Rudy Fichtenbaum on why he will be voting NO on bonuses for STRS staff at the 08/18/2022 STRS Board meeting

Why I Will Be Voting No 

By Rudy Fichtenbaum 

"In any partnership, whether it is a business partnership or a marriage, the partners rise together or sink together. Have you ever heard of a successful partnership where one partner gets rich, and the other goes broke? No! But the STRS senior staff sees things differently. They rise while the members sink. The STRS propaganda machine just keeps on putting out 'good news' while ignoring the suffering of many retirees and the concerns of active members."

August 16, 2022 

A pension is a promise! It is deferred income. That means a pension is part of the compensation that is promised to teachers along with the salaries they receive when they become teachers. When you promise to pay someone for doing a job and then renege on that promise after the job is done, it is wage theft! "The mission of STRS Ohio is to partner with our members in helping to build retirement security.” If that is the mission, then STRS is failing, since it has not provided "retirement security”. 

In a cynical attempt to aid incumbent Board members win re-election, the Board recently voted for a one-time 3% increase that most members will not see until 2023. Members saw through this sham and voted for change. 

STRS members who have retired in 2013 have seen their purchasing power decline by 27.2% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) inflation calculator. Similarly, those who retired before 2013 have seen their purchasing power decline by 20.9%. Given the existing language in Ohio Revised Code and the losses experienced by STRS over the last six-months, it is a folly to think that a permanent COLA will be restored anytime soon without some major changes. 

In any partnership, whether it is a business partnership or a marriage, the partners rise together or sink together. Have you ever heard of a successful partnership where one partner gets rich, and the other goes broke? No! But the STRS senior staff sees things differently. They rise while the members sink. The STRS propaganda machine just keeps on putting out “good news” while ignoring the suffering of many retirees and the concerns of active members.

It is easy to look back and say that if there are problems, they were caused by bad decisions in the past and the people who made those decisions are gone. But many of the senior staff have been at STRS for years. Moreover, today’s teachers and retirees had no real say in the decisions that were made but they have been left holding the bag. If we are partners and there is a problem, then there needs to be shared sacrifice until the problem is solved. The members have given, but the senior staff just keeps taking. If the staff want to be partners, then they need to 1) acknowledge that we have problems and 2) come up with some solutions to fix them. At the end of the day, the pension needs more money and needs to take less risk and it is up to the senior staff and all their well-paid consultants to come up with ideas as to how the pension can come up with the money to meet its promises. 

If staff want bonuses, then they need to demonstrate to members that they can fix the problems of the pension, not just beat some made-up benchmarks, which reward them even when the pension loses money and while the pension fails to meet the promises made to members. 

That is why I will be voting against the bonuses.

Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Wright State University. He is an elected member of the STRS Ohio Board, filling a retiree seat since September 2021. He and Wade Steen have been outspoken Board members pushing for reform on behalf of both active and retired teachers, especially in their opposition to Board members who have followed the dictates of OEA instead of advocating solely for the STRS stakeholders.