Governor can lead by example by withdrawing pay increases

Republican Gov. John Kasich is talking about a “mid-biennial review” of the state’s two-year operating budget in his continuing effort to make government at all levels do more with less — dollars. If the governor does undertake such a review, we would suggest that he revisit the exorbitant pay raises he granted members of his inner circle and that GOP Senate President Tom Niehaus gave to staffers of the Republican and Democratic caucuses.

The raises have become a flashpoint for critics of the administration and the Republican controlled General Assembly. Indeed, the double-digit percent hikes for Senate staffers are the basis of an advertising campaign launched by opponents of Ohio’s new collective bargaining reform act, so-called Senate Bill 5.

Unions representing public employees, their counterparts in the private sector and Democrats have joined forces to block the new law from taking effect. They circulated petitions for a referendum, secured more than a million signatures and State Issue 2 will be before the voters on Nov. 8. The pay raises for top officials in the Kasich administration and for senatorial staff have become a major issue in the campaign against SB 5.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the governor said the “mid-biennial review” of the budget that was passed earlier this year would be significant enough to require legislative approval. State budgets traditionally cover two fiscal years.

“We want to keep reforming the government,” Kasich insisted.

Senate President Niehaus, R-New Richmond, recently joked that he “breaks out in hives” when he hears talk of another budget next year, the Dispatch reported.

The governor has long talked about reforming government, and during last year’s campaign made much of the fact that the public sector has failed to recognize the economic trials and tribulations faced by private sector workers. His argument about the cost of government — 80 percent of operating budgets are taken up by wages and benefits — has resonated with the electorate. When he took office in January, he talked about the challenge of closing an $8 billion hole in the biennium budget and made it clear that across-the-board cuts were inevitable. The budget he sent to the General Assembly reflected that reality.

But, Kasich undermined his argument by making six-figure salaries the norm for top officials in his administration. As the Plain Dealer reported in January, the pay extends to 10 positions in Kasich’s office, including his chief of staff, Beth Hansen, and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor’s chief of staff, Laura Johnson, slated to make $170,000 and $120,000 a year, respectively. Other top earners include special assistant to the governor Jai Chabria ($145,000), chief legal counsel Mike Grodhaus ($120,000), communications director Scott Milburn ($120,000), policy director Wayne Struble ($120,000), deputy policy director Ben Kanzeg ($115,000) and legislative liaison Matt Carle ($100,000).

Salary budget comparison

But the governor contends that while he had increased the salaries for certain positions, his overall payroll is less than what his predecessor, Democrat Ted Strickland, managed.

In the Senate, the raises included the following: $14,997 for Matt Schuler, the chief of staff, whose salary is now $$138,507; $14,996 for Vince Keeran, Senate clerk, now earning $116,230; $14,996 for Liz Connolly, the Republicans’ deputy chief of staff, earning $116,126. Democrats also shared the largess, with Amanda Hoyt, the minority chief of staff, getting a raise of 11,003 for a salary of $105,997.

Gov. Kasich and state legislators would do well to revisit the whole issue of compensation and to reduce salaries across the board in the executive and legislative branches to reflect the sacrifices Republicans have been demanding from teachers, police officers, firefighters and other government employees.