Taxpayer interests go unprotected during negotiations

In comments to my Advocate essay yesterday, spacemonkey9000 said he believed the constant spending increase by schools “starts with mandatory pay increases for all teachers, regardless of their ability, simply because they have a contract that dictates the same. I have always thought that teachers unions are the downfall of troubled school districts ...”

Amythirdward compared teacher unions to “the UAW and the outrageous pay and benefits autoworkers collected.”

PEARL52 believes “they'll raise themselves right out of a job.”

I agree with the thrust of these comments. I also believe that the fault is ours. We have let government and schools out on a long leash; we haven’t paid attention to what goes on when they line up at the trough. Now, taxpayer-voters waking up a little bit, thanks to the Internet, and learning more and talking more.

Because we’re learning about the excesses that are occurring, we’re sensing the need to put the brakes on these people by questioning their wisdom and ability in spending public money, rather than voting yes for “the kids,” for “higher property values,” for “attracting jobs,” and other babble from bobble heads whose only objective is getting the wherewithal to pay public employees more.

We should also be sensing the need to learn how this all comes about, and exactly which elected officials are giving away the farm, so we may have the chance to vote them out.

In my recollection, it’s been many years since the Advocate has reported details of new contracts and who negotiated them. We learn only about their cost - long after the fact - when these government and quasi-government representatives are asking for more money to pay the bills.

This is exactly why we have a superintendent of city schools making about twice as much as the mayor of the city and about $2,000 less than the Ohio governor - the one who currently “needs” more tax money to pay the bills.

The day when taxpayers are free to sit in on negotiations regarding pay and benefits for tax-paid employees is the day when the taxpayers’ interests will be protected. We need a law to provide that protection, but until then we need a full public report on what happens when our employees line up at the trough.