On this week’s Newsmakers, WPRI’s Tim White will discuss the pros and cons of the unionization of home daycare providers.

RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity‘s Mike Stenhouse has confirmed; he will make the case against.

Strangely, one learns via Twitter, no one has yet accepted Mr. White’s kind invitation to make the “pro” side. Not the SEIU. Nor the two lead sponsors in the General Assembly of the last minute, rush-it-through unionization bill.

If this is such a great idea, why will no one appear publicly to make the case?

Could it be that the legislators fear being asked where the extra money will come from to fund this measure when the state budget is showing a $95 million deficit for next year and a half billion dollar shortfall over the next five years?

Could the union reps be at a loss to defend against the downside of unionizing? Or to explain how they can deliver on a (presumed) promise to the providers of increased compensation from a legislature that is looking at a fiscal horizon with nothing but very scary budget deficits as far as the eye can see? In fact, go back: have either the union or the sponsors of the bill even explained to the daycare providers that any increase in compensation is not simply negotiated with DHS but would have to be approved by the state legislature?

Be sure to flip over to Newsmakers Sunday morning at 5:30 or 10:00 am to … um, wherever these channels are to learn if anyone from the “pro” side belatedly decides to accept Mr. White’s invitation and provide answers to these questions. Taxpayers and daycare providers certainly are looking for enlightenment on these critical points.