North Carolina legislators do not like public employees. They sit around and dream up new ways to cut their salaries or benefits. Here is a new one. Maybe ALEC came up with this one.
“A few short lines in the 2015-17 Senate budget would eliminate state-paid health retirement benefits for teachers and state employees hired after January 1, 2016.
“This will negatively impact the state’s ability to recruit good, qualified folks,” said Richard Rogers, executive director of the North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association. “In the future, I don’t see folks sticking with state government for the long term or for a career.
“Current law provides teachers and state employees with a paid health insurance plan for the duration of retirement. It’s a graduated system, said Rogers, so employees must work a certain number of years in order to receive the maximum benefit of a fully-paid health insurance plan.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It continues. Make the “common” people serfs while the top 1% gather the wealth and power to drive our government into ever more serfdom.
Perhaps they will extend this denial of health benefits to other public employees- like the legislature.
I don’t know if it’s the case in North Carolina, but in Utah, legislators get lifetime medical benefits for themselves and their spouse if they serve at least 10 years in the Legislature.
So, is the fact that we have retirees now “cashing in” on the benefits that came about in the 80s the reason for this? The only way to afford what used to be promised is to not have the tax code we have now, which continues to decrease revenue such that these types of new “cuts” occur.
Or is just ALEC ideology and no discussion really happens. . . it’s just the principle of the thing??
I don’t know what to think anymore. “Conservatives” in the 1980s in NC still wanted strong public schools, but when they voted “yes” on the benefits brought about in the 1980s they did so with the caveat of “increased accountability,” from what I can gather.
Good idea, math man! If they make a law that affects all state employees, it should apply the legislators, the Governor, and all other state jobs holders, including political appointees already covered .
Why is so much controversial policy being inserted in must pass budgets these days?
It looks like a good way for a politician to try to play emperor but seems like a really rotten way to discuss and vote on issues that are legal and contractual rather than strictly budget.
Is ALEC supporting undercutting democracy by the purse?
A little off-topic, but it details what another Governor did to screw
the workers in his state.
During the Wisconsin recall elections in summer 2011, I stayed at the
home of a former vice-president of the Milwaukee Teachers
union while I worked on the failed campaign for Sandy Pasch to unseat
Senator Alberta Darling, a staunch Walker ally. It was a razor-thin
margin… and suspicious as well… but that’s another story.
He told me about how the teachers’ union leaders
were trying to change the minds of the private sector union leaders
supporting Walker. “Don’t you see? Sooner or later,” he and
others implored them, “Walker will turn on all of you, and destroy
you the way he’s now destroying public sector unions.”
“No,” they’d argue back. “Walker’s only after you ‘bad unions’ in the
public sector cuz yer all greedy and drivin’ up our taxes. Unlike
you, Walker calls us ‘his partners.’ We’re behind him 100%!
And he’s going to take care of us. He told us that.’ ”
Yeah… Walker eventually took care of you alright, as the
article from the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE below
portrays in great detail.
When I was canvassing, I heard the same idiocy from various
private sector union members. I emphatically told them, “Look,
Walker’s not going after us instead of you.
Walker’s coming after us, and THEN you.”
They refused to believe me/us. (The same went with firefighters
and police—local, county, state. Their time is coming as well.)
That’s why my blood boiled when I read this (BELOW) in last Sunday’s
New York Times Magazine, where Terry McGowan—the president of Local
139, a Wisconsin statewide union of 9,000 heavy-machinery operators—
at long last faced the truth that we were telling him back in 2011.
It took multiple clues for this guy McGowan to finally face
that Walker was a union-busting sleaze:
————————————————————-
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:
Fidgeting behind his desk, McGowan rubbed his bald
scalp and half-smiled. “I sort of trusted the guy,” he said,
recalling his 2010 endorsement of Walker. “I took some
bullets at the time from the other unions.”
When Walker’s “divide and conquer” video was released in
2012, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked McGowan
about the governor’s remarks.
McGowan told the paper that the phrase “divide and conquer”
troubled him. “It means turning worker against worker,” he said.
————————————————————————
No really, Terry? Ya think?
Did you think Walker would give a sh*% that
you “took bullets from other unions”—as a price
that you had to pay for backing Walker—if and when
Walker needed to stab you and your union brothers
in the back to advance the corpoorate, anti-working-class,
anti-middle-class agenda? Walker got what he wanted
from you, and now that he doesn’t need you anymore
he’s throwing you into the trash like a spent NASA
booster rocket… in one of those slow-motion NASA
films.
IDIOT!!!!
What’s doubly infuriating about this is that the
“divide and conquer’ video was not enough for him,
as McGowan stubbornly held to his faith in Walker,
helping him Walker win last November.
Check out this pre-election scene that set the stage for
Terry’s eventual “too-little-too-late” disillusionment
with Walker :
————————————————————
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:
Last fall (2014), McGowan met with Walker, who
was seeking a contribution and another endorsement
for governor, at a small campaign office in
Wauwatosa, outside Milwaukee.
“I looked across the table at him, and I said,
‘We are both God-fearing men,’ ” McGowan told me.
“ ‘If you can tell me that right-to-work will not come
on your desk, then I will take you for your word.’
“He looked me in the eyes, and he said, ‘It will
not make it to my desk.’ He was looking for a
contribution, and I was looking for a commitment.
“We both got what we came for. He kept his, and
I lost mine.” (referring to Walker’s signing
right-to-work last month after it “made it to his
desk.”)
———————————
Hey, we told you this was going to happen,
Terry, but you refused to listen. And now
the public sector unions—the ones whom
you abandoned and stabbed in the back
in the early days of Walker’s governorship—
now are too weak and broke to unite with you
to form a front with you to oppose Walker.
Walker’s probably now talking to the Koch Brothers,
and having a good laugh about chump labor
leaders like Terry, and the workers that Terry
represents: “What a Sucker!!! He actually believed
us when we said we cared about them.???!!!
Ha, ha, ha, ha….!”
It’s infuriating! Here’s more:
————————————————
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:
Wisconsin legislators are now considering
repealing the state’s prevailing-wage law, a
Depression-era law requiring public construction
projects to pay the going wage in a given area as
determined by a survey of local employers.
In places with high union membership, the union
wage becomes the standard, which then raises the scale
for nonunion workers. Like right-to-work, the
prevailing-wage bill is being promoted by the
American Legislative Exchange Council in states
across the country; measures rolling it back recently
passed in West Virginia and Nevada.
Walker had said that repealing the prevailing-wage law
was not “a priority” — a phrase he also used about the
right-to-work bill — but in May, he promised to sign
such a bill if it reached his desk.
In early March, I visited Dave Poklinkoski, the president
of Local 2304, an electricians’ union, at his office in
Madison, where he was drawing up a right-to-work-compliant
union contract.
“Divide and conquer, it works,” Poklinkoski said.
“It works real well.”
He dug out his iPad from under a pile of papers
and pulled up an editorial cartoon by Mike Konopacki
that showed a bloodied Terry McGowan, the Local 139 president,
with a sword in his back, the hilt and handle in the shape of
Walker’s head, labeled “R-T-W.”
It didn’t matter if everyone knew that Walker had broken a
promise to a union leader, because now it was clear, at least
in Wisconsin, that Walker no longer needed labor.
“Wisconsin has become a kind of laboratory for oligarchs
to implement their political and economic agenda,” Poklinkoski
said. “We’re small enough that they can carry it out. Can they
carry it out on the national level? We’ll find out.”
——————————–
Yes, we will.
Unions had a place many many years ago but they have become nothing more than an arm of the federal government. They are worthless and do nothing but drive up costs. I have never met a union worker yet worth the money he/she is paid. The only thing I saw was GOOD workers demoralized because they had to pick up the slack and then threatened if they did to much to help “the man.” Sorry no pity here. I spent 3 weeks in Wisconsin during the recall and I don’t even live in Wisconsin. All to put the union mobsters in their place. Walker is not my favorite guy but he has guts and he is doing the hard work that needs to be done but no other Governor has the b^&^% to do. I guess you can tell I REALLY do not like unions and it is from YEARS of experience.
You are an obvious anti-union troll whom I should ignore. But to smear all unionized teachers is obscenely vulgar and wrong. The 3 highest rated states (for educational outcomes) in the US, NJ, CT and MASS, have unionized teachers which gives the lie to your ridiculous rantings.
You’re right, unions have no place any more. That’s why even though union membership has been declining drastically over the past 30 years, wages and benefits have continued to rise and working conditions have continued to improve. It just took the unions to point out to the company how advantageous it was to treat their workers well, and companies have been doing it on their own ever since.
And since you’re apparently in the bridge market, I have one I’d like to sell you. Going cheap.
brackenkaren,
I take it you approve of Walker faking that he genuinely cared and respected private sector workers… they were “his partners”… that Walker would “look after them”… because he admired them, in contrast to those “bad unions” in the public sector.
And then when he lied right to Terry McGowan’s face and promised he’d never sign any “right-to-work” bill, I guess that’s just fine and dandy to you.
Not to me, however. I wasn’t raised that way. Were you?
” I have never met a union worker yet worth the money he/she is paid.”
I’d advise you to get out of your basement, as it’s not good for your health to not get some fresh air and sunshine.
Unions are STILL important. My husband has had his arm broken TWICE in the same year, because kids at his school kicked or shoved doors while my husband was on the other side of the door. There are no windows in the doors. The principal even admitted to my husband that they took the risk that this wouldn’t happen again. And yet it did. My husband will NEVER have full use of his right hand again,
And yet, he can’t sue the school because there is no proof that the school intended to harm him personally. The business can be negligent all it wants, as long as they weren’t trying to hurt someone. Sounds like something out of Triangle Shirtwaist. We’re in a Right to Work state.
This needs to happen everywhere. If people save their money while young and the taxpayer is paying their benefit payments by the time they retire they should be debt free and can afford to pay for their own health insurance. Besides Medicare and a back up plan are much cheaper than full high end coverage. This is the mentality we have to start building in this country. Work while you are young, stop charging up huge charge card bills and buying new cars every two years and live responsibly while saving for your future retirement. Me and my husband did it and now we pay our own way and we can afford to do so because we lived within our means, did not get into debt, paid off our home in 5 years (no new cars or vacations during that time) and life has been good ever since and we don’t take a dime from anyone except now the SS check that WE paid for every week. The gravy train has to stop and people have to start living responsibly and independently. Aside from a lot of teachers most state employees that I have encountered wouldn’t even be able to handle a job at McDonalds and they do even less in the inflated state job market. Down sizing will be a good thing for state government. What we have promoted since FDR is just no longer sustainable. Just like all Socialism ideologies. It is great until you run out of other people’s money.
Thanks for being a hypocrite benefiting from Medicare and Social Security. Your buddies on the extreme right wing want to kill off SS and Medicare. What about decent hard working folks who had their savings wiped out due to medical expenses? You obviously don’t give a flying damn about people less fortunate than yourself. You have no human empathy and no credibility. You sound like an Ayn Rand acolyte. She was another hypocrite who signed up for SS and Medicare in her old age. Scott Walker wants to eliminate these 2 vital social programs.
brackenkaren –
In some states (like Illinois) teachers can’t get much (if any) of social security even if they paid into it with other jobs – so just go right ahead & bash people who worked hard their entire careers & paid into their retirement systems at a higher rate than those individuals who paid into ss…
North Carolina teachers are already among the lowest paid teachers in the nation. Just how exactly did you expect them to save up and “live within their means” when they have no means to live within?
Anyway, you’d best be careful, your compassion is showing.
Dienne;
Is it hard for NC school districts to attract teachers – particularly young ones – for their schools? Are there many positions vacant each year because of an inability to hire same?
With all due respect…Are you kidding me?? Save our money and be debt-free by retirement?? You mean from that whopping teachers’ salary we get in NC?? (I assume since you are on this blog you’ve read about the dismal salary rankings of NC teachers and attacks on our profession by the Republican majority in the General Aasembly.). So you mean the salaries that were frozen solid for 6 years while the cost of living continued to go up? True…I finally DID get a whopping 2% raise last year, but they took away our longevity to give us a “raise”. My longevity was 4%, so you do the math. Just a couple more points to consider:
Public sector employees generally always made/make less than their counterparts in the private sector, but benefits were included to compensate for the lower salary. I would think that the price of insurance for every state employee at a contracted group rate is far less than paying private sector wages.
You point out that the tax payer foots the bill for our benefits. Quite true. But you do realize, I hope, that we, too, are taxpayers. We contribute handsomely to the coffers. Likewise, we contribute to our own retirement EVERY month from our first day of employment until the day we retire. So you don’t take a dime from anyone except the SS check you paid for every week. How is that any different from paying into my own retirement every month?? We both pay into the system and the system pays us back with retirement benefits. Maybe you should think of our retirement benefits as state level social security so you don’t perceive us as milking the rest of you tax payers. And yes…we have to pay into SS,,as well, which brings me to my final point.
Both the federal and state governments take HUNDREDS from our check each month, SS takes hundreds and our retirement takes hundreds as well. Please don’t assume that we live beyond our means in our youth (or at any point in our lives!) because we plan to get state retirement benefits. Perhaps if the state paid us better and we didn’t contribute hundreds a months for that retirement, we COULD be debt-free by the time we retire. I know I could have used hundreds of extra dollars a month — every month. But it wasn’t optional…retirement comes out because that’s the way THEY set it up. I don’t know any teacher – at least in NC — who lives the high life unless they have a spouse with money/additional income.
So please — you needn’t portray teachers (or other state employees who are forced to pay for retirement) as freeloaders. I earned and paid for mine, just as you earned and paid for your SS (which, by the way, was initiated by FDR.)
I apologize for the lengthiness…best regards to you.
If you can’t cut it teaching in the public schools, might I suggest that you then go out into the private sector and get a job there if you think you can do any better?
“full high end coverage”
Where did you get the idea that any NC teacher or retiree receives any such thing?
Our base coverage is terrible. We can opt for better, albeit still not high end, coverage at additional cost.
And as others have pointed out, our pay is equally terrible.
Research before you post. Or better yet, come teach in NC and then we’ll talk, but be sure to get a position before next January.
Yes. Our medical benefits for state employees in North Carolina are some of the worst in the nation. The cost to cover a family (spouse and children) is about $600 per month. I know. I’ve had to do that. It eats up a huge percentage of one’s salary.
Yes, because the bottom NEVER falls out of investments or high tech or housing. How am I supposed to “save my money while young” when I haven’t had a raise in 8 years? I’m 42 and in my “prime earning years,” and the cost of everything has gone up, except my salary.
And what about those with traumatic illnesses? Should they just die?
But all it does is push people onto Medicare and Medicare isn’t a dollar to dollar exchange- you’re not covering the cost of your individual Medicare expenditures. It’s government subsidized.
It’s just cost-shifting. Some to the retiree and some to the Medicare (and probably also Medicaid, depending) program. They’re moving money around and calling it “savings”.
Cutting costs means cutting costs, not shifting costs from one entity to another.
By the way, Medicare has made changes by limiting some of their responsibilities. My Medicare is not as comprehensive as my mother’s was. Most middle class people on Medicare pay for a supplement. My husband and I pay almost $500 dollars a month for a supplement plan. The drugs on Medicare are on a tiered system so you can also wind up paying about $100 or more for medication unless you meet what they call the “donut hole.”
Right. You can call it new idea for de-Americanization–a.k.a. Deformarism.
I think Walker will be the next president, so get ready. Not many will vote for Hillary. We have had enough of the Clintons. After Obama, I am very ambivalent. What did Obama do for education? He tried to completely dismantle it. People are sick of the Democrats, including progressives or “liberals.” This move to the right is going to be very long term, so prepare yourself. You can always move to Denmark or Germany, if you don’t like it. Things will most likely never be as they once were around these here parts..
I’ve had enough of the GOP, I would vote for Hillary to block the far right wing GOP agenda.
Go ahead and cut your nose off in spite of your face. Anyone who votes for Hillary is an imbecile of the highest order.
What is anyone who votes for Bush, Walker or whatever other freak makes the GOP ticket?
@The Real One: I will be voting for Bernie Sanders in the primary. If he were to win the primary, I would vote for Bernie in the general election. But if Hillary wins the primary, I will, as I stated, vote for her over any GOP horror. Scott Walker would be a million times worse than Hillary.
If Walker becomes President, our nation will be on serious trouble.
Diane,
People have said before:
“If Jimmy Carter becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
“If George Bush becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
“If Barack Obama becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
“If Hilary Clinton becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
“If Walker becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
This type of feeing will go on and on with no end in sight. Doom sayers will always be there.
Education system is not going to die even if some of the people believe it is and keep saying so.
The country will not go back to the stone age, etc. If they did we will no longer have the dreaded corporations, they did not have any during the stone age.
My philosophy is live with it, do the best you can and there will be another day, week, month, year and so on. Leave the world a tiny little bit better by your effort, however little it may be. Look for the silver lining.
Thanks for the advice, Raj. I went to school in the segregated South. Black people were told, just live with it, there’s nothing you can do. Fortunately, they didn’t listen to those who counseled surrender.
Diane,
Our nation is ALREADY in serious trouble; Walker would be another nail in the coffin lid .
Well, Raj, considering that the American standard of living has been going steadily downward ever since Carter, I guess those people who say those things aren’t so wrong after all.
It’s nice that you’re well enough positioned that federal policy doesn’t affect your life. Not everyone is quite that lucky. Federal policy, in fact, has real impact on real lives and most of that policy since Carter has been having more and more serious impact. In fact, some people have died, which makes it really hard to just “live with it”.
Raj: ““If George Bush becomes President, our nation will be in serious trouble.”
If you’re taking about Dubya… then yeah, that’s exactly what happened. He took a country with a strong economy, a budget surplus, and at peace… and then proceeded to drive it into a ditch.
Remember the collapse of September—October 2008?
Bernie Sanders is the obvious choice and I am happy that you are starting to see the light in regards to voting third party. Dienne anyone who votes for Walker, Bush, ect. are also first class idiots. However, Hillary is just as bad as the GOP gang and that is the simple and honest truth. Look no further than Mr. Hope and Change for a clear illustration of just how bad today’s Democrats truly are. The are no different than the Republicans that so many here on this blog complain about.
That the judgement of one who has demonstrated such a particular ability in he area of moving things along in the right direction for the country, is it? [smile]
Sorry, but I don’t think “gimme, gimme” mantras, repeated over and over again, are going to save the nation…nor are the choices of those that chant them. Such people ARE the problem; not the solution.
Diane,
I was also here during the segregated south. I learnt quite a bit during those days. Being an Asian immigrant, my wife is white (early days of interracial marriage), I have seen the segregation for what it does and what it is.
Besides I stated my philosophy and it should not be construed as advice. If some one benefits from it so be it.
Raj,
I don’t understand your philosophy. Is it “let the market decide?” Is it passivity in the face of injustice?
So Raj, you didn’t fight for civil rights, then? You just shrugged and said that nothing would change, and just let others fight for your rights? That explains a lot, frankly.
Raj,
You made my day! You crack me up! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You limit the conversation with your nadir-like thinking and limited humanistic parameters. I needed some major chuckles.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood . . . . .
Cx
Nationally Board Certified Teacher
I’m supporting Bernie!
Crazy question, but possibly apt:
Have state benefits contributed to the increase in divorce rates?
Well, gee willikers, have state benefits contributed to baldness, obesity, high cholesterol, halitosis, rudeness, alcoholism, excessive cursing, flatulence and rampant Donald Trumpism???????? (sarcasm alert).
I believe state benefits have contributed to incompetent congress in Washington, D.C, bad President at the white house and bad state legislatures, bad Governors and finally resulted in global warming.
It has also increased daylight during the summer and reduced day light during the winter.
I am not sure if state benefits have started wars, but the sky is falling.
You can bet NC state politicians did not vote to eliminate their own health benefits upon retirement. What’s good for them is never good for us. . . . .
I just saw a story on the CNN website that the Charlotte, NC school district is advertising on Craigslist for teachers. They need over 700 teachers for next year and so far on Craigslist they’ve had 36 responses. Wow.
Good piece on charter teachers unionizing:
http://prospect.org/article/when-charters-go-union
No one wants to admit it, but the reason unions won’t die is that no one has ever come up with another idea for a non-governmental entity that actually works to include employees in decision-making. It’s not that people like unions. It’s just that there is nothing else that works like one. There’s the employer, there’s the state, and then there’s organizations outside the state- unions or a non-state entity that looks a lot like one.
There’s not an endless universe of options or someone would have come up with a replacement in the last 500 years. Try as they might (and boy do they try) politicians can’t drive the final stake in because people figure out it’s A, B or C. If A isn’t working they go to B and when that doesn’t work they end up at C. There is no “D” 🙂
Speaking of Walker, there is plenty of evidence the Wisconsin model is intended for all states. See “Citizen Koch”
http://twomovies.us/watch_movie/Citizen_Koch
This is another prescription to be filled by TFA. Temp workers who have no skin in the game who don’t want to be teachers who could care less about the kids or the futures f the kids. Reduce the profession to a revolving door of temps, to save the state future monies. No pension, no health care, just an hourly wage.
Koch, pronounced “coke” but we all know what we’re thinking, and it sucks.
Touché, Donna. We had a stellar teacher scholarship program — NC Teaching Fellows. Those selected were required to teach for 4 years in NC. Unlike TFA recruits, these young teachers (with actual teaching degrees, not a quick summer crash course) almost always stayed in the profession AND in the state! Their families and friends were here, unlike TFA’s, who come for something to put on their resume before bolting. Yet our GA cut ALL funds to Teaching Fellows and INCREASED money to TFA! $5 million/year the past couple years, and I think this budget bumps it up to $6 million. I totally agree with your theory of resorting to temp help to save $$ and would take it a step further. Their ultimate goal, I believe, is to move to virtual schools. Not only do computers require no pension or health care, they can’t protest, or make demands, or campaign against the majority party, and most importantly, they can’t VOTE!
I sure wish school retirees in PA got health benefits. I spend almost half of my pension on medical insurance. Not counting prescriptions, dental and vision. I can get help (very little for dental/vision) for $700 a year. Hubby’s meds (triple bypass diabetic) are NOT covered after the COBRA period. I’m waiting for Medicare to help in 2 more years.
“If you can’t cut it teaching in the public schools, might I suggest that you then go out into the private sector and get a job there if you think you can do any better?”
Ken Meyer — Wow…thanks for that sage advice. I’ll just throw away a 26 year career and start over. I never said I couldn’t cut it. I love teaching and would rather fight to save my profession than leave it. Does that mean we should just roll over and accept whatever crumbs they toss us?? Are you a NC legislator, by chance?? The majority of them have that same moronic attitude, and if Every struggling teacher takes your advice, there will be a shortage of monumental proportions. Since your suggestion is clearly not a solution but merely a snide, useless comment, might I suggest you then go trolling on an ANTI-teacher blog where attitudes like yours would be more appreciated?
I think KM is being cynical for himself. He’s not even aware that he’s among those who is being hurt by crony capitalism. Typical of individual sitting on loser’s side.
Maybe this is the states way of converting to Islamic teaching. Getting rid of qualified teachers and hiring some people. The ones with no qualifications teach your kids. And the Islamic NC house/senate steel the money and show nothing