SAN DIEGO — The main opponent mentioned at the Republican Governors Association conference here — described in terms ranging from misguided to downright evil — is the other party, the Democrats.
But running a close second are the public employee unions, particularly the teachers unions.
“Frankly,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, “the public employee unions would stick a shiv in all of us if they could.”
The biggest laugh of the morning session came when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a joke out of a union’s opposition to his proposal to require teachers to pay a portion of their health insurance costs.
“You laugh,” Christie said, “That’s the crap I have to listen to in New Jersey.”
Among the lines most quoted and paraphrased among the governors was a comment in September from Gov.-elect Scott Walker of Wisconsin regarding the need to trim the salaries and benefits of public employees: “We cannot and should not maintain a system where public employees are the ‘haves’ and the taxpayers footing the bill are the ‘have-nots.’ “
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, on a panel discussion titled “Saving America,” included among his ideas setting salaries and benefits of state employees “within the framework of the taxpayers’ capabilities.”
Gingrich also included paying more for good teachers and firing “bad teachers before they can cripple the future of the children they serve.”
Pawlenty, a likely presidential hopeful, warned the newly elected to expect significant pushback from teachers unions when the issue turns to trimming benefits or connecting teacher pay to student performance.
