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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2011 > September > 28
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
State leaders ‘hypocrites’ on pay and perk, liberal group says
State lawmakers and Kasich administration officials are asking police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees to take pay cuts and give up bargaining rights but the same leaders aren’t making similar sacrifices, according to Innovation Ohio, a liberal leaning policy advocacy group based in Columbus.
“Politicians who support Senate Bill 5 and Issue 2 obviously do not embarrass easily. Their shamelessness is truly breathtaking. They’re all for pay and benefit cuts as long as those cuts apply to police, firefighters, teachers - and not to themselves,” said Innovation Ohio Communications Director Dale Butland.
Innovation Ohio noted that lawmakers decided against a proposal to take a 5 percent pay cut to their $60,854 base pay for their part-time jobs; Gov. John Kasich makes $148,165 a year in state pay and is eligible for automatic increases tied to inflation; Kasich’s senior staff are paid average salaries of more than $110,000 a year; Kasich’s cabinet members earn on average $131,000 a year and at least 22 of them receive $6,600 a year in vehicle allowances; and a dozen lawmakers who supported Senate Bill 5 are ‘double dippers’ — receiving both a public pension and a government salary.
Senate Bill 5 outlaws strikes by government workers, limits collective bargaining rights for 360,000 public employees, allows management to impose its last offer as a contract if the two sides reach impasse,and requires public employees to contribute 10 percent of their wages toward their pensions and pay at least 15 percent of their health care premiums. It also would require that pay be based on performance and layoffs be based on more factors than just seniority.
It will appear on the statewide Nov. 8 ballot as Issue 2. A yes vote would install Senate Bill 5 as law while a no vote would block it.
Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the campaign to keep Senate Bill 5, said, “It’s great that opponents of Issue 2 are finally starting to admit that all government employees should be treated equally when it comes to earning their pay and benefits.It’s hypocritical that many of our government workers who belong to unions pay little to nothing for their health care benefits, while most Ohioans are paying upwards of 30 percent. Some government union workers pay nothing toward their generous, guaranteed pensions, while most Ohioans can only dream of getting a taxpayer-funded retirement plan. Thousands of government union workers get automatic pay raises just for holding their job long enough, while millions of Ohioans are struggling just to find or keep a job. The list of hypocrisies between government union workers and everyone else is endless, and a recent independent report shows they get 43 percent better pay, benefits and job security on average than anyone in the private sector. The reasonable reforms of Issue 2 will ask all government employees equally to pay their fair share of benefits and earn their pay based in part on job performance. It’s time to end the hypocrisy of government employment by restoring some fairness between the people who provide our public services and those who pay for them.”
The report that calculated that public workers are paid 43 percent more in pay and benefits was conducted by scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It concluded that public employees make less in wages than their private sector counter parts but have more generous benefits, including guaranteed pensions, and enjoy better job security, which is worth about a 10 percent premium in overall compensation.
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TweetPetro wants enterprise plan law by spring
Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro said on Wednesday that he hopes lawmakers will introduce a bill by November 1 to create a new enterprise university system and merit college scholarships and perhaps pass it into law by spring.
In August, Petro outlined a plan to free colleges from 40 to 50 burdensome government mandates in exchange for the universities diverting between 10 percent and 20 percent of their state funding into a scholarship pot for about 8,000 of Ohio’s brightest students.The change would establish a pot of about $160 million in scholarship money at the state’s 14 public universities.
All of the public institutions would be immediately relieved of what Petro called “rather foolish” government controls, according to the plan. Those that give up 10 percent of their state share of instruction would be relieved from another set of mandates and those that give up 20 percent of their state funding and meet other criteria such as research funding and student co-op programs would be relieved from an even longer list of mandates.
Petro said university leaders helped come up with the list of mandates that they saw as burdensome and unnecessary.
The plan requires approval by the General Assembly, which may also change it as lawmakers see fit.
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TweetUPDATE- Apportionment Board OKs new legislative districts - Husted urges new effort at redistricting reform
The Republican-controlled Apportionment Board Wednesday voted 4-1 for 99 new Ohio House and 33 new Ohio Senate districts, based on the 2010 Census.
Even House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, has said the new districts favor Republicans, although he said they were “fair and equitable.”
House Minority Leader Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, cast the only “no” vote. Voting yes were four Republicans: Gov. John Kasich; Secretary of State Jon Husted, Auditor Dave Yost and Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond.,
Husted said that he has received commitments from Batchelder and Niehaus, R-New to revisit reforming how Ohio draws U.S. House and state legislative districts.
Kasich already has signed legislation creating 16 new U.S. House districts, 12 favoring Republicans and four favoring Democrats. The districts were drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature.
Niehaus confirmed his pledge to Husted after the meeting. Yost, during the meeting, also spoke in favor of reform and Kasich, after the meeting, said he would be open to changing the system.
Putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot requires support from 3/5ths majorities in the House - 60 votes - and Senate - 20 votes.
Husted said the new effort would be for redistricting to occur after the 2020 Census. Budish said after the meeting, however, that he would support using a new method to redraw districts before the next census.
“This process is terrible,” said Budish.
Husted, while a member of the state Senate from the Dayton area during the last session of the General Assembly, unsuccessfully proposed a constitutional amendment that would have given a bipartisan commission authority to create both U.S. House and legislative districts.
Wednesday’s Apportionment Board meeting was recessed briefly before the vote because Budish said he received proposed amendments only this morning.
The plan approved Wednesday included two changes from the map outlined last Friday but the proposed changes do not affect Dayton-area districts.
Husted’s proposed constitutional amendment would set up a seven-member commission. Members would include: governor, auditor, secretary of state, House speaker, Senate president and House and Senate minority leaders.
A five-member supermajority would be required to approve state and congressional redistricting plans, a provision aimed at forcing bipartisan agreement.
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TweetPoll: Obama approval matches lowest rating; Romney leads in GOP presidential race
Democratic President Barack Obama’s approval rating among Ohio registered voters is matches his lowest rating while Mitt Romney narrowly leads Rick Perry in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
In the poll, both Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Perry, the Texas governor, are neck-and-neck with Obama in 2012 general election match ups.
Overall, 53 percent disapprove Obama’s performance, while 42 percent approve. Fifty one percent say Obama doesn’t deserve reelection, while 43 percent say he does.
Obama’s previous lowest approval was 44 percent on Feb 23, 2010. The current 42 percent is within the margin of error for that number so it “matches” rather than being lower than the February 2010 rating.
Among Republican voters, Romney gets 24 percent to 20 percent for Perry. Former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin is third with 9 percent.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota slips to eighth with just 3 percent.
In the general election matchups, Obama leads Perry, 44-41 percent, too close to call. The president leads Romney, 44-42 percent, also too close to call.
“President Obama’s standing among Ohio voters is back to its lowest ever,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Insitute, said in a press release.
In the race for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel leads Kevin Coughlin, a former state senator from Cuyahoga Falls, 33-12 percent.
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has big leads over both in potential general election races. Brown leads Mandel, 49-36 percent and Coughlin, 53-32 percent.
Other poll findings:
*There’s a gender gap in the presidential race, with men backing Perry over Obama, 45-41 percent while women prefer the president, 46-37 percent.
*Among independent voters, a key group, Obama and Romney are tied, 39-39 percent, while Obama leads Perry, 38-35 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,301 registered voters from Sept. 20 to Sept. 25, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
The survey included 423 Republicans with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.8 percent. Live interviewers conducted the surveys over land lines and cell phones.
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