The
Columbus Dispatch...
Teacher-pay provision
stays in state budget despite Democrats’ effort
House Republicans send 2-year plan to Senate; Dems call it ‘jobs killer’
Thursday, May 5, 2011
By Jim Siegel
Voting along party lines today, the Ohio House approved a new two-year
state budget after Democrats tried unsuccessfully to remove language
that is similar to performance-pay provisions also included in Senate
Bill 5, the collective-bargaining bill.
The two-year, $55.6 billion budget does not raise taxes but includes
significant cuts to schools, local governments, Medicaid providers and
a variety of state agencies. Gov. John Kasich and lawmakers have worked
to balance a budget that started with a nearly $8 billion shortfall. It
now goes to the Senate.
Republicans, who after the vote were sporting buttons provided by
Kasich that highlighted the absence of tax increases in the plan,
called it a tough but responsible budget.
“This is reality-based budgeting,” said Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster,
the chairman of the House Finance Committee.
Democrats called it a jobs killer.
“If their top priorities are destroying the middle class and the
social-services safety net, while at the same time increasing spending,
then congratulations, they are achieving those goals in this budget,”
said Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, who said the cuts will impact vital
services and cause the loss of thousands of jobs.
“It seems the voice of reason, moderation and fairness has been lost in
this chamber,” he said.
Rep. John Carey Jr., R-Wellston, responded that House Republicans made
an effort to increase spending over Kasich’s initial budget for
mental-health services, home health care and education. He said it was
curious that Democrats were criticizing them both for making cuts and
for more spending.
“You have to choose,” he said. “You can’t make a credible argument, in
my opinion, of both.”
A portion of the budget would set up a new pay system for teachers that
eliminates current salary schedules based on longevity and educational
attainment and replaces them with a rating system for teachers based on
student performance, professionalism and parent and student
satisfaction.
The budget provisions are similar to portions of Senate Bill 5, the
sweeping collective-bargaining bill that union supporters are vowing to
overturn by referendum in November. They continue to collect signatures
in that effort.
The budget language “circumvents the referendum initiative currently in
process,” said Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood. “Why would this body
intentionally frustrate and confuse the voters?”
Democrats tried to get the language out of the budget.
Carey said the merit-pay provisions are not identical to those in
Senate Bill 5, and they do not deal with collective bargaining. “It
just has a standard by which local school boards will decide their
salary schedule,” he said, adding that it “protects teachers” by
judging them on performance.
Meanwhile, the House approved three Republican amendments - allowing
universities to pay prevailing wage on construction projects, setting
the prevailing-wage threshold at $3.5 million and requiring schools to
spend on gifted programs the same amount they spent in 2009.
There is hope among many lawmakers that revenue estimates will improve
in June, allowing them to ease some of the cuts. Ohio’s tax receipts in
April were ahead of projections by 10.5 percent, or $214 million,
according to preliminary numbers released today.
Ohio is 6.1 percent, or $841 million, ahead of its tax revenue from a
year ago.
Tim Keen, the state budget director, said the Kasich administration
already is counting on using much of this year’s extra tax income to
pay bills that were supposed to be pushed into 2012.
“People want to look at an overage as a surplus, and that’s not
necessarily the case,” Keen said.
Asked how he would use additional money, House Speaker William G.
Batchelder, R-Medina, mentioned nursing homes and schools. “We have a
rather remarkable situation in which a lot of districts that are
well-off kind of got hammered,” he said.
House Minority Leader Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said “this budget
devastates education” and makes a number of other harmful cuts to
protective services and local governments. “This budget sets the wrong
priorities.”
Amstutz said Democrats did not offer amendments that would have
increased revenue to reduce the cuts.
“This is a budget made for voting no,” he said. “It’s only those who
feel the responsibility to lead our state forward that are going to be
voting for this budget.”
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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