In late February, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a Janus v. AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Council 31, in which a union member is asking that public employees who choose not to join unions not be required to pay compulsory agency fees.

Around the same time, New York public-sector union workers rallied in Manhattan, accompanied by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and city Mayor Bill de Blasio. “They want to silence your voice politically,” Cuomo told the crowd.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy recently noted that between 2013 and 2016, a period covering two local election cycles (2013 and 2015), two legislative election cycles (2014 and 2016) and a gubernatorial election (2014), political action committees associated with 83 New York government unions spent more than $52 million on state and local elections. That money came largely from the roughly $862 million the Empire Center estimates is collected each year in agency fees from the state’s government unions.

Mark Janus chose to fight the fees after coming to the realization that his voice wasn’t being represented despite his financial contributions. A CBS News report quotes Janus’ lawyer saying Janus was concerned that AFSCME was asking for too much in pay and benefits for its workers at a time that the state was having budget issues.

The Supreme Court has yet to render its decision. A ruling in favor of Janus would hurt union bank accounts, but it may make unions more responsive to both their members and taxpayers.

It could also give them less money with which to influence lawmakers. The inability to roll back regulation or benefits in favor of systems that make more sense to taxpayers continues to make New York state unattractive to new businesses.

Unions have done a great deal of good for workers over the years, and they have much more to do. There’s a line of fairness between helping working people and hindering them, and between boosting the common good and bogging down taxpayers. In our view, workers who don’t want to pay for political campaigns shouldn’t have to.

Legislation has been introduced to the state Legislature (S. 5778A and A. 7601A) “to streamline the process for an individual to join a public sector union.” It should not pass. State legislators should abide by the Supreme Court’s decision, whatever it is.