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It’s an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars, there’s no reason for Austin Fire Department -RRB- and Austin Fire Department -RRB- is the problem with unionizing the public sector. They [ unions ] have become the most powerful lobby group in politics. The CEI study found that Texas cities pay thousands of hours in release time to teachers, cops and firefighters, and raised the possibility that such payments violate the Lone Star State’s constitution, which prohibits the transfer of public funds to private entities that do not serve a public purpose.