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The
Columbus Dispatch
Senate Bill 5 saves
$1.3B, study says
Pay increases, insurance
examined
By Jim Siegel
Saturday, February 26, 2011
State and local governments would have saved an estimated $1.3 billion
in 2010 on health insurance and automatic pay increases if the limits
imposed by Senate Bill 5 were in effect, according to a new analysis by
the state Office of Collective Bargaining.
The report comes as Senate Republicans are preparing to pass the
biggest overhaul to collective bargaining since the law was enacted in
1983. Changes to the bill and a committee vote could happen as soon as
Tuesday, with a possible full Senate vote by Thursday.
The bill seeks to significantly curtail collective bargaining power for
more than 350,000 state and local public workers, limiting what they
are allowed to discuss at the bargaining table and removing all ability
to strike.
Republicans argue that the measure is necessary to curtail rising
personnel costs and give officials more flexibility to deal with
looming budget cuts. Democrats and unions have called it an attack on
middle-class workers who have taken many wage and benefit concessions
in recent years.
The cost analysis focused on three provisions in the bill: that workers
must pay at least 80percent of the cost of their health insurance, and
the elimination of automatic step and longevity pay increases currently
built into most contracts.
The analysis estimates the state would have saved $217 million last
year, while the savings for schools and local governments would have
topped $1.1 billion.
“That’s not good for Ohio’s health,” Gov. John Kasich said of the
report’s findings during an appearance yesterday afternoon on Fox News,
his former employer.
Savings for government means lower pay increases and higher
health-insurance costs for public workers.
“If you lower the wages, and your health insurance goes up, then what
does that do to a family? How is the family going to sustain their
livelihood?” said Patricia Frost-Brooks, president of the Ohio
Education Association.
State employees pay about 15 percent of their health-insurance
premiums, while local government employees, according to the State
Employment Relations Board, pay about 7 percent. The School Employee
Health Care Board found that school employees paid an average of 9 to
10percent.
Under the bill, all government workers would pay at least 20 percent.
Meanwhile, the bill would remove from state law step increases and
longevity pay - automatic pay bumps, on top of any negotiated raises.
Currently, after five years state workers get a 0.5percent longevity
pay bump every year until their 20th year. They also get six step
increases, each worth 4 percent. Local contracts often include a
variety of step increases, particularly in the first decade of
employment.
But Tom Ash, director of governmental development for the Buckeye
Association of School Administrators, said school boards may not do
away with all automatic pay increases.
“At milestones during their career, I think there should be step
increases in an attempt to retain those people because you don’t want
to lose them,” he said. “But the notion that you should do it every
year, I don’t know that that’s necessary when you’re also providing an
increase on the base salary.”
The savings estimate did not include the bill’s proposed ban on
employers paying any part of an employee’s share of his or her pension
costs. More than 2,500 local governmental units pick up at least part
of the tab now.
Republican senators submitted numerous amendments yesterday to Senate
Bill 5, and leaders are expected to work through the weekend.
Senate Democrats did not submit amendments. A collaboration of every
major public union except the Fraternal Order of Police said yesterday
that the bill is too flawed to fix, and Democrats agree.
“There are over 500 pages, and not one provision will benefit working
families in this state,” said Becky Williams, district president of the
Service Employees International Union 1199. “You can’t make enough
amendments to make this something working families are going to do
better with or even be able to survive within a unionized work force.”
The Fraternal Order of Police also doesn’t like the bill but has been
working with Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland, on amendments
dealing with binding arbitration - the settlement mechanism that safety
forces use in lieu of the ability to strike. Such arbitration would be
banned in the current bill.
Grendell said he is proposing that an unresolved negotiation would
either go to the presiding judge of the county common pleas court or a
three-person panel of local officials, which would make a final
judgment. He also wants a cap on that decision based on the economics
of the taxpaying source.
Sen. Kevin Bacon, R-Minerva Park, chairman of the Senate Insurance,
Commerce and Labor Committee that is hearing the bill, said he has been
assured by Senate GOP leaders that there will be enough support on his
panel to move the bill. But some Republicans on his committee have
expressed concern, and Democrats are unified against it.
On occasion, legislative leaders have replaced members of committees to
assure passage of certain bills. Bacon said he was unaware whether the
speculation is true that such a swap could happen next week before a
vote.
Dispatch Senior Editor Joe Hallett contributed to this story.
For the story plus a chart outlining specific savings, read this at The Columbus Dispatch
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