The city of Cincinnati is broke.

Their 2011 budget includes a $55 million deficit. Part of the problem is that Cincinnati public employees enjoy some of the most generous perks in the state.

The City Council-approved contracts include benefits that, among other things, permit manyworkers to draw 13 sick days a year, grant three weeks’ worth of compensatory time to public safety employees for holidays whether they work them or not, and entitle veteran police officers to nearly 10½ weeks of various leaves annually.

That’s bad enough, but here’s what makes it even worse. These employees can save up all those days and cash them in when they retire or leave for another job. It isn’t rare for these payouts to be over six figures.

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Part of the purpose of Ohio Senate Bill 5 is to keep local government officials from giving away the store and costing taxpayers unnecessary funds.  This gets to the root of the main difference between who is negotiating with private-sector and public-sector unions.

Private-sector unions sit across the table from a for-profit business. A business has to operate on its profits or go out of business. They aren’t likely to give too much away, because they are in some way personally invested. On the other hand, public-sector unions are negotiating with elected officials. While most are good managers of the public’s money, some are not. Elected official have no personal stake at risk, no “skin in the game,” since they are negotiating with the public’s money–other people’s money. Unlike a private company, you need not have experience or success to earn that management position; you simply have to get elected. As we’ve seen only too well with President Downgrade, getting elected doesn’t make you a good leader.

Cincinnati.com did an investigation into public contracts in effect around Southwestern Ohio. What they found are some crazy provisions from an out-of-control system that is tilted towards the unions in Ohio. (more…)

The city of Lancaster, Ohio recently closed one of its firehouses after laying off 13 firefighters.

Jess Lanning/Eagle-Gazette

LANCASTER — Engine House 3 has been shut down indefinitely, and Lancaster will have just two firehouses covering a city of 18.84 square miles and more than 37,000 people.

“It’s going to be a very fluid situation with all these changes going on,” said Lancaster Fire Assistant Chief Dave Ward.

The layoffs took effect on Monday. Engine 3 and Medic 3 are being stored at Engine House 3, 1596 E. Main St.

A huge tarp was put across Engine House 3, saying it was closed and that if you have an emergency need, call 911.

But Mayor David S. Smith is asking for an increase in the city’s income tax.

City officials are asking voters on Nov. 8 to approve a 0.25-percentage-point increase in the city income tax for five years, raising it to 2 percent. The increase would generate $2.5 million annually to help balance next year’s budget, Smith has said.

“It’s critical,” Ward said. “If this doesn’t pass, I anticipate city hall having to lay off more firefighters.”

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Over the past few weeks, we have brought your attention to how the unions behind the front group “We Are Ohio” are intertwined with the radical socialist/communist movement in America. First, we laid out for you who funds the vast majority of “We Are Ohio’s” campaign and how they have expressed not only support but provided coordination and accommodations for the “Occupy” movement, which is organized almost entirely by socialists who want to overthrow the American economy.

Then, we showed you that their “Statewide Youth Outreach Coordinator” is deeply involved in the “Occupy” protests around Ohio and openly decribes himself as a “revolutionary” whose goal is to implement communism in America. Now, “We Are Ohio” is hosting an official event with another radical self-admitted communist, Van Jones.

The American Dream Movement is flexing its muscle in Ohio. I’m coming to Columbus to be a part of it. This Thursday, November 3, we’re gonna Rock the Repeal of Senate Bill 5 and restore the voice of hard-working, middle-class Ohioans in their workplaces by voting “No” on Issue 2.

Yes, the “We Are Ohio” unions are bringing in the same guy who said this:

But in jail, he said, “I met all these young radical people of color — I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, ‘This is what I need to be a part of.’” Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. “I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.” In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. “I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th,” he said. “By August, I was a communist.”

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What happens when you look at the facts involved with Issue 2 instead of basing your decision on the emotional hysteria coming from unions bent solely on preserving their power? You find out that the need for reform is real, and that Ohio NEEDS Issue 2.

That what the newspapers from Ohio’s three largest cities found out when the looked past the rhetoric, and focused on the facts. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Columbus Dispatch, and the Cincinnati Enquirer all agree. Ohioans should vote YES on Issue 2. And what they say pretty much mirrors what we have been telling you.

Some key quotes from The Plain Dealer:

Ohio law must not impede reform, and it won’t if it creates a level playing field for public-sector workers and their employers.

Right now, that field is tipped in favor of the unions. Recognizing that reality does not mean we oppose public-employee unions or that we do not appreciate what their members do and the sacrifices some already have made…

In schools, the emphasis has to be on the progress of children, not the comfort of adults. In city halls and county offices, the impact on those who pay the bills — and the sheer magnitude of those bills — must be paramount.

Rules that made sense in 1983 do not make sense anymore. Ohio needs a fresh start…

When they mark their ballots, Ohioans cannot worry about what is best for any political party or interest group — on either side of this debate. They need to consider what’s best for the future of their children, their communities, their state.

They need to pass Issue 2.

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How much do you know about Ohio’s Issue 2, the state ballot issue to uphold overdue government union reform passed this spring? Even if you’re burned out from the Wisconsin union circus — and who could blame you! — this is one swing-state issue you should care about.

‘We Are Ohio’ cares, to the tune of millions spent flooding Ohio’s airwaves with discredited class-warfare hackery. Who, you ask, is behind this “grassroots, citizen-driven” effort to kill government union reform in Ohio?

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a piece about how the left wing in Ohio has such a burning hatred for Governor John Kasich, that they will use any and every piece of news about him to launch an attack. Even when he makes a decision that is an act of compassion, they write some scathing critique, portraying him as evil incarnate.  When he reduced Kelley Williams-Bolar’s crimes to misdemeanors, even the most reliably liberal Ohio personalities agreed he did the right thing.  But the union supporting blog Plunderbund criticized his decision after they themselves had previously said she should eventually be pardoned. We summed it up as follows:

And yet they attack anyway. Personally, I could go either way on whether Williams-Bolar deserves leniancy or not. But I bring it up to show that when you’re this rabidly hateful of someone, I guess you will use every single possible thing he does as a reason to attack him. Even an act of compassion. Even if it means contradicting yourself.

Last week, however, they and the AFL-CIO sunk to a new low.  Check out this headline they ran, quoting him: ”Kasich on public employees: ‘we are at war with these people’.”   The union webpage repeats the same story and quote.

Wow. That’s a pretty fiery statement by Kasich.  Except, they have no proof he ever said it!  Zero.

Do they have the governor saying this on video?   No.

Do they have audio of Kasich saying this?   No.

Are they quoting a piece from a reputable news source who was at the event where this supposedly happened?  No.

Want to know where they got this supposed quote? You aren’t going to believe this.  It came from one of those viral emails that gets forwarded around by hundreds of different people. You know, the ones where when you receive it, your first reaction is to check Snopes to see if it is a hoax or not. One of those emails. Some school superintendent named Mike Shreffler wrote an email saying “Kasich said this!” and all the We Are Ohio lefty union clones forwarded it to each other as if it were rock solid fact.

Let’s look closer into Plunderbund’s own post to see even more.

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