This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, November 27th, 2021.

I'm Keela Brown.

When public sector unions negotiate over pay and accountability, the public is often left to wonder what's going on in that room.

Jason Mercier is director of the Center for Government Reform at the Washington Policy Center.

He says when accountability is on the table for public

employees, that accountability is just another bargaining chip.

States receive tax revenue.

States allocate tax revenue, but when they need to hire a workforce, there are

complications for particular workforces that sort of leaves the public out and that's collective bargaining.

So what does that look like when cities negotiate with a teacher's group or police?

Yeah, that really depends upon where you are in the country,

because half of the country provides the same type of transparency for these public employee contracts at the state and local level

that every other part of the budget receives.

If you think about whether you're at the state level or the local level.

Almost the entire budget process, you have public hearings,

the public can come in and observe,

offer comment, with one exception in states like Washington, where we don't have a lot of transparency and that is in the

contract negotiations and if you think about it especially at the local level employee

contracts are one of if not the largest cost driver in your municipal

budget.

And if you're taking that entire process out of the public, doing it behind closed doors doors and just giving your city council a take it or leave adoption

that doesn't allow a lot of opportunity for feedback, comments or other alternatives.

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