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Friday, April 22, 2011
Bargaining bill’s savings overstated, schools say
Laura A. Bischoff, Josh Schweigart and I wrote these stories:
A state analysis released this week estimates Montgomery County school districts could save a combined $36 million annually from the passage of Senate Bill 5.
But some area school officials say the estimated savings for their districts are way off, with one charging the math appears to be more political than fiscal.
The Ohio Department of Administrative Services based its analysis on the assumption that eliminating step and longevity increases and requiring the school district’s employees to pay 15 percent of their health insurance premiums would save the district $3,566 per employee.
The findings suggest Dayton Public Schools, with 2,456 full-time employees, would save nearly $8.8 million a year.
But district Treasurer Stan Lucas said the most it would save is $2 million.
“Our employees already pay 15 percent of the premium so there’s nothing to be had there,” he said, noting the $2 million savings could come from eliminating the step increases. “I think their analysis needs further analysis,” he said.
Springfield City Schools Treasurer Chris Mohr called the assumptions flawed.
The analysis found it would save nearly $3.5 million a year, but Mohr pegged the savings at less than $1 million. About $770,000 would come from eliminating step increases and $46,685 from health insurance changes.
“(DAS) is obviously supporting Senate Bill 5 and promoting it,” Mohr said.
Dan Kaman, legislative liasion and spokesman for the Department of Administrative Services, said they did not do tailored calculations to figure out which of the state’s 719 school districts already pay close to 15 percent and which are far from it.
“If we had reached out to all these entities, it would have taken forever,” he said.
State estimates SB 5 savings at $829 million for districts
School districts across the state would save an estimated $829 million under the law restricting public employee compensation and collective bargaining rights, according to a state fiscal analysis of Senate Bill 5 by Ohio’s Department of Administrative Services.
The data released this week estimates school districts will save $486 per employee per year by requiring them to pay 15 percent of their health insurance premiums. That’s assuming employees currently pay 10.7 percent, the statewide average, according to DAS officials. The assumptions about how much would be saved from doing away with step and longevity increases, averaging $3,298 per worker, are based on pay increases given to state workers.
“Everybody’s step increases are different,” Springfield City Schools Treasurer Chris Mohr said, lamenting the state did not ask the school district to review its data before releasing it. District spokeswoman Kim Fish called it “irresponsible to mislead our community” with such data.
She said the school district has already saved $900,000 a year in health insurance costs. “We’ve been working really hard to realize this savings they are saying we now have to make,” she said. “We have already covered this ground.”
Kaman said his office wasn’t able to examine each of the state’s 719 school districts, joint vocational schools and educational service centers separately, but wanted to produce something “so that local school districts and local school boards know what kind of savings they have.”
“If this had been in place last year, this is how much we would have saved,” he said. Going forward, savings will be tempered while school districts wait for current union contracts to expire, he said. Pay cuts will not be retroactive once they do expire.
The DAS estimate does not include potential savings from requiring employees to pay their share of their pension contributions.
DAS is a Cabinet-level agency reporting to Gov. John Kasich, a supporter of Senate Bill 5.
The nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission that reports to the General Assembly released a fiscal report saying there may be savings from Senate Bill 5 but did not put a dollar amount on it. It said creating a performance-based pay criteria for teachers to replace step increases could cost the state and local governments money in implementation.
Dayton Public’s treasurer, Stan Lucas, said the potential $2 million in savings to his district that would come from eliminating the step increases could be wiped out if they have to create and implement performance-based pay criteria for teachers.
Labor leaders and other opponents of Senate Bill 5 are trying to gather the more than 231,000 signatures needed to put the issue before the voters in November.
Kasich says Senate Bill 5 gives school districts and local officials the tools need to manage their costs in a tough budget cycle.
The governor’s budget proposal calls for $3.1 billion in cuts to schools across the state. Kasich has warned school officials not to go to the ballot and simply ask voters to increase taxes to make up for the state cuts.
A coalition of school board officials and district treasurers Thursday issued a sharp rebuke to that assertion.
“With the level of additional cuts made necessary by the governor’s proposed budget, the only course of action available for districts is either to further reduce services to children or ask local voters to replace what the state has taken away,” according to the coalition, which includes the Ohio School Boards Association.
Kasich this week said no district would see its total funding — state, federal and local combined — go down by more than 7.9 percent. Most families have figured out how to trim 5 to 10 percent from their budgets and governments ought to be able to do the same, Kasich said.
State-projected district savings Senate Bill 5 fiscal analysis by the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Beavercreek, $3.1 million; Centerville, $3.8 million; Dayton, $8.8 million; Fairborn, $2.0 million; Huber Heights, $3.0 million; Kettering, $3.3 million; Lebanon, $2.0 million; Miamisburg, $2.4 million; Northmont, $2.6 million; Springboro, $2.2 million; Trotwood-Madison, $1.2 million; Vandalia-Butler $1.5 million;West Carrollton, $1.8 million; and Xenia, $2.3 million.
