No bluff

For decades -- if not generations -- negotiators for government unions had it all their way. Whether it was pay, pensions or benefits, the escalator only went up.

This year, oblivious to the fact that public opinion has increasingly turned against "public servants" making six-figure salaries and expecting gold-gilt pensions, the unions representing Las Vegas municipal employees figured the same playbook would work again.

Mayor Oscar Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council were bluffing about budget woes, they figured. There's always plenty of money.

Unfortunately for the "same old, same old" union approach -- but fortunately for the taxpayers and for some modicum of fiscal sanity -- Mr. Goodman turns out to have no reluctance to lay down his cards.

Faced with union recalcitrance, Las Vegas will cut deeper -- which could lead to twice as many layoffs as originally projected -- Mr. Goodman said Thursday. He also promised the layoffs would be "across the board," affecting public safety departments that have largely been spared from personnel cuts so far. "I don't like it," Mr. Goodman said. "I asked everybody to do the right thing. It wasn't done."

He and other city leaders had pressed the city's four employee bargaining groups to give up raises called for in their contracts and take 8 percent pay cuts in each of the next two budget years. Without the concessions, layoffs would be necessary, they said.

On Wednesday, after learning that the largest bargaining unit wasn't offering any concessions, and much to their credit, Mr. Goodman and the City Council vowed they would not dig any deeper into the city's reserves, held to help handle unanticipated emergencies.

In fact, because current wage and employment levels are unsustainable in the long run, "We may as well clean up our act now," the mayor says.

Chris Collins of the Police Protective Association, which represents city marshals, called the city's approach "borderline union busting." Employees aren't being defiant, he said. Union representatives have said they simply want assurances that if they give up what the city wants, their jobs will be secure.

City officials have been unable to make any such promises, of course, citing economic volatility and a continuing slide in tax revenues. But city employees, coddled and cocooned for too long, still don't believe it. Firefighters would lose "response capabilities" if positions were cut, said Dean Fletcher, president of the city firefighters union.

No one is saying firemen or other municipal employees are lazy or evil, or that their services aren't needed. What the city is saying is that we've been in a recession for more than two years, and that council members protected government workers from its ravages as long as they could.

A 2008 Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce study found that Nevada's state and local government employees were among the best-paid in the nation.

Nevada is also among the states worst hit by the recession -- with a full recovery a long way off.