Ohio lawmakers: Vote for me and I'll give myself a raise!

By Rory Ryan
The Highland County Press

Question: How many candidates for the Ohio General Assembly on Nov. 4 campaigned on a platform of “Vote for me and I’ll give myself a raise?”

Moreover, how many candidates for the Ohio General Assembly on Nov. 4 campaigned on a platform of “Vote for me and I’ll give myself a raise – and I’ll guarantee myself and other lawmakers an annual raise ad infinitum?”

Beginning in 2015, House Bill 661 reinstates the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) that previously was applied to General Assembly members' salaries, and applies the COLA in 2015 and in each calendar year thereafter.

That is a tremendous fiscal overreach by the ultra-liberal Republicans.

How many of the supporters (mostly Republicans) of House Bill 661 campaigned on the platform of "Vote for me and I'll give myself a raise before Christmas?”

(If you missed this weekend’s story in The Highland County Press, simply go to https://highlandcountypress.com/Content/In-The-News/In-The-News/Article/Four-weeks-after-election-Ohio-House-approves-pay-increases/2/20/25407 and you’ll be up to speed.)

If nothing else, you’ve got to hand it to the Ohio Republican majority. To borrow a phrase from those famous PGA golf commercials, these guys are good.

These tax-and-spend Republicans are real good, in fact. Almost shameless. (And the adverb before “shameless” probably isn’t necessary.)

Almost exactly one month after the Nov. 4 general election, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill to increase their own already comfortable salaries – for minimal work – and those of elected county officials.

By a 56-26 vote (with 16 not voting), the House passed HB 661, which was interestingly introduced by 75-year-old State Rep. Gerald Stebelton, R-Lancaster, who is serving his final term. Some might call this political expediency or, in sports terms, taking one for the team.

The Ohio Senate, meanwhile, passed a resolution (SJR 9) that would establish an independent board to determine pay levels for Ohio’s elected public officials.

Rest assured, Senate Joint Resolution 9 is nothing more than political showmanship to make voters – and taxpayers – think they are part of the process. We aren't.

To their credit, southwest Ohio lawmakers Doug Green, a Brown County Republican, and John Becker, a Clermont County Republican, voted against the pay hikes. So did Rep. Jim Butler, a Republican lawmaker who had been in contention for the House speakership in 2015.

State Rep. Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, who represents the 91st House District, which includes Highland County, voted in favor of the salary increases.

With all due respect to the elder statesmen from Lancaster who took one for the team, let’s leave it to your imagination as to which of these lawmakers better represent the once Republican principles of a smaller, more efficient government and which one prefers a more costly state government.

In a letter to county officials that was sent to The Highland County Press last week, the Ohio Council of County Officials offered support for both HB 661 and the Ohio Senate’s concept of a pay commission, subject to voters’ approval.

The latter would be less reprehensible than the former.

“Since it (the Senate plan) must go before the electorate as a constitutional amendment, its eventual creation is by no means certain,” the council said. “In the meantime, county officials have been without even a cost-of-living increase since 2008, and we strongly urge you to enact HB 661 to provide needed and fair pay adjustments in the coming few years. The two pieces of legislation – HB 661 and SJR 9 – are not mutually exclusive, and we do not have a problem with both of them being passed. But the passage of HB 661 before the Legislature adjourns for this session is extremely important to us.”

One can imagine it is.

Anytime you can simply raise your own pay arbitrarily, why not do it? And if you can pass legislation to ensure annual raises from 2015 until the end of time – all at taxpayers’ expense – why not do that?

But you shouldn’t be campaigning as a conservative Republican once you choose this tax-and-spend philosophy.

The thought that public officials have been without a cost-of-living increase since 2008 is priceless. An even greater number of private-sector workers have been without a pay increase in the past six years. The big differences are these:

• 1. In addition to not receiving a raise in pay, their tax dollars pay for your lucrative salaries, benefits, health care and pensions.

• 2. They do not have the power to vote themselves a raise.

• 3. Once you increase the tax burden on the private-sector taxpayers, you will have, in essence, reduced their pay.

You really ought to be ashamed.

The Associated Press reported this gem of a paragraph on HB 661: “House Finance Chairman Ron Amstutz championed a yes vote on the pay raise bill, arguing that it was well-researched and had broad support among local government stakeholder groups.”

As we reported earlier, the irony that those who stand to get a pay raise do, in fact, support the bill was not mentioned.

Since the Republicans have claimed ownership of the mostly vacant governor’s mansion, most state offices and majorities in the Ohio House and Senate, one thing has remained constant: They have outspent the administration of former Gov. Ted Strickland, who they used to label “Taxin’ Ted.”

The trite alliteration may have been cute, but the title is more deserving of Compulsory Kasich and his GOP accomplices.

During 2014, the annual salary of a member of the General Assembly is $60,583. Members selected for leadership positions are paid even more.

For comparison, the Ohio per-capita income stands at $25,857, below the national level of $28,051. Ohio's median household income ($48,246) is less than the national average household income of $53,046. These numbers are from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2013.

A more conservative approach by the Ohio Republican majority – and one that many of us should champion – is to link the pay raises of government officials with the increases in the state’s household income. This would provide a real incentive for public officials to have skin in the game for job creation and economic development.

Imagine, if their pay raise were linked to higher standards of living across the state or across their respective House or Senate district. Instead of across-the-board pay hikes, a better bill in the Assembly would reward success and not reward failure.

Furthermore, what many in government are conveniently overlooking – or hoping taxpayers don’t notice – is that with each increase in salary comes an increase in the public “servant’s” taxpayer-funded pension. (A lot of these pensions are already underfunded.)

The politically-oriented website www.plunderbund.com offered this observation on the General Assembly last week:

“In the remaining days of Ohio’s lame-duck Legislature, lobbyists were as thick as thieves at the Statehouse in Columbus, where substitute bills were accepted for two controversial bills, HB 661 and HB 5.

“The former bill, controversial because it dares to set automatic pay raises for elected officials well into the future, remained in the House Finance and Appropriations committee following acceptance of a sub-bill today. The latter bill, likewise controversial because it messes with revenue sources cities depend on to operate.”

By the way, House Bill 5’s opposition is more bipartisan across Ohio’s municipalities than HB 661’s support is in the GOP Assembly. The sad reality, though, is that Republican officeholders on the local level continue to write campaign checks to the state GOP and will rarely, if ever, call out their own party. That’s a shame. A little criticism from within would go a long way.

Matt A. Mayer, the CEO of Opportunity Ohio and Chief Operational Officer of The Liberty Foundation of America, recently made this observation:

“{Ohio Gov. John} Kasich is lucky that the Democrats in Ohio are so inept – they’ve won over the last 20 years just one gubernatorial race, one attorney general race, and one treasurer race, as well as a short-lived two-year Ohio House majority in 2006 when the anti-Bush midterm wave crushed Republicans. In fact, other than those four wins, Republicans have controlled all statewide offices and the Ohio General Assembly since 1995.

“These more interesting numbers reveal that Kasich’s win was really just another chapter in that book. It also points to problems Kasich will have in getting past his Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, higher state spending and tax shifting approach with Republican base voters. Kasich’s minimal improvement over his 2010 vote total indicates an underlying weakness.

“Wisconsin Governor and potential presidential candidate Scott Walker seems acutely aware of Kasich’s vulnerability. It wasn’t accidental that he took a direct shot at Kasich in a news interview four days after the election when asked about Kasich’s invocation of St. Peter to justify his expansion of Medicaid. ‘It’s probably not fair to ask the son of a preacher to use biblical metaphors. My reading of the Bible finds plenty of reminders that it’s better to teach someone to fish than to give them fish if they’re able,’ Walker stated bluntly. ‘Caring for the poor isn’t the same as taking money from the federal government to lock more people into Medicaid.’ Ouch.”

Kasich, of course, may, indeed, run for president again. He might even convince Hillary or Uncle Joe to be on his short list for VP. They all like Big Government, after all.

Maybe he can persuade a few of his acolytes in the General Assembly to go along for the ride. One can hope. They'll fit in quite nicely in the nation's capital.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.