Public Employees saved $1billion for tax payers

A new report has looked at collective bargaining compromises in Ohio and found that public employees have saved their employers and taxpayers a substantial amount of money (over $1 billion).

Among the findings:

• Public union workers have saved taxpayers $1,059,881,500 billion through collective bargaining concessions since 2008.
• Teachers and support staff accepted wage freezes in more than 90 percent of collective bargaining agreements this year – concessions not tallied in this report because they are not yet available.
• Last year, at least 65 percent of public employee contracts included at least 1 year of wage freezes, some furlough days, reduced compensation, rollovers or economic re-openers.
• Some of the lowest-paid public employees – non-teaching personnel such as custodians – have gone up to eight years without a pay increase in exchange for stable health care costs.
• A Warren police officer blames cuts in safety forces for the injuries he sustained while rescuing people from a burning building in which one person died.
• More than two-thirds of all teachers’ contracts increased employee insurance premium contributions or significantly changed their health plans, with the savings often used to improve educational opportunities for students.
• More than 93 percent of public workers already pay for their own pension contribution, with no pick-up from their employers.
• On average, county and state employees pay more than 15 percent for their health care plans.

Public Employees Shared Sacrifice Report

SB5 arguments language

Here's the language for the yes and NO on issue 2 that will appear on the ballots

Argument and Explanation in Opposition to Issue 2

VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2, REPEAL SB 5 UNSAFE, UNFAIR AND HURTS OHIO'S MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES

UNSAFE

• Issue 2 puts all our families' safety at risk—making it harder for emergency responders, police and firefighters to negotiate for critical safety equipment and training that protects us all.
• Issue 2 will make our nursing shortage worse. It makes it illegal for nurses, hospital and clinic workers to demand reasonable safe staffing levels—so nurses will juggle more patients while their salaries and benefits are cut.

Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters say NO on Issue 2

UNFAIR

• The same Columbus politicians who call for "shared sacrifice" exploited a loophole, giving a special exception to politicians and upper management.
• Ohio's public employees have already sacrificed—saving Ohio taxpayers over $350 million through concessions, including pay freezes and unpaid furlough days.
• It's not Ohio values to let firefighters, police and teachers lose their rights and see wages and benefits gutted, while insiders, politicians and people at the top sacrifice nothing.

HURTS US ALL

• Instead of creating jobs to fix our economy, politicians like Governor Kasich gave away hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks—draining our state budget while Ohio continues to lose jobs—and passed flawed laws like SB 5 to pay back their campaign donors.
• Teachers, nurses, firefighters are not the reason Ohio's budget is in trouble. Big corporations. their high-paid lobbyists and the politicians they fund are blaming middle class Ohioans for a problem they caused.

Issue 2: Another example of the politicians turning their backs on Ohio's middle class.
Send Them a Message- Stop Working for the Special Interests. Start Working for We the People.
VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2

Official Argument and Explanation for Issue 2

Vote YES on Issue 2

A YES vote on Issue 2 will make long overdue reforms to unfair and costly government employment practices in Ohio, while helping to get government spending under control and making government more accountable to taxpayers.
Your YES vote on Issue 2 will:

Protect Good Teachers and Improve Our Schools

• Issue 2 keeps the best teachers in the classroom by ending the unfair practice of seniority-based layoffs, which forces struggling schools to cut many of our best teachers first.
• Issue 2 returns control of our schools to taxpayers by bringing increased transparency to teacher contract negotiations.
• Issue 2 enables schools to retain and reward good teachers by allowing them to base pay raises on job performance.

Restore Balance and Ensure Fairness

• Issue 2 ensures that government employees receive quality health care, but asks them to pay a mere 15% of their health insurance coverage, which is still less than half of what the average private sector worker pays (31%).
• Issue 2 asks government employees to make a fair contribution (10%) to their taxpayer funded retirement plans instead of requiring taxpayers to provide these pension benefits for free. Many private sector workers get no retirement benefits at all.
• Issue 2 allows good job performance to be considered when awarding pay raises to government employees. Private sector workers earn their paychecks by doing a good job, and so should government employees.

Get Spending Under Control, Retain Jobs, and Protect Taxpayers

• Issue 2 will save our communities millions of dollars annually, helping them balance their budgets and retain jobs.
• Issue 2 will protect taxpayers by giving them the right to reject unaffordable government employment contracts.
• Issue 2 is the right change at the right time

Vote YES on Issue 2

Ohio Issue 2 arguments

Why We Care

• S.B. 5 is a jobs killer. It will only weaken the Middle Class by destroying good, working-class jobs that families and communities depend on.
• S.B. 5 will hurt businesses. Stores, gas stations, restaurants and other merchants in communities across the state will be forced to lay off workers. Or worse, they’ll have to close their doors, because Middle Class Ohioans will no longer be able to afford to patronize those establishments.
• Public Employees are our neighbors. They are firefighters, cops, teachers, prison guards, snowplow drivers, and social workers, to name a few. But they are also coaches, athletic and band boosters, church members, volunteer firefighters and charitable givers.
• Public employees are taxpayers. Public employees pay their taxes just like everyone else. Every payday, they pay the same percentage of income tax as every working Ohioan.
• S.B. 5 won’t balance the budget. Even if EVERY state employee was fired, it would barely save the state one-fourth of its gaping $8 billion budget deficit.
• S.B. 5 is part of a larger agenda and public workers are scapegoats. It’s a fact! S.B. 5 won’t balance the budget. It’s clear that anti-worker forces are using this to harm the Middle Class and kill jobs and the union rights they depend on.