Open Season on Public Employees

These past few months have seen an unprecedented attack on public employees. Never in my life have I seen anything quite like it. Salaries are being posted. Implied derogatory descriptions about benefits are in newspaper articles, blogs. I have even experienced some “critical” questions from acquaintances relating to my wife’s benefits, a teacher who has just completed her 33rd year of teaching.

My son is also a public employee. He is the financial officer at the Board of Elections. When he took the job, I got many raised eyebrows from some folks along with some surprisingly smart ass comments that verged on insulting. His credentials were actually pulled by the local press. He has a Masters Degree in Accounting from the Ohio State Fisher School of Business after graduating from YSU with a degree in accounting and a 3.9 GPA. That’s the last we heard of that.

Of course, nothing is said about the benefits and pay guaranteed by the government for the auto workers whose pay scale is beyond that of most mere mortals, including many public employees and myself personally. That’s another issue. That’s the most sacred of sacred cows. That is what happens when government picks winners and losers. Talk to a Delphi white collar retiree. While the press is focused on public employees, I am sure Walmart employees are wondering why their tax dollars bailed out the biggest, highest paid union of them all, the UAW. Does it sound tacky to talk about such things?  Does it make you angry? That's because it is, which is the point of this essay.

Of course, all of the above does not obviate the need for thoughtful and considerate debate on the issues of public employees and benefits. There are plenty of legitimate gripes, especially when the pay to public servants is substantially more than the pay of the people supposedly being served. The tax well has run dry. There is no more money for generous raises when everyone is getting salary cuts and benefit reductions. It is insensitive. It is bad government. It is bad labor policy. It is bad politics. And yet the pay increases go on. Nobody can be that tone deaf…or can they? 

The sad thing is that many good and faithful public employees have been demonized in this economic shakeup of how our system works. Like any other line of work, there are more than a few bad apples in the public employee barrel…and they can be real lollapaloozers!! As a politically active lawyer, I have known more than my share fair of these idiots and slackers. But for the most part, the vast majority are good, hardworking folks who try to do a good job under sometimes difficult, if not totally impossible, circumstances.

In Ohio, SB 5 is now law curbing the abuses…and then some. In my opinion, the effort to repeal it in the fall will fail. Although I don't agree with everything in SB 5, I do NOT support its repeal. There is a strong vocal minority that does, but so far the only screaming and indignation I see is coming from the unions. Canfield still defeated its school levy.  Boardman defeated its police levy. But the bloodletting of the press and radio jocks and general public continues non-stop...and now it needs to stop. How would they like their salaries splashed all over the front page of the local paper or on some blog site? How would the press like their press “perks” exposed? What perks? Believe me, they have perks. Would the Youngstown Vindicator care to share with the public the amount of paid advertising done in its paper from the public sector?  The editorial staff should look at how much of their salaries emanate from the public spigot, which is sizable through direct and indirect advertising.

When all the hullabaloo has died down, the folks on the receiving end of this vendetta will be the teachers who will still be teaching your kids, the police who will still be protecting your house, the firemen who are there for every emergency, and the clerks that file your documents in the courts. Isn’t time to tone down the rhetoric? These are folks just like you and me.  Honest debate on the merits is needed.  Venom should be left at the door, on both sides of the issue.

I learned a lesson from a wise man a long time ago…never knock another man’s hustle. It may come back to bite you in the ass.