Good (Labor) News From California

The new California budget, signed last week by Governator Scharzenegger, will include $3.8 million for the Institute for Labor and Employment,based at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley. The Governor's original budget had planned to eliminate the institutes.

Business groups are angry at the Governor's flip-flop:

"Unions totally have the right to do research, but we don't think it should be paid for with taxpayer money," said Kevin Dayton, vice president of government affairs for the Golden Gate chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors of California.

The predominantly nonunion trade group has been working to eliminate the institute since 2001, when it was created by then-Gov. Gray Davis with union backing.

The builders were angered after the institute conducted a survey used by union leaders in an unsuccessful campaign to gain support for project labor agreements.

Of course, just because labor research shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer money doesn't mean that business research should receive the same treatment. As I wrote last December:

Meanwhile, no university business schools have been slated for elmination. In fact,

The Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, and the Agricultural School at UC Davis each receive more state funding annually than the total received by the ILE in the past three years.