Mayor Berger of Lima speaks out re: SB 5

April 9, 2011
SB5 and the Ohio budget proposal....

Lots has been said. Lots more will be said.

Ohio's legislature and executive branch have now acted to severely limit the bargaining rights of pubic employees throughout the state. This action has been spun as a solution to the budget problems of the state and local public entities.

Some weeks ago, I publicly stated my opposition to this legislation because it would strip public employees of fundamental rights, rights that were granted decades ago and rights that should remain largely intact. I have not changed my mind.

Nor do I believe that this action by the State of Ohio is anything but a scapegoating of public employees for fiscal problems that prior and current Ohio administrations created with tax cuts sold as stimulus for Ohio's economy.

Two things that I want to be clear about:

1. High quality public services, including safety services, public infrastructure including streets, bridges, sidewalks and curbs, and certainly public education, require adequate taxpayer support. The solution to Ohio's $8 billion budget problem must be a balanced approach that in addition to necessary budget cuts includes a fair tax reform package that will provide the resources necessary to maintain priority public services that we all want and need. Any proposal to solve that $8 billion problem only by cutting services and costs is a proposal that will escalate Ohio's decline.

2. The substance of SB5 and the way in which it was enacted will now cascade into other issues and concerns. The opportunity that the Governor and his partisan allies had was to engage with others across the aisle and in the labor community to craft fixes to Ohio's labor laws. They chose instead to craft an entirely restrictive and punitive approach and impugned the vocations of police officer, firefighter, teacher, sanitation worker, etc. This is immediately resulting in a referendum effort to repeal SB5 which is likely to succeed. The Governor has in effect thrown the baby out with the bathwater! I have never seen an organization succeed where management does not respect its partners in labor. For the long term, Ohio cannot succeed with this approach to labor relations and to public services.