LABOR DAY

This is a historic moment in the history of union negotiations in Montgomery County. After a year of balancing the budget with smoke and mirrors, and breaking labor contracts, the county executive and council face another massive budget shortfall.

Yes, smoke and mirrors. Not only did the council fail to address the county's structural deficit, but it used only a few techniques to achieve a "balanced budget," as required by law:

1. It used minor budget cuts overwhelmingly devastating to seniors and the disabled.
2. It violated labor agreements (albeit with the agreement of the unions) by slashing COLAs and other salary increases for teachers, firefighters, and police officers. It also sought savings by attempting to deny retirement benefits to disabled police officers.
3. When all else failed, it charged the Montgomery County Public School system $80 million - in other words, it cut $80 million more from education, beyond the previous budget and salary cuts.
4. The county, like all Democrat-run local and state governments, received Federal "funny money," from the $1.3 trillion printed by the Obama administration. This enabled them to limp ahead one more year, in hopes that the President's economic plan ends the recession before the 2010 election.

That's all. That's how they did it. We all knew it would be impossible for them to literally balance declining revenues (resulting from high taxes, falling home prices, and the 2008 "recession" that was designed to defeat John McCain once he moved ahead in the polls) with the outrageous level of spending this council has sustained.

So in the end, they didn't have to. They couldn't! Only by sleight of hand - cheating, if you will - did they "balance" the budget. Notice that the state Board of Education has so far given the council a free pass on its failure to maintain the necessary level of education funding for MCPS. Political? Oh, of course not!

But with that background, consider the labor contract issues ahead. When the stimulus "funny money" runs out, and O'Malley cuts funds to the counties, the council and executive again will be on the hot seat in union negotiations.

The council and executive won't have it so easy this time. Not only do all union contracts expire in June 2010, but the recent Federal court ruling has reinforced the binding nature of union contracts. After all, a contract is a contract.

When I went to testify in support of our county police officers in the disability case this year, the council smugly asserted its ability to break the contracts. Now, of course, the council will turn to furloughs.

Not so fast, said U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., when Prince Georges County tried the same thing. Judge Williams noted that P.G., much like Montgomery, had plenty of funds that could be cut in order to pay employees. In essence, Judge Williams asked P.G. county what I asked the Montgomery county council that evening: when is a deal not a deal?

Et voila! The stage is set for a historic showdown. Will the councilmembers be able to wave their magic wands again?