Erie County commissioners passage of a resolution Monday opposing Ohio's union busting Senate Bill 5 is an example of effective political pressure from citizens. Sure, the resolution is symbolic and SB 5 will probably pass in the House of Representatives this week. And there was some political calculation in the vote.
Commissioners Thomas Ferrell, Bill Monaghan and Patrick Shenigo - all Democrats - were certainly aware they would've taken more heat from their constituents who are union members than from Republican Gov. John Kasich. Nonetheless, they deserve credit.
The resolution undercuts the primary premise of SB 5: that local leaders need a law outlawing strikes and severely restricting collective bargaining because the bargaining playing field isn't level and unions don't negotiate in good faith.
"Erie County has maintained sound labor relations and has found that, even when we disagree, we have shown that we can work toward common goals respectfully and professionally," the resolution reads in part. "Even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, Erie County public employees worked with their commissioners and supervisors to maintain (the) highest quality services with minimal staff disruptions."
Besides paving the way for privtization and accelerating the race to the bottom, SB 5 could disenfranchise voters in a political power grab masquerading as fiscal discipline. By declaring an "economic crisis" Kasich could appoint emergency financial managers and strip local elected officials of their power.
I personally witnessed this last year while a reporter covering the city of Benton Harbor, an impoverished town of about 10,000 in southwestern Michigan. Among the first moves the Benton Harbor EFM made was to propose eliminating the already understaffed Benton Harbor Fire Department.
In fairness, Benton Harbor local leaders had mismanged money for years, but new Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this month got a law passed that could make financial takeovers the rule, not the exception http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/michigan-governor-signs-emergency-managers-bill/c87e78330ebf4bb6a2b631b088395ff1
Ferrell worries about SB 5 causing state financial takeovers in Ohio.
"It doesn't even state who declares the economic crisis," Ferrell said. "We feel the county commissioners are the ones that (should) state what an economic crisis is. Not someone from the state of Ohio, not the Erie County auditor. Because, basically, we control all the budgets. We vote on the budgets."
The commissioners also recognized that while they might make short-term gains at the bargaining table, the long-term effect would be less tax revenue. Exorbitant increases in benefits is essentially a wage cut meaning workers have less to spend.
That means less sales tax revenue which is already down in Erie County and around the nation. This thanks to the Great Recession which was caused by tax cuts, tax caps and financial deregulation which Kasich voted for while a congressman.
The approximately $8 billion shortfall in Ohio that Kasich has used as cover to bust public unions and privatize public jobs and the shortfalls other Republican governors are manipulating, weren't caused by overly generous wages and benefits. While healthcare benefit premiums had double digit increases in the past decade, last year total benefit increases were 0.6 percent for local and and state government workers. Total compensation rose just 1.8 percent for local and state government workers compared to 2.1 percent for private sector workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm That's down from 2.3 percent in total compensation in 2009.
Rather than regressive measures like SB 5, local politicians like the commissioners need real tools to dig out of the financial hole caused through no fault of their own. Economist Jack Rasmus makes several good recommendations http://ko-kr.connect.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=170570316324343
I detailed some of them to commissioners during the public speaking portion of Monday's commission meeting and in a Monday letter sent to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. The proposals include reintroducing the Build America Bonds subsidy to reduce municipal bond borrowing costs. A bank tax would pay for it.
The Federal Reserve Bank - which had no problem lending trillions to the big banks which crashed the economy - should provide $500 billion in bridge loans over the next two years to state and local governments with pension fund gaps below 85 percent. The Pension Fund Act of 2006 should be amended to prohibit investments in hedge funds and other risky speculative deals like financial derivatives.
And to prevent corporations from pitting communities against one another, I asked Brown to sponsor legislation with three-year tax penalties to companies who relocate for lower taxes with the penalty being the equivalent of the tax difference. Corporate welfare extorted from communities to entice companies in or keep them from moving out is robbing cities and states of revenue for essential services and improving their crumbling infrastructure.
There's some truth to the old saying that, "we get the government we deserve." But because of the enormous financial clout that corporations have over politicians, one person, one vote, doesn't have the power that it should.
But we can influence politicians by involvement rather than using the convenient excuse that they're all corrupt to do nothing. Assuming SB 5 passes, we'll have 90 days to gather 231,149 signatures in 44 Ohio counties to get an initiative on the ballot in November to overturn SB 5.
What happened Monday with the Erie County commissioners shows it can be done. It's the first step in a long journey.
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