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SB 5 - Your Next Steps

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With the Governor signing S.B. 5 last night, we move onto the next phase of our effort to stop this assualt on working people - a referendum, or Citizens Veto of the law

Cleveland Police Patrolmen's president Steve Loomis, who has been out front stomping for Cleveland police and other law enforcement personnel, told reporters that the fight will continue through the referendum measure and said that he is extremely disappointed because he and other policemen "voted for Gov. Kasich."

Over the past few weeks thousands of teachers, firefighters, policemen, nurses, electricians and other union affiliates from across Ohio swarmed the Statehouse in protest of the union reform measure, including members of AFSCME, and the powerful Ohio Education Association.

The next step will be for the Govenor to file S.B.5 with the Secretary of State (SOS) and then 1,000 Signatures are needed - before a referendum petition may be circulated, the referendum committee must write a summary of SB 5 and submit it to the SOS and Attorney General both offices will then issue a certification that the summary is “fair and truthful”.

The SOS and AG have 10 business days to act. If the AG states that the summary is in his opinion not fair and truthful, the committee may repeat the process and/or challenge the decision in the Ohio Supreme Court. There is no limit on the number if times the process may be repeated, but it takes time away from the 90 days the committee has to circulate a referendum petition. The 90 days begins the day after the law was filed by the Governor with the SOS.

SB5 Web PollIf this unscientific poll of Dispatch readers is any measure, the public are going to support us overwhelmingly.
But we don't need to rely on unscientific polls however. A Poll conducted by Public Policy Polling just 2 weeks ago found

If the Republicans’ Senate Bill 5 becomes law and is the subject of a referendum this fall, 54% say they would vote to repeal SB5, while only 31% would vote to keep it intact.

Kasich is clearly on the wrong side of public opinion. 51% generally have a favorable impression of labor unions, and 37% a negative view. 57% of Ohio voters side with the unions over Kasich, who is backed by only 36%. 65% think government workers should have at least the same amount of rights they have now, including 18% who think they should have more rights.

So you are fire up and ready to go - what can you do?

  • Be patient. It's going to take 10 days or so for the first part of the process to play out. We might see some partisan shenanigans from the SOS and AG, but we hope they act fairly and with professionalism.
  • Talk to your colleagues, family and friends about the damage S.B.5 will do and how we are going to repeal it. We have a section of our website dedicated to providing you with information you can use, from facts and figures to talking points. Take a moment to visit it. Share that link, print out the material. Feel free to use it.
  • Sign up for our email so you don't miss out on ways you can get involved. We will need lots of help collecting signatures, making phone calls and disseminating information to counter lies supporters of S.B.5 are sure to spread.
  • Join our growing Facebook team, and follow us on Twitter.

Let there be no doubt that we will place a referendum on the November ballot and we will repeal S.B.5 and send a powerful message that the middle class fights back.

Words vs Deeds #Updated

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In an excellent example of "Say one thing, do another", on March 4th Governor Kasich told Gongwer

Gov. John Kasich said Friday that he was pleased with substance and pace of legislative action on a controversial proposal to the roll back collective bargaining rights of public employees.
[...]
Gov. Kasich said he didn't anticipate holding a ceremonial bill signing event for the contentious proposal.

"This is hard for people and anything that's hard - I want to be respectful of other people's feelings their thoughts and their emotions," he said.

"My only word to union families are: what we are doing in this state is designed to make sure that your kids have a future in this state, that your kids can stay in this state, that they can have jobs in this state and your family can be prosperous," he said. "This is not an attack on you, this is not a political operation. I could care less about the politics. This is what is part of an overall plan to help fix our state."

This afternoon we learn from the Dispatch and our Email inbox's

Gov. John Kasich will sign Senate Bill 5 this evening, placing into law legislation that limits collective bargaining for about 360,000 public employees.

The bill was delivered today to the governor's office for his signature after being processed by Ohio Senate Clerk Stacy Lilly. The signing will take place at 7 p.m. in the Statehouse State Room.
[...]
The governor announced he would sign the bill today through a campaign fundraising email sent out this morning.

In Kasich's email, he said passage of the bill by the Ohio House and Senate was "a victory for Ohio taxpayers." The email also asks for donations of "$20, $10, or even $5" to "help us continue to return the balance of power."

"There is a reason that the union bosses opposed these changes; because it strips power from the union leaders and returns it to the taxpayers and workers," Kasich's campaign email said.

Does a campaign fundraising email sound respectful and apolitical? If it doesn't, you'd be right.

UPDATE

Plunderbund puts the video together

When Criticism of Teachers Becomes Offensive

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By Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

I do not want to get into the politics of the situation. If governors around the country feel compelled to battle unions, so be it. I do not want to get into the specifics of balancing budgets. I understand that states cannot print money so financial shortfalls mandate pain for everyone. I do not want to talk about how much money other people should be paid. That is an assessment employers should be making. But when I am bombarded on a regular basis by a narrative blaming teacher avarice for much of the monetary ills of 2011, I have to speak out.

When stalking ineffective teachers is not enough. [readon url="http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/2011/03/when_criticism_of_teachers_bec.html"]Read more...[/readon]

Budget News for March 31st, 2011

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What readers of JTF have known for some time, that the budget cuts proposed for K-12 education are reckless and devastating, are starting to come into stark relief in media reports around the state.

Broken Promises are what the Dispatch reports

Numerous central Ohio schools are reeling from what several education leaders call "a broken promise" that has districts losing more money than they expected from the state.
[...]
"It's catastrophic," Marysville Superintendent Larry Zimmerman said. "These were local dollars at one time that the state took away, and now we're not going to get reimbursed."

Plunderbund, in an article worth reading in full, looks at the confusing mess of information release that has plagued this budget rollout

Yesterday, knowing that the media would be focused on the latest developments on SB 5, the Kasich Administration did a massive budgetary document dump finally releasing both the statutory language of the entire budget and more accurate school district funding impact projections yesterday.

Except it’s a patchwork of projections that require you to examine two separate sheets on the business property tax reimbursement raid and then two other separate sheets on the utility tax reimbursement raid. You then have to take those numbers and compare them to the foundation aid projects they made last week.

The Plain Dealer went all out and produced a map of schools getting cuts

The governor's administration released the details of this plan as five separate tables, making it difficult for many people -- including district administrators, parents and other taxpayers -- to figure out how it would affect their communities and others around the state.

So on Wednesday the newspaper calculated the impact for other districts across Ohio. These findings can be viewed below in an interactive map and on a chart.

K-12 Cuts

It's becoming obvious why the method of disseminating K-12 funding numbers is so opaque. When the true calculations are made the cuts are savage.

This leads to headlines like: Ohio gov, school districts differ on budget math, and West M levy talk postponed until July

Board members and Superintendent Sharon Smith agreed that now was too soon to determine what type of levy should be placed on the ballot because the numbers of the new budget released by John Kasich might change between now and June.

"I just don't see how we can put a levy out there in August when we don't have the numbers," said Don Riley, a board member. "We may not be asking for enough or we may ask for too much. I agree we're going to need a levy at some point."

Quite. This is going to take some time to sort out, and the budget needs to be complete by the end of June, so expect to see lots of stories like this one - Districts learn how deep state cuts might be

Exactly what school funding will be for the next two years seems to change daily, said Jay Tingle, treasurer for the Ridgewood Local School District.

“There are just too many projections out there right now,” Superintendent Rick Raach said.

S.B.5 Passes - Reports from around the web

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[flickr photo=5490431105]The major news today, which I am sure you are all aware of was the passage of S.B.5 through both the House (on a 53-44 vote) and the Senate (a repeat 17-16) vote. The Governor is expected to sign the bill tomorrow. It will then go into effect 90 days later.

Or so they wished.

It is certain that labor groups and those who believe the middle class should remain strong will seek to place a referendum on the ballot this November. If enough signatures are collected the law will be suspended before going into effect. You can read about how this "Citizens Veto" will work here.

Coverage of yesterdays attack on the middle class can be found across all the major newspapers:

If you believe as we do that S.B.5 must be repealed, please sign up to receive our email alerts. We will be needing people to help get a repeal initiaive on the ballot and show out of touch lawmakers that working people won't just sit by and let hard earned rights be taken from us.