The Ohio Education Association (OEA) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have no convincing arguments, but Ohio’s public unions also have no shortage of defenders. Let’s review…

• OneOhio Now: A coalition of unions, community organizers, and leftist think-tanks
• Proud Ohio Workers: An AFSCME boycott-protection racket
• We Are Ohio: An OEA front group
• Join the Future: Another OEA front group
• Policy Matters Ohio: A Progressive think-tank funded by the unions
• ProgressOhio: Another Progressive think-tank funded by the unions
• Innovation Ohio: A Progressive think-tank founded this winter to fill Ohio’s gaping demand for Progressive think-tanks
• Every Democrat in the state – Millions in AFSCME and OEA donations have nothing to do with their unanimous support

In short, the self-styled champions of Ohio’s middle class who demand powerful public unions are the unions themselves and the political groups reliant on union cash. They are professional class-warriors who increase the cost of government for a living, blaming “the rich” for Ohio’s structural imbalance between revenue and spending.

They lack even a shadow of credibility.

Data (view source worksheet) from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and US Department of Labor.

Politicians excel at creating mechanisms whereby a privileged few are shielded from fiscal reality by an even more privileged fewer. Public unions are a textbook case of this, and no amount of posturing from the unions or their allies in the Ohio Democratic Party should obscure that fact. Union bosses capitalize on a market for demonizing markets, and get rich by prying money from the working people they claim to represent.

Make no mistake: the full alphabet soup of unions and their comrades want to raise Ohio’s taxes. That’s the “moderate” alternative to the sort of spending cuts Governor Kasich and the General Assembly have suggested. If you’re a union boss pulling down six figures – or a union member covered by Jurassic tenure protections – a tax increase would be a good deal. If you’re anyone else, the even more stifled business environment that would result should worry you far more than the unions’ hollow class warfare routine.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

Wondering if the outrageous 2009 Ohio Education Association spending I covered in February was part of a trend? Consider the average OEA employee’s pay, stacked up against the averages for Ohio private industry workers, government employees, and teachers:

The data (aggregated here in a single Excel workbook) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ohio Department of Education, and US Department of Labor paint a picture that belies the union’s class warfare routine. But hey, let’s play their game: while the OEA continues lobbying for higher taxes, think about where your income lands on the chart above.

As compensation for churning out leftist inanity and forcing school districts into promises they cannot keep, OEA employees were paid an average of $96,182.81 from 09/01/2009 to 08/31/2010. The Ohio Education Association’s fiscal 2010 report to the Department of Labor lists 235 employees – nearly half were paid in excess of $100,000. Flip through the report, and you’ll see big numbers for such dedicated spread-the-wealth agitators:

• LARRY N WICKS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: $210,858.00
• DOUG K CRAWFORD, LRC: $189,832.00
• CECELIA M WELDON, LRC: $187,405.00
• JAMES E MARTIN, AED BUSINESS SERVICES: $171,528.00
• KEVIN M FLANAGAN, AED MEMBER SERVICES-FIELD: $169,761.00
• MICHAEL N MCEACHERN, LRC: $169,298.00
• SUSAN M BABCOCK, AED STRATEGIC/WORKFORCE: $169,148.00
• RACHELLE N JOHNSON, AED MEMBER SERVICES-PROGR: $164,525.00
• MARK E LINDER, LRC: $161,756.00
• VENITA N SHOULDERS, LRC: $158,432.00
• WILLIAM A OTTEN, LRC: $155,873.00
• PATRICIA N COLLINS, DIRECTOR REGION 1: $155,551.00
• FRITZ N FEKETE, DIRECTOR I/S & RESEARCH: $154,635.00
• MARY E SUCHY, DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP: $152,636.00
• RANDALL V FLORA, DIRECTOR EI&I: $152,114.00
• RODNEY E BIRD, LRC: $152,058.00
• JEFFREY L KESTNER, LRC: $150,739.00

This list doesn’t include officers, but rest assured the president ($190,000), vice-president ($186,471), and secretary-treasurer ($180,310) won’t starve. The OEA also managed to scrape together $20,000 apiece for Progressive think-tanks Policy Matters Ohio and Progress Ohio (in addition to the more than $1.6 million blown on Democrats in the 2010 cycle). But you see, the OEA only wants Ohioans to pay more taxes for the children. Here’s what the union had to say upon passage of Senate Bill 5 from its House committee, in an email distributed to members:

As you know, this bill is a serious attack on the students you serve and the communities we live in.

And upon the House markup’s final approval in the Senate:

As you know, the bill is a clear attempt to gut the ability of educators, nurses, firefighters, police and all public employees to have a voice on the job. Senate Bill 5 does nothing to create jobs and instead gives politicians free reign to cut public education in Ohio.

The implication is that politicians may never cut spending, no matter how stifling the state’s tax environment or how bleak her budget. You’d think maybe a union representing educators would understand there aren’t enough private industry fat-cats to soak for the sort of government the OEA demands.

If teachers realize they can work with their peers, administrators, and school boards to improve the quality of public education without paying leftist organizers, the union loses. When the National Education Association’s state bosses dictate policy while using their members’ own money to keep teachers terrified of change, it’s no surprise the union comes out on top.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.