How Public Employees are Forced to Fund Attack Ads

Pennsylvania school teachers and state workers are being forced to fund political attacks—with money collected at taxpayer expense through public payroll systems. Here’s how it works:

Last year, 228,291 Pennsylvania school teachers and state workers were forced to pay dues to national unions—the NEA, AFT, UCFW, AFCSME, and SEIU.

State government and school districts took these dues out of worker’s paychecks and sent it to union bank accounts. National dues cost about $200 for most employees—on top of what workers pay in state and local dues.

In 2014, the NEA, AFT, UCFW, AFCSME, and SEIU gave $14 million in combined union dues to the Democratic Governors Association to be used for political purposes.

The Democratic Governors Association in turn supports a nonprofit called “America Works USA” which has reportedly spent more than $1 million in Pennsylvania in the last few months on TV commercials, radio ads, and political attack mailers calling for higher taxes on working families.

Here is an infographic showing the flow of union dues from worker's paychecks to political attack ads.