November 11, 2008
Imposing gag orders on union contracts
School boards and municipalities often keep the public in the dark about tentative contracts with employee unions until after they ratify the contracts, committing taxpayers to millions of dollars of spending over the life of the contracts.
In a Policy Briefing issued by the Empire Center, I call for greater disclosure of pending labor agreements a month before a school board or municipality ratifies them. I also propose that governments provide the public with detailed information about the fiscal impact of the contracts, including the effect on property taxes.
Initial reaction from the state School Boards Association and New York State Teachers Association (NYSUT) was not postive. Gannett News Service reports a School Boards Association spokesman says giving the public information prior to contract ratification would be "divisive and chaotic".
"This is a bad idea," concurred Carl Korn, a NYSUT spokesman. "It would turn the collective-bargaining process into a three-ring circus."
He said a system like Bang-Jensen suggests would "lead to second-guessing and divisive acrimony within the communities."
While NYSUT's reaction was predictable, the School Boards Association spokesman's comment is surprising, because many New York school districts voluntarily disclose contract details of collective bargaining agreements in advance. Apparently, the outcome in those districts has not been "divisive or chaotic".
The paper describes how the Village of Johnson City is saddled with a five-year contract that raises firefighters salaries by 41 percent. Had village trustees disclosed the contract prior to their vote, citizens would had a chance to object and the village could have avoided a major fiscal shortfall.
Other examples mentioned in the report involve school districts in Utica, Pine Bush, Rondout Valley, Fort Edward and Oswego as well as Westchester County and the Governor's Office of Employee Relations.
For a copy of Lifting the Shroud of Secrecy from Public Employee Contracts, click here.
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