Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Editorial: Right-size benefits
School districts can sell tax levies by promising to curb overgenerous benefits
Friday, October 9, 2009 2:55 AM

Most of the school districts asking voters for more tax money on the Nov. 3 ballots could have a powerful, persuasive tool, if only they would choose to use it: a pledge to bring their employees' pay and benefits in line with the marketplace.

Like the consultant's study that showed Columbus city employees have far more-generous health and pension plans than most private-sector employees and employees of similar cities, a Dispatch analysis on Monday showed that Franklin County school districts are similarly generous with health-care benefits.

Four of those districts -- Reynoldsburg, South-Western, Westerville and Worthington -- have tax requests on the ballot. Seventeen more school districts in neighboring counties also have placed issues on the ballot.

All four of the districts in Franklin County offer health-insurance plans significantly more expensive than the average among central Ohio employers. Yet school employees pay far less out of their own pockets for those policies than the average central Ohio worker pays for less coverage.

In many districts, most famously South-Western, voters repeatedly have turned down levies and programs have been cut to the bone, leaving students without school buses, sports and extracurricular activities and with larger classes and fewer courses from which to choose.

Some teachers' and administrators' organizations have agreed to wage freezes, but many of those still enjoy increases in their paychecks, because of provisions that mandate automatic pay increases tied to years on the job.

Many voters who don't work for school districts, meanwhile, have lost jobs or benefits or have had their pay frozen or cut in the past year's recession. These Ohioans understandably are unimpressed with school districts that won't make comparable cuts.

School-employee benefits can't b

By Columbus Dispatch 10/9

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School-employee benefits can't be changed overnight. Most school employees are unionized, with pay and benefits locked in place until contracts expire.

But the elected officials who sign those contracts and spend tax dollars to pay for them can make clear their intent to make necessary changes when the time comes for contracts to be renewed.

To say that school-employee benefits are too high is not to slam those employees or to doubt the importance of their work. It is simply to recognize an imbalance that, in the current brutal economy, can't be sustained.

Historically, public-employee benefits were relatively rich to compensate for pay levels that were lower than in the private sector. But in most cases, public-sector pay levels caught up with the private sector long ago, and still the rich benefits remain. The public is catching onto this and growing less likely to vote to keep bankrolling the imbalance.

School districts that want to win the votes of financially strapped residents will have a better chance at the polls if they show they understand that.