Valley View vs. Greenville
Cars and Parts Springfield Swap Meet
Carroll Commencement
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > January > 23 > Entry
Ellen Belcher: Ready or not, government being reset
Lots of stuff in the news to be worried about. And there are connections not to miss.
A week ago, we published a story under the headline, “Kettering board OKs retire-rehire of superintendent.”
Coincidentally, on the adjacent page, another headline read: “School-levy foes back to work on new state group.”
The first story detailed the arrangement Kettering Superintendent James Schoenlein cut with his school board to take a pay cut and begin collecting his retirement. The idea came up last summer, but a decision was put off until after the November election when a levy was on the ballot.
Initially, the board said it wanted to delay the discussion, so it could focus on the levy. But that explanation was too convenient.
The levy passed, then the board took the heat.
With one in four school superintendents (as of last year) having retire-rehire deals, defenders have perfected their arguments. (Besides saving on salaries, they say, retirees are just collecting what they are due.)
But here’s the thing: If this is such a great deal for the public, why aren’t school boards giving the myriad retirement-eligible teachers this option?
Because voters would go crazy, complaining that they can’t afford to support a public-pension system that allows people to comfortably and routinely retire in their 50s. (Schoenlein is 60.)
What do you want to bet that if the pension system were swamped with early retire-rehire applications, the “it’s no problem” argument wouldn’t be being made.
A person’s pension is indeed his to claim. But if the pension rules encourage people to stop working — lest they forfeit too much of “their” money — the system is too generous.
The second story was about a new group called Educate Ohio that reportedly has local affiliates that are being organized by critics who think school boards are insufficiently concerned about taxes and school districts’ costs.
It’s not clear if the group has any traction. But its creation is evidence of a brewing backlash against, for instance, so-called “double dipping” and school boards telling voters they’ve negotiated “pay freezes,” even as many employees are, in fact, getting the automatic step raises that are universal in education contracts.
Though school levies always have had critics, the opponents may be becoming more organized, prompting harder questions for elected bodies that traditionally have enjoyed widespread public support.
As a class, are school boards too captive? That’s the question some reasonable (and some not so reasonable) people are trying to bring out.
The reasonable people should not be underestimated. Ohio has a new governor who very much believes that, as much as the state is to blame for running up costs for school districts, local elected officials who can’t say “no” are also a big part of the problem.
The legendary Tip O’Neill, a Massachusetts liberal who was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, insisted, “All politics is local.” But the turmoil that’s going on in so many states and in so many localities as teachers, firefighters and police are being laid off — because government is running short — is winding its way to Congress.
On Friday, The New York Times online edition carried the headline, “A path is sought for states to escape their debt burden.” Some members of Congress apparently are quietly trying to figure out how states could declare bankruptcy.
Among the goals would be to get them out from under expensive pension obligations, and to let them start over with respect to union contracts. Right now, states are barred from declaring bankruptcy.
Of course, allowing that option has all sorts of implications for the municipal bond market, which historically has been secure and boring.
Just talking about allowing states to go bankrupt — raising the specter that investors might not get paid — could result in troubled states being shut out of credit markets or having to pay a premium to borrow money.
Ohio’s financial problems aren’t as severe as some other states — Illinois, California and New York, to name three. But the situation is not good. Meanwhile, the financial security of every local government and school district is inextricably linked to Columbus.
One way or another, the government landscape in Ohio is going to be reset. That effort has only just begun.
TweetGo to our facebook page and Like us to comment.
