Sunday, October 30, 2011

Issue 2 Yes Vote Will Save Your Budget

Election day is drawing closer and the hottest issue is that of keeping Senate Bill 5 in force. It is listed as Issue 2 on the ballot. Make no mistake about it, Issue 2 is the most important decision Ohio voters have been asked to make in recent years. Senate Bill 5, passed by the Ohio Legislature this year, returns to elected officials their ability to manage the political entities to which they were elected. From the state to counties, to cities, to townships, the ability of elected government to manage their employees has been taken away by a system which has transferred municipal management from officials elected by the voters to arbitrators which, being union biased, have granted pay raises, promotions, created new job positions, set working standards, regardless of the desires and needs of elected officials and those citizens who elected them.

Two classes of people will be effected by the vote on Issue 2. The first are government employees, fire and policemen, street workers, garbage men, highway patrolmen, secretaries, public health workers. The second class are tax payers, the citizens who pay government workers and under the scheme of things before Senate Bill 5 came along, had no say in what government employees were paid, disciplined, required to work, or what benefits they received.

Should Issue 2 be defeated and Senate Bill 5 not be kept in force, the results will be terribly one sided. Uncontrolled pay raises for government employees will continue to be legislated through "collective bargaining". Increased numbers of personnel on government payrolls will become unmanageable. Benefits, which currently add 48% to the cost of wages will increase government payrolls to unmanageable amounts. Workers benefits, such as holidays, comp time, overtime pay, minimum pay for call-in backup, uniform allowances, more fully paid health insurance, will be increased by union contract to the point that cities will no longer be able to pay the bill.

Can this be true? As a matter of fact, it is occurring now, and has been for a number of years. This is how it works. The unions under the current system present a city with a proposed contract for coming years, which contains all the conditions in the existing contract, plus any new requests they may have. These requests are not limited in scope nor cost. The city, say, does not accept the union requests. The union, then, takes the contract to arbitration, or fact finding, and the arbitrator or fact finder makes the final decision which is binding on both parties. And that becomes the way it is. The problem is that in the majority of cases the union wins. That is why unions are paying $35 a month for comprehensive family health insurance and cities are picking up the other $965 a month for their employees. That is why police and fire departments are able to add lieutenants and sergeants to their departments, along with mandating what their salaries will be, without the approval of city administrations and city councils regardless of budget restraints and shortfalls. This translates to unbalanced budgets and red ink accounting.

If you listen to the ads of those who oppose SB 5, you are told that services for fire, police, public health, and the like, will be decreased. This is not true. Issue 2, SB 5, will provide better services to the citizen than is available today, and at a lesser cost. Consider that currently the cities have no control over pay raises, the unions assuring everybody covered by a contract will get the same pay regardless of competence, ability, motivation, and ambition. Incompetence is rewarded in the same way as is achievement. There are exceptions however in the case of layoffs. In that case the newest hired is laid off while the do-nothing long term employee is retained. Incompetency in school systems is similarly rewarded. Poor teachers are protected by longevity while good teachers are discriminated against. The current system is basically poor.

But not all is lost for the taxpayer. We are going to get the bill. And don't believe for an instant that is not coming. What's more, good civil employees are going to be laid off because of the inability of municipalities to pay the bills, a situation which has become common place in the past couple of years. It will become worse as time goes by. This depression is not over. Ask your neighbor who is out of work. Check your own budget. How are you doing? Unless you are a government employee, probably not as well as a year or two ago.

If you are a government employee you should be doing pretty well. Police and fire departments recently received a 9% raise over the next three years. Not that bad when one considers that pay raise will also raise the cost of benefits by an equal amount.

Is it any wonder that public service employees are against Senate Bill 5 and are pushing to have Issue 2 defeated? It is not a case of offering more protection and services from police, fire, public health, and the rest of the government employees, because you aren't going to get it. Public services have not increased over the past years. They have become more complex because of union rules. They have become more expensive because of mandates from union influenced arbitrators.

So why are public employee unions so against retaining Senate Bill 5? Money. That's it. Money. Self interest. Greed. Public employees who are being paid more than the citizenry they serve want more. They want to maintain control of what they are paid, when they will work, how they will perform. And that is what Senate Bill 5 is all about, to return the control of government to elected officials who are responsible to citizens.

Your vote is going to decide this issue. Voting Yes on Issue 2 will put the responsibility of government back where it belongs, on elected officials who are answerable to you, the citizen who pays the bill. If the keeping of Senate Bill 5, Issue 2 on the ballot, is not approved you will pay the bill, and the cost will be dear. Without a Yes vote on Issue 2 taxes will increase on your income, your business, your property, and sales tax.

It is your money. It is your choice. Vote Yes on Issue 2.


1 comment:

  1. Mr. Conner, would you be so kind as to squash a rumor that is out there making its rounds, and tell us whether or not policemen, firemen, school teachers, and so forth pay income tax on their earnings? And if they do so [they do], are they and their families not also helping to pay the salaries and benefits they receive, many of which benefits were introduced by city/state administrations in place of pay raises at some time in the past?

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