Teachers, government workers oppose taxpayer rights

What person in their right mind would oppose TABOR, the Taxpayers Bill of Rights?

How about people who benefit from keeping taxes high? Namely, unionized teachers and government workers.

The more taxes working people pay to government, the higher salaries and benefits can be paid to teachers and government workers.

On Wednesday, the Coalition for Common Sense Priorities (that sounds so much nicer than "government moochers") is holding a free seminar at a union hall in Harrisburg to educate interested parties (teachers' unions and government workers) how to prevent TABOR from coming to Pennsylvania.

TABOR is a set of constitutional provisions Colorado voters adopted in 1992 to limit revenue growth for state and local governments in Colorado and to require that any tax increase in any state or local government (counties, cities, towns, school districts and special districts) must be approved by the voters of the affected government, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures Web site.

If your boss is willing to spare you for a few hours, you can educate yourself on how to prevent TABOR from seeing the light of day in Pennsylvania, where taxpayers already support the most expensive state legislature in the country and where Pennsylvania teachers' unions lead the nation in strikes.

And who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? The Coalition of Common Sense Priorities will be providing free lunch to all attendees.

You have to read the tiny print at the bottom of the press release to find out who is behind the Coalition. Among the sponsors are the Pennsylvania State Education Association (the state's largest teachers' union), PA AFL-CIO; AARP-Pennsylvania (probably represents a lot of retired union workers); and AFSCME (which represents more than 45,000 state workers).