SB 5 gets a makeover

  There's been lots of consternation on the part of teachers regarding SB 5. Some of the bill doesn't make sense. Apparently some changes took place today in the regulations of the bill, including softening the language regarding currently tenured teachers (they're grandfathered) and retaining sick leave that has been contractually accumulated over the course of a career. 
  One would hope those teachers reluctant to endorse any change whatsover would be willing to see the positives in some of this bill, in addition to the fact that it is designed to save the pension systems of the people who will need it most in years to come, as the baby boomers enter retirement.
  This is an excerpt from State Rep Jim Buchy District 77:

The bill does not end collective bargaining.  It will put responsibility of maintaining a strong academic program and balancing a budget on the school administrators and school board.  As a cost saving measure, all public employees will be required to pay a minimum amount of their health care insurance.  The Columbus Dispatch reported savings to the government if SB 5 were to pass could be as high as 1.3 billion dollars.  

Administrators will no longer be able to participate in an act called “pension pick-up, or pick-up on the pick-up”, which is sometimes a way to hide salary increases.  The threat of striking, which is rarely used in Ohio’s public sector work-force will be replaced with an arbitration process that includes a procedure for solving labor disputes,  the specifics are expected to be addressed in the amendment process.  

The step schedule for teachers is struck from the Ohio Revised Code in Section 3317.13 and replaced by a locally controlled performance-based pay structure.  SB 5 establishes pay ranges for other public employees which do not include a step schedule.  Public employees other than school employees will receive pay increases based on a merit-pay system established locally.  This bill does not provide for the pay cut of any current public employee.  

Rumors and messages you may receive that indicate employees will receive a specific pay cut are not accurate and a true answer to that question can only be answered in negotiations where employees will be represented by their union which will be able to negotiate on wages, terms and conditions.  The bill does address sick leave.  

The cut in sick days will not be significant to most public employees and teachers will also retain the allowance of three personal days.  At this time the bill allows public employees to accumulate leave and cash it out for some pay upon retirement. Employees who currently have tenure or receive tenure prior to the effective date of this bill will be grandfathered in.  In the future employees would not be eligible for continuing contracts but will be eligible for up to 3 year contracts.  Tenure will ensure older employees are not fired because of their costs to the school.  

The bill will remove last in, first out (LIFO) provisions, which are currently in Ohio law.  This will ensure the best and most capable public employees are always on the job.  These modifications will revolutionize the collective bargaining process in Ohio and provide public employers what they need to operate on a thinner budget.  As the bill changes feel free to contact my office with any questions. 

  Another significant change that took place today was the removal of the fair share fee, which tends to be pretty minimal. This is the amount of dues the union can deduct for political purposes. Columbus Dispatch has several articles about SB 5's fast track to be signed into law on April 6, put into a referendum and voted on in the fall by the public.

* Allow the government employer to continue to deduct union dues from a worker's paycheck, but no longer could it take out money the worker wants to give to the union's political action committee. 

  Also the Democrats are saying that this bill will have a "disproportionate impact the bill would have on women and African-Americans," according, again, to the Dispatch, available here.
  In fact, de Rugy at The Corner suggests that pension deniers better understand that people are trying to save the pension systems, not destroy them.

I always find it surprising that the people who really believe that state employees should get very generous  pensions from state governments aren’t the ones who are sounding the alarm about the upcoming pension crisis. I would assume that they understand that reforming the pension system today is key to preventing some rather dramatic consequences in the near future when states run out of money on their pension plans — which 8 states are scheduled to do by 2020. No matter what data you look at, you can see that many state pensions — led by Illinois and New Jersey — have underfunded their liabilities for years, which means that when their pension plans run out of money, these states will have to either raise taxes dramatically, cut non-pension spending massively, or alter their pension formula for current employees. The question of whether states will be allowed to change the benefits for current retirees will depend on the courts, but the reality is that when there is no more money, there is no more money.