Banjo music and mean ol' Republicans
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
Any time Ted Strickland is referencing banjo music you just know it’s going to be one of those weeks.
Yes, The Highland County Press – and many others – received a partisan email from Turnaround Ted this past Monday entitled “Play your banjo well…”
The gist of the anti-Senate Bill 5 political correspondence was this:
According to Ted,
• If you think, as I do, that the Republicans’ attack on the middle class is wrong, you should speak up.
• If you think, as I do, that balancing a budget on the backs of police officers, firefighters and teachers is unfair, then you should speak up.
• If you think, as I do, that working together we can stop John Kasich and the Republicans, then you need to speak up now.
This political propaganda really didn’t bother me. It was sent on behalf of the Ohio Democratic Party, and that’s just the type of rhetoric I’ve come to expect from both major political parties. They’re much more focused on trite sound bites than actually solving the problems. Neither party has a corner on the trite – or tripe! – market.
What does bother me, however, and what ought to bother a lot of taxpayers, is when a public, taxpayer-funded resource is used for similar political partisanship.
Since the General Assembly’s recent passage of Senate Bill 5, I have received public emails from a local public school district and a local public college in protest of the bill, which we’re told will rein in spending on public salaries, benefits and pensions by approximately $1.27 billion annually, according to a recent Reuters report.
Without doubt, more emails from public offices will be forthcoming.
On Monday, April 4, the communications office of Shawnee State University dispatched the following:
“Spend an evening with some members of the local labor unions and Shawnee State University to discuss how collective bargaining rights are affected with Senate Bill 5… Dr. Andrew Feight, associate professor of history, and Dr. Chip Poirot, professor of economics at SSU, will be discussing SB5, along with Tony Hamilton, president of Local 512,
International Association of Firefighters, and Austin Keyser, business manager of IBEW Local 575. The event is a student-organized effort.”
The claim that it’s a “student-organized effort” is absolutely priceless. Union officials couldn’t have written it any better – even if they tried.
There’s something inherently unfair to taxpayers, though, who labor away in the private sector and continue to face higher taxes, more levies and increases in tuition, all the while realizing that the majority of them will never enjoy comparable earnings, benefits and pensions, regardless of their academic achievement and work experience.
To add insult to injury, the private-sector tax dollars often help fund resources for political partisanship; in this case, an organized opposition to Ohio Senate Bill 5.
Before the Shawnee State email, I’d received a similar notice from someone with a Hillsboro City Schools email. This one linked the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. with an organized opposition to Senate Bill 5.
The email read:
“Join your friends and neighbors, working middle class Americans, both union and non-union public and private employees on April 3 to begin the weeklong remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr’s (sic) dreams. With solidarity, we must unite to support Working Peoples’ (sic) Rights.
“On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.
“Beginning with worship services over the April 1 weekend, and continuing through the week of April 4, unions, people of faith, civil and human rights activists, students and other progressive allies will host a range of community and workplace-focused actions.
“Join us in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for. ...Weather permitting, we will gather on the front lawn of the church. We will pray, sing, talk about Dr. King and, Ohio Senate Bill 5, the threat to his dream,
THE VERY REAL THREAT TO OUR DREAMS AND LIVELYHOODS. (sic)...”
I shared these notes, which were sent from taxpayer-funded – i.e. public – email accounts, with a few friends in public offices. They were appalled, but not at all surprised. One suggested that it’s only going to get worse.
Really? How much worse? Are public educators going to encourage students to go door-to-door on their behalf?
To this point in the column, I’ve not expressed an opinion on Senate Bill 5.
But I do have an opinion on the apparent misuse of taxpayer resources. Schools, colleges, universities and other public entities ought to leave the politicking for their own time and their own resources.
The respective unions have already guaranteed that this issue will be on the November 2011 ballot. From this point forward, let’s not force taxpayers to unwittingly contribute to the debate – for either side.
Private-sector taxpayers are at a disadvantage when government employees use public resources for ways in which they were not intended. And each time a public official abuses these resources, taxpayers are less likely to support his or her efforts in opposition to SB5 – or any other issue.
Do you – or your respective boards and administrations – really want a local citizen or two to seek copies of all your public emails? If not, stop abusing the privilege.
* * *
One or two loyal HCP readers (from their own, personal email accounts!) sent this Columbus Dispatch editorial on SB5 to me this week. It reads, in part:
“Opponents of the bill, which substantially reduces the power of unions to influence public spending, characterize it as an attack on teachers, police, firefighters and civil servants. It isn’t.
“What Senate Bill 5 addresses is a serious imbalance in power over the public purse in Ohio that evolved over the 30 years since the collective-bargaining law was passed. The law gave unions the ability to make virtually all aspects of their employment subject to bargaining. Political expedience led many school boards, city councils and other local governments to acquiesce to unions’ demands. When unions and local governments did reach a bargaining impasse, in many cases binding-arbitration rules put the outcome – and thus, the public’s budget – in the hands of an unaccountable third party. That never has been sound public policy, but it was accepted when economic conditions supported it. Now, it is inappropriate and unsustainable. Ohio is in dire financial straits. Restoring taxpayer control over labor costs isn’t just essential to coping with a huge budget deficit; it also is fair and appropriate.
“None of that reflects poorly on the value of public employees or their work.”
The editorial goes on and concludes with this: “The state and local communities have reached a point where those burdens simply can’t be borne anymore without asking taxpayers, many of whom have faced stagnant wages and shrinking benefits, to give even more. That inability to pay more is compounded by the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who have lost their jobs and therefore can make no contribution at all.”
What too many public employees fail to realize – or simply choose to ignore – is that their annual salaries of $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 or more no longer places them in the “middle class.” No, in this day and age in rural, southern Ohio, these earners are in the upper class – at least as the term refers to personal income.
I was told last week that I have no idea how many hours a public official works. Frankly, I think I do. But let’s play along. If someone works 52 weeks a year and works 60 hours a week for all 52 weeks, and earns $75,000 a year, that’s still $24 an hour. And $24 an hour, even at a 40-hour work week, results in $50,000 a year, more than twice the per capita income in Highland County and more than the average household income in the county.
These wages do not reflect vacations, sick time, or benefits and pensions – which typically add another 22 percent to the total compensation package.
This does not mean for an instant that Ohio communities do not respect and appreciate their teachers, law enforcement and firefighters, etc. I have spoken with teachers, police officers and firefighters and found all of them to be very reasonable on SB5.
Seriously, what more can anyone want when he/she is earning $50,000 or more, plus benefits in a county that’s been among the top in the state in unemployment for three years? And when those earning above $75,000 or $80,000 a year try to lead the fight, it’s just absurd.
There are, of course, many reasonable individuals among the public workers.
Unfortunately, at the same time there are many people being reasonable, the unions have been anything but. They oppose any significant reform.
And, there was no real compromise at the Ohio Statehouse, either. Democrats offered no amendments to the bill, even when one reasonable option would have been to end binding arbitration, while continuing to allow for the right to strike. At least that way, all parties have “skin in the game.”
Let’s remember, there are a lot of well-educated and experienced unemployed – or underemployed – workers in Ohio right now who are growing weary of this debate. There is a reason.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
Yes, The Highland County Press – and many others – received a partisan email from Turnaround Ted this past Monday entitled “Play your banjo well…”
The gist of the anti-Senate Bill 5 political correspondence was this:
According to Ted,
• If you think, as I do, that the Republicans’ attack on the middle class is wrong, you should speak up.
• If you think, as I do, that balancing a budget on the backs of police officers, firefighters and teachers is unfair, then you should speak up.
• If you think, as I do, that working together we can stop John Kasich and the Republicans, then you need to speak up now.
This political propaganda really didn’t bother me. It was sent on behalf of the Ohio Democratic Party, and that’s just the type of rhetoric I’ve come to expect from both major political parties. They’re much more focused on trite sound bites than actually solving the problems. Neither party has a corner on the trite – or tripe! – market.
What does bother me, however, and what ought to bother a lot of taxpayers, is when a public, taxpayer-funded resource is used for similar political partisanship.
Since the General Assembly’s recent passage of Senate Bill 5, I have received public emails from a local public school district and a local public college in protest of the bill, which we’re told will rein in spending on public salaries, benefits and pensions by approximately $1.27 billion annually, according to a recent Reuters report.
Without doubt, more emails from public offices will be forthcoming.
On Monday, April 4, the communications office of Shawnee State University dispatched the following:
“Spend an evening with some members of the local labor unions and Shawnee State University to discuss how collective bargaining rights are affected with Senate Bill 5… Dr. Andrew Feight, associate professor of history, and Dr. Chip Poirot, professor of economics at SSU, will be discussing SB5, along with Tony Hamilton, president of Local 512,
International Association of Firefighters, and Austin Keyser, business manager of IBEW Local 575. The event is a student-organized effort.”
The claim that it’s a “student-organized effort” is absolutely priceless. Union officials couldn’t have written it any better – even if they tried.
There’s something inherently unfair to taxpayers, though, who labor away in the private sector and continue to face higher taxes, more levies and increases in tuition, all the while realizing that the majority of them will never enjoy comparable earnings, benefits and pensions, regardless of their academic achievement and work experience.
To add insult to injury, the private-sector tax dollars often help fund resources for political partisanship; in this case, an organized opposition to Ohio Senate Bill 5.
Before the Shawnee State email, I’d received a similar notice from someone with a Hillsboro City Schools email. This one linked the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. with an organized opposition to Senate Bill 5.
The email read:
“Join your friends and neighbors, working middle class Americans, both union and non-union public and private employees on April 3 to begin the weeklong remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr’s (sic) dreams. With solidarity, we must unite to support Working Peoples’ (sic) Rights.
“On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.
“Beginning with worship services over the April 1 weekend, and continuing through the week of April 4, unions, people of faith, civil and human rights activists, students and other progressive allies will host a range of community and workplace-focused actions.
“Join us in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for. ...Weather permitting, we will gather on the front lawn of the church. We will pray, sing, talk about Dr. King and, Ohio Senate Bill 5, the threat to his dream,
THE VERY REAL THREAT TO OUR DREAMS AND LIVELYHOODS. (sic)...”
I shared these notes, which were sent from taxpayer-funded – i.e. public – email accounts, with a few friends in public offices. They were appalled, but not at all surprised. One suggested that it’s only going to get worse.
Really? How much worse? Are public educators going to encourage students to go door-to-door on their behalf?
To this point in the column, I’ve not expressed an opinion on Senate Bill 5.
But I do have an opinion on the apparent misuse of taxpayer resources. Schools, colleges, universities and other public entities ought to leave the politicking for their own time and their own resources.
The respective unions have already guaranteed that this issue will be on the November 2011 ballot. From this point forward, let’s not force taxpayers to unwittingly contribute to the debate – for either side.
Private-sector taxpayers are at a disadvantage when government employees use public resources for ways in which they were not intended. And each time a public official abuses these resources, taxpayers are less likely to support his or her efforts in opposition to SB5 – or any other issue.
Do you – or your respective boards and administrations – really want a local citizen or two to seek copies of all your public emails? If not, stop abusing the privilege.
* * *
One or two loyal HCP readers (from their own, personal email accounts!) sent this Columbus Dispatch editorial on SB5 to me this week. It reads, in part:
“Opponents of the bill, which substantially reduces the power of unions to influence public spending, characterize it as an attack on teachers, police, firefighters and civil servants. It isn’t.
“What Senate Bill 5 addresses is a serious imbalance in power over the public purse in Ohio that evolved over the 30 years since the collective-bargaining law was passed. The law gave unions the ability to make virtually all aspects of their employment subject to bargaining. Political expedience led many school boards, city councils and other local governments to acquiesce to unions’ demands. When unions and local governments did reach a bargaining impasse, in many cases binding-arbitration rules put the outcome – and thus, the public’s budget – in the hands of an unaccountable third party. That never has been sound public policy, but it was accepted when economic conditions supported it. Now, it is inappropriate and unsustainable. Ohio is in dire financial straits. Restoring taxpayer control over labor costs isn’t just essential to coping with a huge budget deficit; it also is fair and appropriate.
“None of that reflects poorly on the value of public employees or their work.”
The editorial goes on and concludes with this: “The state and local communities have reached a point where those burdens simply can’t be borne anymore without asking taxpayers, many of whom have faced stagnant wages and shrinking benefits, to give even more. That inability to pay more is compounded by the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who have lost their jobs and therefore can make no contribution at all.”
What too many public employees fail to realize – or simply choose to ignore – is that their annual salaries of $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 or more no longer places them in the “middle class.” No, in this day and age in rural, southern Ohio, these earners are in the upper class – at least as the term refers to personal income.
I was told last week that I have no idea how many hours a public official works. Frankly, I think I do. But let’s play along. If someone works 52 weeks a year and works 60 hours a week for all 52 weeks, and earns $75,000 a year, that’s still $24 an hour. And $24 an hour, even at a 40-hour work week, results in $50,000 a year, more than twice the per capita income in Highland County and more than the average household income in the county.
These wages do not reflect vacations, sick time, or benefits and pensions – which typically add another 22 percent to the total compensation package.
This does not mean for an instant that Ohio communities do not respect and appreciate their teachers, law enforcement and firefighters, etc. I have spoken with teachers, police officers and firefighters and found all of them to be very reasonable on SB5.
Seriously, what more can anyone want when he/she is earning $50,000 or more, plus benefits in a county that’s been among the top in the state in unemployment for three years? And when those earning above $75,000 or $80,000 a year try to lead the fight, it’s just absurd.
There are, of course, many reasonable individuals among the public workers.
Unfortunately, at the same time there are many people being reasonable, the unions have been anything but. They oppose any significant reform.
And, there was no real compromise at the Ohio Statehouse, either. Democrats offered no amendments to the bill, even when one reasonable option would have been to end binding arbitration, while continuing to allow for the right to strike. At least that way, all parties have “skin in the game.”
Let’s remember, there are a lot of well-educated and experienced unemployed – or underemployed – workers in Ohio right now who are growing weary of this debate. There is a reason.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]