Mayors from both parties say residents of Ohio’s cities should expect fewer police officers, and cops should expect smaller pay raises under a Republican-backed bill in this lame duck session. Cities are pushing back on legislation requiring them to pay more toward pensions for law enforcement, which the pension fund said is needed to stave off a financial emergency in the future.
Municipal employers with police and fire departments pay over $300 million annually to the Ohio Police and Fire pension fund. House Bill 296 would boost that by an estimated $80 million a year – going from 19.5% of total police payroll to 24%, which is the current rate for firefighters. Cities would pay .75% more over each of the next six years.
Shammas Malik of Akron is among the mayors who said cities can’t afford this increase. He said recruitment will suffer if cities can’t pay cops well or make investments in public safety.
“No one wants to see benefit cuts. No one wants to see people not paid the pensions they’re due,” Malik said. “But the state has funds to be able to support things when there is the will to do it.”
Other cities said layoffs of first responders and cuts to services could result. Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said the bill would devastate public safety in municipalities.
“It would cause police and firefighters to be paid less, to be paid less well, and it would cause there to be fewer of them protecting us,” Kapszukiewicz said. “I can't imagine a more anti-police, anti fire bill that this legislature has ever considered.”
The bill has passed the House Pensions Committee. But the mayors want lawmakers to hold off on the bill in lame duck pending further study of the Ohio Police and Fire pension fund, or for the state to pay to increase the bill requires.
But Mike Weinman with the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, which backs the bill, said cops have made concessions, so it’s time for the cities to pitch in.
“We want a healthy pension. That's what recruits people. That's what retains people,” Weinman said. “Seems funny that they say they're going to go out and have more police officers. They're not going to hire their way out of this.”
Weinman said law enforcement officers have increased their contributions, and that a version of this bill was proposed two years ago, so this shouldn’t be a surprise to the mayors.
“They know all about this. They've known about it for years,” said Weinman. “Other than the state kicking in money, I have no idea where they think these adjustments are going to be made.”
Weinman said there have been no financial controversies involving the Ohio Police and Fire pension fund, as there have been with other funds. The State Teachers Retirement System has been under fire for paying bonuses to investment staff when the fund lost money and members didn’t get a cut of living adjustment.
The OP&F fund said members have taken more than $3 billion in cuts, and that this increase is needed to make sure the fund is solvent.
