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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 > February > 27 > Entry
Guest column: Changes proposed in Senate Bill 5 will help taxpayers
The following are edited excerpts from Chris Kershner’s testimony in support of state Sen. Shannon Jones’ legislation to change Ohio’s collective-argaining law. He was representing multiple chambers of commerce in Ohio.
Senate Bill 5 not only impacts the lives of public employees, but also the lives of all Ohio citizens.
As the public sector’s administrative overhead continues to spiral out of control, all Ohioans feel the impact of this burden. As payroll, health care and pension costs continue to escalate to unreasonable levels, this cost burden may be forced along to the taxpayers, so that public sector budgets can be balanced.
The civil service system was first established in the United States over 100 years ago. The intent was to prevent political bosses of the era from terminating thousands of employees when a new party took control, and losing the continuity of service that is important in government administration.
In the past, public employees were paid below-market wages for their work. However, they received a form of deferred compensation through a generous public pension plan. Since that time, public employees have broadened the civil service system, engaged employee unions and collectively bargained for union contracts. The result has been that public sector wages and benefits have become even more generous than their private sector counterparts.
Additionally, public pensions have continued to maintain the generosity in which they were conceived. Public pension contributions and employees’ cost shares must be reformed to bring this system back into line with the market.
This broadening and extension of the civil service system has created multiple layers of bureaucracy that includes hundreds of job classifications. This bureaucracy has removed the public sector’s ability to make sensible management decisions that are based on employee performance and merit.
Instead, managers have become pawns of union contracts. Their freedom to make decisions and manage employees have been taken away.
The first focus needs to be on giving managers the freedom to manage their employees. By decentralizing the hiring, firing and promotion process, and giving it to the agencies and departments, you are empowering the managers who best understand the performance of their employees to make strategic personnel decisions.
Additionally, giving managers the ability to use objective performance expectations when making personnel decisions allows the public sector to retain high-performing employees. A shift to broad job classifications would allow agencies more flexibility to shift personnel as new skill sets emerge and public employees evolve.
Linking employee compensation to performance is a key aspect in reforming Ohio’s public administrative budget burden. Automatic pay increases that are based on employee longevity should be eliminated. Salaries should be market-based and should be competitive to attract and retain high-performing employees.
Additionally, variable compensation rates would be extremely beneficial in rewarding public employees for new or challenging assignments and for delivering results.
Finally, a strategic focus on professional workforce development would be extremely beneficial in strengthening the performance of dedicated public sector employees. Many public employees are passionate about their careers and their commitment to performance. By investing in their skill and capacity development, you will be creating greater efficiency and reducing costly employee turnover.
Ohio is in fiscal crisis, and now is the time to enact these changes, many of which are included in Senate Bill 5. We know that these changes will not be easy and that the hearing rooms will be packed with concerned citizens. Please keep in mind that all of the citizens who are impacted by this legislation are not with us in the hearing room today.
If these changes are not enacted quickly, legislators will have to look to other means to recoup these escalating costs, which may involve additional financial burdens on Ohio’s citizens.
Chris Kershner is vice president of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.
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