Lancaster, Ohio recently had to lay off 13 firefighters because of budget woes. But the town's mayor doesn't think passage of Issue 2, which would strip public workers of collective bargaining rights, a move Gov. John Kasich and other proponents claim would make it easier for towns to deal with budget problems, would have helped avert the layoffs:
“Senate Bill 5 doesn’t save the day for anybody,” he told The American Independent. “It’s still up to the local government to have a meaningful relationship with their bargaining units, which I think we do, here in Lancaster. In particular, both fire and police have taken zero-percent increases over the last two years without SB5 hanging over anyone’s heads.“Both fire and police [unions’ bargaining units] had closed contracts, but they opened them up to allow us to work with them on a number of issues, not just salary,” he said.
In fact, not only does this mayor not think Kasich's remedy to budget problems would help, he's actually pointing the finger at Kasich:
Smith said Lancaster didn’t have a problem with bargaining units but rather the state’s reduction of funds allocated to local governments. In an attempt to balance the state’s budget, Governor John Kasich reduced the amount paid out to cities and towns in the state by about half.Smith said Lancaster also received fewer local income tax dollars, as well, compounding the problems.
“We lost 50 percent of that due to the state allocating that money back to themselves, instead of to the city,” he said.
Of course in this highly charged partisan environment, you're always going to have some Democratic mayors opposing a bill pushed by Republicans, right? Right? Maybe so. But Lancaster, Ohio's mayor is a Republican.