Another Knowing Lie

Reblogged from MEAMatters

It appears almost yearly, and again today the Mackinac Center repeated a lie that it must by now know full well is a lie: that “…just 11 percent of total [MEA] spending goes toward “representational activities.” The rest, they say, is spent ” for the salaries and benefits of the union’s central staff.”  They used to use 29.5%, but today they are going with just 11%.

In the past, they’ve used this graphic:

Rep %

It suggests that only 29.5% of MEA spending is for ‘representation,’ meaning the rest is for non-bargaining efforts or wasted, and that this percentage is the lowest among all unions in the state.

It’s hard to reconstruct the Mackinac Center’s math, but if you instead look at how much fee payers pay the MEA, that is, the percentage they pay for MEA representation, it’s 79.37%, not the Center’s 29.5%. This payment is the result of a lawsuit brought by a right to work organization, so isn’t spin: it’s legally enforceable and monitored by MEA’s enemies. Read more>>