Can You Afford a 25% Pay Cut?

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 17, the wait will be over.  We will know the answer to our questions – what does Governor Snyder have planned for education funding and how he will treat public employees?  Thursday the Governor will propose his budget.

In his State-of-the-State Address he stated his support for investing in education and especially supporting early childhood education.  The Governor has expressed his concept of shared sacrifice as he tries to get Michigan back on the right track.  We will be looking over his budget to see if it contains both those concepts. 

The Legislature has not been waiting for the Governor, they have introduced 113 bills, as of last week, that deal with public employee wages and benefits, taxes and financing, labor unions and working conditions, health care and insurance, schools and higher education, and other issues.

Two bills in particular are troublesome – SJRB would reduce base pay for all public employees by 5% for three years; and, SB7 would increase the amount public employees have to pay for health care premiums to 20 percent.

Next week we will give you a detailed analysis of what is contained in the Governor Snyder’s budget, but take a moment now and send an email to your State Senator and Representative and let them know the proposals for 5% and 20% is unfair to the folks who education children, drive school busses, put out fires, keep our drinking water safe, and risk their lives keeping our communities safe.