01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 14, 2005

THIS WEEK'S votes in the General Assembly on a truly bizarre scheme to unionize self-employed babysitters have at least one virtue. They should present voters and taxpayers with a bright, clear line.

On the one side are those in league with the special interests, doing their bidding at a crippling cost to Rhode Island. On the other side are those trying to stop this madness. You'll know from the recorded votes which side your senator and representative are on. (The House was scheduled to act today; the Senate, tomorrow.)

For many decades, the special interests have ruled Rhode Island -- and, indeed, their reign shows little sign of abating. The public-employee unions, in particular, have had their way on Smith Hill, setting public policy through cooperative legislators whom they reward with campaign contributions and, in some cases, high-paying jobs.

Unchecked power is very dangerous to the common good, as any student of history or human nature will recognize. In Rhode Island, the special interests, given virtually free rein, have, quite predictably, overdone it. They have helped themselves to heaping portions while leaving crumbs for the public, and Rhode Island is suffering for it.

Ocean State citizens have been saddled with booming property taxes, a struggling economy with little job creation, unsustainably generous public-employee pensions, crumbling roads and bridges, and some of America's most expensive and poorly performing public schools. Middle-class and well-to-do retirees are fleeing Rhode Island, which a national magazine branded a "tax hell," taking hundreds of millions of dollars in spending power with them.

But that's not enough, apparently. Now the public-employee unions want the state to have to negotiate pay and benefits with subsidized day-care providers, many of them self-employed. On the face of it, it is a costly absurdity, one that could drive up taxes by tens of millions of dollars (no one knows exactly how much). And it surely leaves the door wide open to all others who provide services to the state. When your taxes go up, please consult the day-care-provider votesto find out who did it to you.

The political strategy of the union bosses is clear: to increase the flow of money into their coffers with a fresh stream from new dues-paying members; and to swell the political armies that support candidates and vote for their narrow interests against the common interest. This game plan will apparently be pursued until Rhode Island goes bust, since the bosses do not seem to care that there is a limit to how much can be extracted from taxpayers without doing the public serious harm.

It appears only one thing can slow this dangerous downward spiral: an informed and awakened electorate capable of throwing a scare into legislators who serve the special interests rather than the common good.

The public has few lobbyists working in its behalf, and special-interest contributions continue to tilt elections. Unfortunately, Governor Carcieri, while speaking out against some of the excesses damaging Rhode Island, has thus far signally failed to rally the public, or their representatives, to halt thoase excesses.

But the special interests can defeat the common good only when the majority lets them. The union leaders are counting on the majority to be ill-informed, apathetic, distracted by family life or summer fun, or too busy working to pay attention. If every citizen reading this took the time to call his or her legislator to protest this latest assault, most members of the General Assembly would tremble at pursuing this destructive and ill-considered path.

Struggling people, of course, ultimately pay a steep price for unaccountable and unjust government. Rhode Island's problems make it hard for them to find jobs or obtain a first-rate public-school education. Money that should go to children or the needy gets diverted to well-to-do people backed by the politically powerful.

As wealthy and highly educated people flee Rhode Island, the tax burden is increasingly born by lower-middle-class families that can ill-afford skyrocketing property taxes. These are the people who seem to have little voice on Smith Hill.

The virtues of Rhode Island -- its liveability and location, its convenience, its beauty and beaches and outstanding cultural and educational institutions -- have saved it thus far. But the Ocean State, and its children, who will pay the price for decades to come, deserve much better than the brand of politics represented by this effort to unionize day-care providers.

To find out who your legislators are, go to this Web site: www.sec.state.ri.us/elections/find yourofficials. Also, you may express your views by contacting House Speaker William Murphy, at (401) 222-2466 (e-mail: rep-murphy [at] rilin.state.ri.us), and Senate President Joseph Montalbano, at 222-6655 (e-mail: sen-montalbano [at] rilin.state.ri.us).

Edward Achorn is The Journal's deputy editorial-pages editor. His e-mail address is eachorn [at] projo.com.