In many areas across the state, news reports about public school teachers' raises (some approaching 4 percent or more) during these recessionary times are prompting the public to ask "Why don't school districts simply hold the line on spending like the private sector?"
Strange as it sounds, New York State law actually prevents school districts from restraining or cutting spending, thanks to something called the Triborough Amendment.
Triborough applies to New York public employees. It's part of the Taylor Law, enacted in the late 1960s to eliminate strikes by public employees such as police, firefighters and teachers. While it has been very effective in doing that, it has done so at a very steep cost. Just ask any local property taxpayer.
Triborough requires the terms of a union contract to remain in force until a new contract is agreed upon. In other words, when a contract between a teachers union and a school district expires, if both parties fail to agree on a new one, the old one keeps repeating forever.
This is dramatically different from rules governing negotiations in the private sector. Here, if no new contract is agreed upon, the terms are simply frozen.
For example, let's say a teachers' three-year union contract calls for raises of 1 percent in the first year, 1 percent in the second and 3 percent in the third. At the end of the contract, the union and district can't reach a new agreement. So the 3 percent raises the last terms in force, continue repeating every year until a new settlement is reached.
The teachers can count on at least a 3 percent raise every year until a new contract is reached. In the private sector, no settlement means 0 percent a year raises until a new contract is reached.
Clearly, school districts have almost no bargaining power compared to private businesses. If the union negotiators don't like the new proposed contract, all they have to do is nothing. And they'll still get 3 percent raises every year.
This should explain why most public employees and teachers' union contracts are "backloaded," the biggest raises occur in the last year of the contract.
Another example: one of the major cost drivers in school budgets is health insurance. It was once much less costly than it is now. When it was cheaper, most school districts and even many private employers provided health insurance to their employees while paying most if not all of the cost.
As health-insurance premiums escalated year after year for the last decade, most private employers required their employees to absorb a larger portion of the cost. But in public schools, where the terms of a contract remain in force until both parties agree to the terms of a new contract, no such luck. Health-insurance costs have skyrocketed.
Thanks to Triborough, schools have little or no bargaining power to get union employees to accept reduced coverage or pay a greater percentage of health costs.
In order to secure concessions, givebacks, from teachers on health insurance, school districts are forced to provide something valuable in return. So schools resort to "buybacks." As you can guess, little or nothing is gained by the school district in the way of overall cost reduction.
Most school-district employees enjoy significantly better health-insurance benefits at a much lower personal cost than their counterparts in private business. If their union negotiators don't like any new offer, they can simply refuse it confident that whatever increases they got last year they will get again this year.
While the public demands school districts to "drive a harder bargain," the reality is that Triborough makes it impossible. Essentially, Triborough requires employees to be compensated for any contract concessions they make, regardless of current economic conditions.
School districts will never be able to significantly slow the growth in employee salaries and benefits unless and until Triborough is reformed.
New York's school districts do not have the power to change the Triborough Amendment. Only the governor and State Legislature can. Until they act, the ever-rising costs of public schools will continue landing on the local property taxpayer.
Lawrence M. Cummings is executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, Syracuse.
Opinion
March 9, 2010
Triborough handcuffs school negotiators
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