Health care mandate would go too far
Bills create new problems; let bargaining process work
Lansing State Journal editorial
June 9, 2011
A proposal in the Legislature to require all public employees to pay 20 percent of their health premiums fans the popular furor over public workers’ benefits but is ripe with potentially problematic consequences.
Mandating that standard for city, county, township, village, college, university, public school district and state workers in Michigan goes too far.
Collective bargaining creates a process for agreeing to wages and benefits. It’s a process with advantages and disadvantages for both sides. The compromise reached in agreeing to a contract, by its very nature, forces the sides to split the difference. Nobody wins or loses everything. Indeed, collective bargaining is a way to create “shared sacrifice.”
Those favoring controls on the costs of public employee benefits have tools available to meet those needs without undermining collective bargaining. Gov. Rick Snyder was on that path when he advocated additional state aid for communities that meet “best practice” guidelines, for example.
One size fits all seems like a simple solution, but it’s not.
Start with the fact that the state Legislature and the governor can’t mandate this requirement on state employees or university employees. Those benefits have protections under the state Constitution. The package includes a ballot proposal for constitutional amendments that would allow the changes. Putting those on the ballot requires a two-thirds vote of the House – an uphill battle.
At a hearing this week, an official with the Amalgamated Transit Union told lawmakers that hindering collective bargaining could result in severe cuts to federal funds for the state’s public transit systems because of U.S. Labor Department and Transportation Department rules.
University representatives reminded lawmakers that only about 20 percent of university budgets are funded by the state, which makes such mandates tenuous.
And officials from the Michigan Association of Counties pointed out that counties – and other units of government – ultimately will have to address added costs to employees through negotiations over wages and other benefits.
This mandate would not be a panacea. The dire status of public finances will force parties at bargaining tables across the state to face frugal realities in ways that fit their communities. These bills are unnecessary.
