California's teachers union spent $2.1 million lobbying and got $18 billion from taxpayers in return.
Now a City Journal investigation reveals that was one transaction in a billion-dollar union racket.
And the union pushing a major California ballot measure this November just revealed what it really wants with the money.
How the California Teachers Union Turned 2 Million in Lobbying Into 18 Billion in Taxpayer Spending
Ten of California's largest public-sector unions pulled in more than $1 billion in dues and fees in 2024.
That number is not an accident.
Government unions don't bargain against a company with skin in the game – they bargain against the state, which writes checks with money it didn't earn.
That is the machine's foundation – and Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp spent months documenting how it works for City Journal.
Higher taxes mean more government workers. More government workers mean more union members. More union members mean more dues. More dues fund the next campaign for higher taxes.
It’s become a vicious cycle that’s helped wreck California.
The California Teachers Association proved it works.
In 2024, the CTA spent $2.1 million lobbying for a $10 billion school construction bond.
The bond passed and the real cost to taxpayers – after interest – clocks in at $18 billion.
More schools mean more unionized staff and more dues flowing into the next campaign.
The ten unions Rufo and Schrupp investigated hold more than one million members combined.
That membership represents at least 29 percent of California's 2024 Democrat primary voters – more than enough to swing any statewide race.
Combined political and lobbying expenditures exceeded $29 million in 2024 alone.
Every statewide California official, all Democrats, received a campaign donation from at least one of the ten unions' political action committees at some point in their careers.
The SEIU Conflict of Interest Behind California's Proposition 40 Billionaire Tax
SEIU's United Healthcare Workers West didn't stop at lobbying Sacramento.
The union filed and qualified Proposition 40 – the so-called billionaire tax – which lands on California's November ballot.
The measure would levy a 5 percent tax on the assets of California's billionaires.
SEIU is calling it healthcare funding but most of the revenue flows to Medi-Cal – the same program that funds the hospitals and clinics where SEIU signs up new members and collects their dues.
The union sponsored a tax hike designed to expand its own membership base.
California taxpayers are already buried under the last several rounds of this game.
The Reason Foundation puts California's pension hole at more than $265 billion – the largest public pension debt in the country.
Cities went bankrupt.
Stockton, Vallejo, and San Bernardino all went under.
In Stockton, a federal judge ruled that pension obligations could legally be cut but the city paid them anyway.
Now California's legislature is moving AB 1383, a bill that would gut the 2013 pension reforms and expand retirement formulas for certain public workers – on track to add billions in new obligations over the next three decades.
The machine is not slowing down.
How California Union Dues Ended Up Funding Arizona Abortion and New York Elections
The machine does not stop at California's border.
SEIU-UHW sent $2.2 million to an Arizona group that helped pass a state constitutional amendment on abortion in 2024.
SEIU's national arm sent $75,000 to support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in New York.
City Journal also documented where the dues money goes when it isn't buying politicians.
SEIU 2015 – representing home care workers earning $17.95 an hour – spent $618,719 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa in Dana Point for executive retreats.
The California Nurses Association ran up $446,000 at four different luxury resorts in one year.
One union blew nearly $200,000 on boutique coaching firms – including one that markets leadership development through snowshoeing, sailing, surfing, and cave exploration.
Workers paying dues to survive fund luxury hotels and executive coaches for the union bosses.
Taxpayers funding the machine get the pension bill and a November ballot measure designed to make the whole operation bigger.
Silicon Valley is the only sector left in California with enough money and independence to push back.
When a union backs a billionaire tax targeting Silicon Valley, it is not asking for healthcare money.
It is eliminating the final check.
Sources:
- Christopher F. Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp, "California's Billion-Dollar Union Machine," City Journal, August 25, 2026.
- Dmitri Bolt, "California Unions Are Dominating the State's Politics and Taxpayers Are Funding It," Townhall, August 26, 2026.
- "AB 1383 Would Gut PEPRA and Worsen California's Pension Crisis," California Policy Center, May 1, 2026.
- "California's State and Local Pension Plans Have Over $265 Billion in Debt," Reason Foundation, December 5, 2025.