.
    
Union-friendly school board candidates often receive a lot of that dues money in the form of union campaign contributions. You can see how this convenient little process works out for the unions and their pet politicians.
    
It’s the same game at the municipal and state government level.
    
“Under the state government’s union contracts, the state Treasury Department deducts $39.7 million a year in union dues and fees for unions from employee paychecks,” reports the Trentonian.com.  A good portion of that $39.7 million cycles back into the campaign coffers of politicians, most of whom are Democrats.
    
The news site reports that “unions donated $24 million (two-thirds to Democrats) in the gubernatorial and state Assembly elections in 2009, according to the Election Law Enforcement Commission.”
    
“In my opinion, labor unions are no different than lawyers or consultants. They negotiate contracts and fees with elected officials,” Kean told The Huffington Post in 2012. “This would make pay-to-play more complete.”
    
So far, Kean’s attempts have been blocked by the union-friendly Democrats who control the state legislature, the news site reports.
    
The NJEA and other public sector unions say the “pay-to-play” law would silence their political voices and rob them of their political clout.
    
Kean’s “pay-to-play” measure won’t become law any time soon, although Gov. Chris Christie is a strong supporter of the idea.
    
However, if the popular Christie is re-elected in November – along with a sufficient number of reform-minded Republicans attached to his coattails – it could be “game over” for the NJEA and The Garden State’s other powerful and destructive public employee unions.