COLUMBUS, Ohio — An obscure but lucrative perk in some public-sector contracts \u2014 governments paying part of an employee\u2019s pension contribution \u2014 is up for debate at the Ohio Statehouse.<\/p>\n
House Bill 473<\/a>, which has its first hearing on Wednesday, would ban public employers from covering any portion of their workers\u2019 pension contributions in future contracts. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a practice sometimes used to sweeten deals for administrators and other top hires, where a school district or local government pays not only the employer share of a pension but part or all of the employee share as well.<\/p>\n Rep. Dave Thomas, an Ashtabula County Republican, said the idea might sound generous but ends up being \u201cflawed on a number of fronts.\u201d <\/p>\n He argued it lacks transparency for taxpayers, fuels bidding wars between local governments, and can lower an employee\u2019s eventual pension benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen taxpayers look at the compensation of an employee, they see the hourly pay rate,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThe practice of picking up the employee\u2019s pension boosts their compensation without full transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n Unions see it differently. <\/p>\n They argue the decision should stay with local school boards and city councils, who know best what it takes to attract and keep top talent. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s this ruse of trying to protect taxpayer dollars instead of addressing the real problem that you\u2019re giving tax breaks to people who don\u2019t need it,\u201d said Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper.<\/p>\n This fight isn\u2019t new. <\/p>\n In 2011, Senate Bill 5 \u2014 a sweeping attempt to limit collective bargaining rights voters later struck down \u2014 also included a ban on pension pickups. <\/p>\n At the time, school administrators said they were excluded from collective bargaining<\/a> and didn\u2019t get automatic raises for seniority or advanced degrees. Combine that with more mandatory workdays, and many made less per day than the teachers they supervised. <\/p>\n Pension pickups, they argued, were one way districts could balance that gap. <\/p>\n More than a decade later, Buckeye Association of School Administrators lobbyist Paul Imhoff said the market for administrators hasn\u2019t improved. <\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, our market for leaders, whether it\u2019s principals, superintendents, or treasurers, has been steadily shrinking,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n He pushed back on Thomas\u2019s transparency concerns, saying contracts are public records and must be approved in public meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing to hide here,\u201d Ihofff said. \u201cIf the concern is transparency, I don\u2019t think the answer is to violate local control.\u201d<\/p>\n Unions say HB 473 is also part of a bigger pattern.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1, which restricted faculty bargaining rights at public universities. They warned that Republicans might be trying to pass SB 5<\/a> by spreading it across multiple bills.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s these little pieces that keep popping up,\u201d Cropper said. \u201cWhat do they have against public employees?\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas said the bill is about fairness. <\/p>\n \u201cIf this policy was in the best interest of everyone involved, why not have all public employees not contribute to their pensions?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Republicans attempted to rein in pension pickups in the state budget, but that measure only applied to school administrators. Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed it, saying it unfairly singled them out.<\/p>\n HB 473 would apply to all public employees, starting with any new contracts signed after the law takes effect.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio — An obscure but lucrative perk in some public-sector contracts \u2014 governments paying part of an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":285863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[136015,64,114266,144618,1573,147167,255,147168,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-285862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-built-structure","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-columbus-ohio","11":"tag-famous-place","12":"tag-ohio","13":"tag-ohio-statehouse","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-state-capitol-building","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115337197170532244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}