You don\u2019t have to go to Washington DC, or New York City, or even to Mar-a-Lago, to find government corruption. Just take a drive west down Broad Street from here in Pataskala. When you reach \u201cthe end\u201d, Broad and High in downtown Columbus, Ohio, look to the left, at the State House. Because it\u2019s right there that the \u201cfix\u201d is in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It doesn\u2019t take much imagination to figure out the legislators know what they are doing is \u201cshady\u201d. When you slip in a major change and take away representation for 500,000 some Ohioans in the dead of the night (approximately 1:13 am), you know that they know: their actions won\u2019t stand the light of day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s what happened in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ohio Legislature, both House and Senate, really don\u2019t give a damn about the will of the voters. That\u2019s not an opinion, it\u2019s a fact. Look at their blatant defiance of two separate Ohio Constitutional amendments passed by the voters to curb gerrymandering. Add to that, the current discussion about banning abortions (making it criminal murder) despite the overwhelming majority of voters approving a Constitutional Amendment protecting abortions rights just in 2023. And they are \u201ctinkering\u201d with the marijuana legalization law passed by referendum as well, finding ways to make more money from this newly legal vice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what happened in the dead of night Wednesday? At the final moment, when no one could object, the leaders of the legislature placed an amendment in the omnibus state budget bill. That amendment changed the makeup of the governing board of the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, the Board that controls the pension fund, consists of Five representatives selected by active teachers, Two representatives selected by retired teachers, and an Appointee from each the Governor, the Legislature, the State Treasurer and the Department of Education. But Wednesday morning, in the dark, without debate or discussion, the Five active teacher representatives were cut to Two, and the Two retired representatives replaced by One. Those four were replaced by four more appointees of the legislature and executive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The powers-that-be in the legislature don\u2019t want what\u2019s going on at STRS to see the light of day. So their answer was to make sure the \u201cowners\u201d of the pension; the teachers, professors, and administrators whose hard earned money make up the pension fund, had their voice stripped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s going on? Like any pension fund, STRS has to \u201cride the wave\u201d of economic ups and downs. But, if you look at the long term performance of the fund, it has failed to keep up with even a simple \u201cindex\u201d of the stock exchanges. STRS spends hundreds of millions of dollars on in-house investors, and it also invests billions of dollars with private equity firms. Those \u201cprivate\u201d investments are \u201csecret\u201d. The \u201cowners\u201d of the money, teachers and retirees, are not allowed to see what the cost and benefits of those investments are. Meanwhile, their retirement benefits have been cut back, year after year, since 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retirees were told over and over that they were in the \u201cPremier Retirement System in the Nation\u201d. But, they found that the promised cost of living adjustments were cut, and that the \u201cwonderful insurance plans\u201d cost more and more. And active teachers were told they had pay more into STRS, teach longer, and get less retirement benefits. They all asked why, after the stock market more than doubled, there wasn\u2019t enough money? They were told, \u201cThat\u2019s just the way it is\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past several years, groups of retired and active teachers organized. They defeated the Ohio Education Association endorsed elected board members, and replaced them with reformers dedicated to transparency and improving benefits both for active and retired teachers. Just last year, the \u201creformers\u201d achieved a majority of the Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First the Governor, then the Attorney General of Ohio threw legal road blocks up to stop the reform board. And, now when the courts cleared those hurdles, the Legislature stepped in to \u201cchange the rules\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why does the legislature care about all of this? It\u2019s simple: private equity firms are huge financial supporters of politicians (on both sides). If the STRS pension fund is taken out of private equity investments, then the legislators will lose a large source of their financing. It\u2019s all about \u201cthe green\u201d, not in the pockets of teachers or retirees, but in the pockets of the \u201csuits\u201d in the State House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where is the outcry against this power grab? The media is mixed: the largest \u201cvoice\u201d in the state, Gannett Media, has a financial stake in the pension fund. They don\u2019t want changes, and their reporters continue to repeat false accusations about the reformers. On the other hand, Nexstar\u2019s WCMH in Columbus, led by Colleen Marshall\u2019s reporting, continue to be strong investigators on the STRS story, as does the Toledo Blade <\/em>newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Governor could veto this item in the budget \u2013 but don\u2019t count on it. His hand is in this financial cookie jar as well, and he\u2019s already shown his \u201ccolors\u201d in this effort. He\u2019s likely to go along with disenfranchisement. After all, he\u2019s retiring to Cedarville soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is one \u201cmistake\u201d that the leaders of the state legislature made. Since 2009, the legislature has been \u201ccushioned\u201d from changes in STRS. They gave up their direct control of pension funds. It was all about \u201cthe Board\u201d, not the \u201csuits\u201d in the State House. Now, after this move, “the suits” directly face 500,000 teachers and retirees. For them, it’s \u201call about\u201d the Legislature. And, as any fourth grader can tell you, there\u2019s nothing worse than a whole lot of angry teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angry Teachers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n