Reaction to My Senate Bill 5 Column

By Mike Scinto

Columnist

Appearing in the Kettering-Oakwood Times-Times Community Newspapers

My column last week generated more email than any in recent months. It was actually fairly evenly divided; which surprised me. Normally only those who want to take exception to something I said bother writing. There was very little middle ground. People either commended me for my stand supporting SB 5, and ending collective bargaining for government workers, or they painted me as a man who despises our teachers, firefighters and policemen. They suggested that I don’t care what these brave individuals are paid, or the conditions under which they’re required to work.

            I feel the need to correct any misconceptions. At the risk of sounding patronizing, I have policemen in my family and some of my very best friends have served on the force. I can’t say I am close to any firefighters in my circle of friends and family but have the utmost admiration and respect for that chosen career. As far as teachers; having two children I understand intimately the amount of dedication and work that goes into that profession by devoted individuals.

            My remarks and concerns have nothing to do with the jobs these professionals perform. It doesn’t address their relative worth, or whether they are being compensated justly for their job performance. It has to do with the hard, cold facts facing this state as we go forward. We’re broke. We need to make cuts and all have to absorb, or deal with those cuts. It can’t be done when automatic pay raises, benefits and job protection is guaranteed by contract to 350,000 state employees, especially when the well is dry.

            State employees should be paid, retained and rewarded just like those of us in the private sector; based on our merit and job performance. We in the “real job world” don’t get automatic raises or have protection from a boss who feels we need to take a pay cut, or our position be eliminated altogether, to meet budgetary requirements.

            As Important and necessary those jobs I outlined are, ask any breadwinner in the private sector and he/she (and their family) is likely to feel his/her job is equally important and critical. And those in the private sector don’t enjoy those safeguards and protections. Just ask some of your neighbors who, after 20 years on the job with an unblemished work record, are now collecting unemployment. And those individuals are still (even with their unemployment checks) paying taxes to meet those contractual requirements of job protection for their government counterparts. Is that fair?

            We would all like guarantees. We would all like good retirement and health care benefits. But the reality is, you can’t get blood from a turnip. And the Buckeye turnip is dry. The only way to fix it is to put government employees on the same playing field as the rest of us. And that is hopefully what SB 5 will accomplish. And in the long run, it will be better for us all. It has nothing to do with hating unions, any profession or those with opposing views on this. It has to do with the “new normal” for our states, and nation’s economies.