Senate Bill 5, the controversial collective bargaining reform bill, passed during a vote Wednesday, 17-16. The Bill will now move to the Ohio House.
Sen. Shannon Jones (R-Springboro) introduced Senate Bill 5, which has the support of Gov. John Kasich, and would eliminate collective bargaining for certain state employees - including police officers, firefighters and teachers, among others - and base future pay rates and increases on merit.
Ohio's 17th District Sen. David Daniels (R-Greenfield) did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Last week Daniels told the Highland County Press that he was working on an amendment to the Bill, and that he supported "collective bargaining reform in some manner."
According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Jay McDonald, president of the FOP of Ohio, said the bill under the most recent changes is worse than the original. 'This local resolution ensures that no employer has any reason to bargain in good faith...because they get to dictate the terms at the end.'"
The FOP and the Ohio Education Association had protests planned for Thursday, and asked that its members continue to contact their legislators to slow down the bill's movement through the Senate, saying that it needed more time and more discussion.
Ohio's 86th District Representative Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) told The Highland County Press Wednesday that he looks forward to hearing both sides of the argument as it moves to the House.
"SB 5 just passed in the Senate, and has moved to the House and will be assigned to committee shortly," Rosenberger said. "I look forward to making an informed decision when I cast my vote. I look forward to taking the Bill up here in the House and hearing the discussions and see what happens if it comes to the floor for a vote."
Rosenberger said that he has heard from some constituents on the matter, but he hopes that more people from the district will weigh in as he goes through the decision-making process. He said that Wednesday he met with two teachers from the District.
"I am always eager to hear from constituents, and their opinions weigh heavily on my mind," he said. "I think we're going to hear from a lot more people now. I've heard from teachers on the local level, and I've heard from some firefighters, and we're responding to them. I didn't comment before because it was not in our House at that point. I am anxious to hear what is going on, and I plan on being in the district to talk to more people."
As the state is working cut an estimated $8 billion in order to balance the next two-year budget, lawmakers are saying they are aware of the local impact. Rosenberger said he views the budget and collective bargaining reform as related, but separate issues.
"This is not an immediate fix for a budget gap," Rosenberger said. "This is a long-term solution to getting Ohio on the right track. These are two separate issues. We're looking at the budget issue as a whole, and we realize we need to make cuts to local government, but we also need to give them tools to work with, and this is one of those tools to assist the local level."
Senate Bill 5, the controversial collective bargaining reform bill, passed during a vote Wednesday, 17-16. The Bill will now move to the Ohio House.
Sen. Shannon Jones (R-Springboro) introduced Senate Bill 5, which has the support of Gov. John Kasich and would eliminate collective bargaining for certain state employees - including police officers, firefighters and teachers, among others - and base future pay rates and increases on merit.
Last week, Ohio's 17th District Sen. David Daniels (R-Greenfield) told the Highland County Press that he was working on an amendment to the bill and that he supported "collective bargaining reform in some manner," and on Wednesday, he voted for the bill's passage.
On Wednesday, Daniels said that he wished there could have been more cooperation from "both sides of the aisle" and from the people the bill impacts, in order to come to a reasonable solution.
Additionally, the Senator said it was a tough decision, and that more tough decisions are in Ohio's future.
"When Senate Bill came to the floor today it had several changes since the bill was introduced and moderated the bill to some degree," Daniels said. "I was disappointed we didn't have more participation from labor, and I am disappointed we didn't have a back and forth between the other side of the aisles. Ultimately, what we have done is try to restore some balance, and try to give local communities some tools to deal with some of the problems we're going to face financially as a result of the state budget. There has been a tremendous amount of emotion and hype on both sides of this, and hopefully as the bill moves through the House it will be improved, and they will really talk about what the bill does and doesn't do."
One thing the bill does, he said, is help local governments cope with what will be a large cut in state funding.
"First of all, in light of the problems that we face as a result of an $8 billion budget shortfall, and 85 percent coming back to some unit of local government to administer, it's going to give them some ability to control the cost and manage personnel. Everyone has been crying that we're doing this and what's being done is blaming public workers for the state budget shortfall. That's simply not true. Employees and local employees did not cause the problem we're in now. But we have to realize that local communities because of the pass-through effect of the state budget are going to have to deal with it. When we talked to mayors, when we talked to county commissioners, they said in order to manage through these things, these are the tools they are going to have to have. It's our hope that everyone who is employed right now will keep their job and will continue to provide the great services they do to the taxpayers of Ohio."
Daniels said that he wished more people had been willing to engage in discussions that could have a resulted in a solution everyone could have agreed on.
"The biggest disappointment is that labor simply didn't come to the table and work on this bill," Daniels said. "This bill deals with collective bargaining, which is two sides coming together for a common solution, and I think that we were more than willing to compromise, as indicated by the fact that the bill did change some. We took some ideas from the comments we got during testimony, some comments made during the process, and it's difficult to come to an agreement on collective bargaining when one side simply walks away from the table."
Daniels said that SB 5 involved some difficult decisions, which is only the beginning of the tough decisions that are ahead as the state works through the budget.
"This is an extra difficult decision," Daniels said. "In light of the problems that we face as a state, there are going to be more difficult decisions ahead. It is best that everyone focus on the problems that we have and try to come to some solutions in a very respectful way to address the concerns of everyone. If we continue to not engage in the process as we go through the budget, it's not going to be in the best interest of the citizens of Ohio. If they agree with a position or don't agree, they need to make sure they engage, and that will allow us to make the changes that are in the best interest of the state of Ohio."
According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Jay McDonald, president of the FOP of Ohio, said the bill under the most recent changes is worse than the original. 'This local resolution ensures that no employer has any reason to bargain in good faith...because they get to dictate the terms at the end.'"
The FOP and the Ohio Education Association had protests planned for Wednesday and asked that its members continue to contact their legislators to slow down the bill's movement through the Senate, saying that it needed more time and more discussion.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairperson Chris Redfern said Wednesday that the bill will "destroy communities."
"By a single vote, the Ohio Senate has approved a bill that will weaken the middle class, kill jobs and destroy communities. I commend our Democratic leaders in the State Senate, who never wavered in their efforts to kill this bill," Redfern said. "In the past three weeks, we have seen energy from the grassroots of our party like never before. Thousands upon thousands rallied at the Statehouse, wrote letters to the editor, made phone calls and gave small dollar donations for the first time. While 17 Republican Senators may have ignored the will of the people today, this battle continues. Should this awful legislation go through the House and should John Kasich sign it into law, middle class families across Ohio can rest assured that the Ohio Democratic Party will continue to fight for them, bring this bill to a referendum and win. The police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees who proudly serve our state deserve nothing less."
Ohio's 86th District Representative Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) told The Highland County Press Wednesday that he looks forward to hearing both sides of the argument as it moves to the House.
"SB 5 just passed in the Senate and has moved to the House and will be assigned to committee shortly," Rosenberger said. "I look forward to making an informed decision when I cast my vote. I look forward to taking the Bill up here in the House and hearing the discussions and see what happens if it comes to the floor for a vote."
Rosenberger said that he has heard from some constituents on the matter, but he hopes that more people from the district will weigh in as he goes through the decision-making process. He said that Wednesday he met with two teachers from the District.
"I am always eager to hear from constituents, and their opinions weigh heavily on my mind," he said. "I think we're going to hear from a lot more people now. I've heard from teachers on the local level, and I've heard from some firefighters, and we're responding to them. I didn't comment before because it was not in our House at that point. I am anxious to hear what is going on, and I plan on being in the district to talk to more people."
As the state is working cut an estimated $8 billion in order to balance the next two-year budget, lawmakers are saying they are aware of the local impact. Rosenberger said he views the budget and collective bargaining reform as related, but separate issues. However, collective bargaining reform is a tool, he said, that will help local governments deal with the cuts.
"This is not an immediate fix for a budget gap," Rosenberger said. "This is a long-term solution to getting Ohio on the right track. These are two separate issues. We're looking at the budget issue as a whole, and we realize we need to make cuts to local government, but we also need to give them tools to work with, and this is one of those tools to assist the local level."
[[In-content Ad]]
