One month ago Ohio voted against reforms [falsely]portrayed as an attack on public workers. Ohio, DC, and New York union bosses spent more than $30 million drenching the airwaves in images of sad firefighters, sad police officers, and evil Republicans, convincing voters to overlook a broken status quo.
A month later, how are local governments celebrating the union victory on Issue 2?
- Middletown is laying off 9 firefighters, despite the city’s police and fire budgets both increasing by nearly 1/3 in the past decade. In Hamilton, a $5.9 million death tax haul will delay the inevitable:
- Emphasis mine. Cleveland City School District is eliminating preschool, high school busing, and 75 security positions:
With labor costs making up the majority of school budgets, the district has sought to make up much of that ground through negotiations with unions representing Cleveland school employees. Negotiations with the teachers union have continued since March, with the district seeking significant pay concessions.
- Westerville City School District is firing 62 support staff, cutting busing, and eliminating all sports. Officials from the teachers union have said the plan also would cut about 175 teaching positions.
- In Lancaster, where income- and property-tax issues also failed,One of Lancaster’s three city firehouses was closed last month after the mayor laid off 13 firefighters to help balance the budget. The 68 firefighters remaining have predicted response times will increase in the city of about 37,000, but they could not say by how much.