Thursday, March 29, 2012

State Employees Put Taxpayers On The Hook for $96 Millon

The Dayton Daily News has an article today about a perk that allows state employees to cash out unused vacation and sick time. 

The cost to taxpayers: $96 million.

This type of perk is relatively unusual for private employers.  The article cited a study that said only 16% of private employers allow employees to be paid for unused vacation time and even fewer (6%) allow employees to be paid for unused sick time. 

Why do most private employers avoid these types of perks?  They do it because a business model like this is typically completely unsustainable.  Most private employers can’t afford perks like this, and neither can state government. 

To be completely fair, I really can’t blame these people for cashing in.  Who wouldn’t take advantage of a loophole that allows you to bilk the system?

The key quote to this article is, of course, at the very end:

Senate Bill 5 would have limited unused leave payouts for public employees, as well as make it illegal for public employees to strike. But voters rejected the bill, voting in November to repeal it. Republicans are not eager to resurrect any individual portions of SB 5, state legislators have said.

Senate Bill 5 was clearly designed with abuses like this in mind.  Republican legislators tried to address these problems and voters said no.  Now we are left to pay the consequences of that decision.

I hate to say I told you so but…


6 comments:

  1. @Notgvn - So in the past public workers agreed to accept these sorts of perks in exchange for furlough days or higher medical deductibles or less pay or whatever. So now you want those taken away without any sort of equitable exchange. Find a time machine and go back and renegotiate. Or whatever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have either completely missed the obvious. These perks were negotiated by union officials with politicians that were supported by union money.

      Andy Dufresne: How can you be so obtuse?
      Warden Samuel Norton: What? What did you call me?
      Andy Dufresne: Obtuse. Is it deliberate?

      Delete
  2. That article by Sam Adams and the summation is exactly correct! And the beat goes on!

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  3. Sadly SB5 went down because the unions did a great job lying about it and Kasich did a horrible job defending it.

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  4. Have you seen the latest news that "educators" are becoming part of the 1% that OWS has been protesting/demanding they redistribute their wealth to the 99%:

    "Double-standard for wealth in America?"
    Report: 'Educators' make up 12 percent of millionaire households
    http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/cost-of-freedom/index.html#/v/1540451829001/double-standard-for-wealth-in-america/?playlist_id=86911

    "Millionaire Population Grows by 200,000"
    http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2012/03/21/millionaire-population-grows-by-200000/

    "Good Grief. 12% of US Millionaires Are Educators"
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/12-of-us-millionaires-are-educators/

    Are we, OH taxpayers, paying for their new found wealth like we're paying for vaca/sick time for state employees?

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  5. How much of that $96M is from Bill "Dubl Dipp" Batchelder's pension that he earns on top of his salary?

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