Ending Payroll Dues Deductions — The Right Way | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Dr. Robert Luebke.

    A bill to end payroll dues deductions for all public employees In North Carolina was introduced earlier this week.

    The legislation (SB-87), sponsored by Senators, Hise, Krawiec and Johnson, will get North Carolina out of the business of administering payroll deductions for public employees who are members of private employee associations. A simple fact drives this action: government should not discriminate. There is no reason why government should provide a valuable financial service to some organizations while others have to use their own time and resources to do the same.

    You may remember when Republicans won legislative majorities in 2011, a bill to end dues check-off for the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), the largest teacher employee association in North Carolina, was approved by the General Assembly and vetoed by then-governor Beverly Perdue. Two House Democrats joined Republicans in overriding the Governor's veto. The elation for Republicans was short-lived however, as lawyers were able to obtain an injunction which stayed implementation. (For more on those developments and the aftermath see here and here.)

    Fast forward a decade. While some things change, there continues to be no love lost between Republicans and NCAE. NCAE continues to criticize Republicans and support Democrats; and Republicans continue to look for ways to weaken NCAE.

    Because SB-87 helps to level the playing field for all organizations, SB-87 is a step in the right direction.

    For other reasons to end dues check off for public employee associations see here.