Rob Horowitz: Pension Reform is a Political Winner
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Brown University Poll released this past Friday shows there are exceptions to the old, and too-often true, cliché that “No good deed goes unpunished”. The prime architect of Rhode Island’s new comprehensive pension reform law, Gen. Treasurer Gina Raimondo (D), saw her approval rating rise to 52%, giving her the highest approval rating of all the state’s general officers and members of Congress. The survey also showed that 6-in-10 registered voters support the reform, while less than 3 in 10 oppose it.
Raimondo exercised political courage in taking on the state’s influential public employee unions to solve the pressing problem of a state pension system with an unfunded liability of $7.3 billion and with the prospect of rapidly increasing and unaffordable annual budget outlays for pension costs. The solution she crafted certainly requires sacrifices from current state employees, public school teachers and retirees, but it ensures that the pension system will be sustainable for future retirees. It also creates budget and political room to address other major challenges and puts Rhode Island on a fiscally sound path. .
Given the popularity of pension reform, Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I), House Speaker Gordon Fox (D), Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed and an overwhelming majority of rank-and-file state legislators, can be reassured that they not only acted in the broad public interest, but made the right political calculation when they supported this bill.
Unfortunately, public employee unions have not, as yet, received the message. A front-page story in Sunday’s Providence Journal reports that Crossroads Rhode Island -- an agency that provides social services to the homeless and also actively supported pension reform-- is experiencing a major decline in contributions due to an aggressive campaign by public employee unions to discourage their members from contributing. As Phillip Keefe, President of the Rhode Island Alliance of Social Service Employees, said: “Tell them(Crossroads Rhode Island) to get used to it. You want to play hardball and that’s what happens.”
While it is understandable that the public employee unions would be upset with organizations for taking an opposing position on an issue that is so important to them, this kind of naked intimidation is bound to backfire in the court of public opinion where the public employee unions are already well behind. It is one thing to take tough actions against businesses who oppose safe working conditions and living wages; it is quite another to punish an organization that serves the homeless simply because the agency disagrees with you.
Public employee unions in other states such as Ohio have won big recent victories precisely because they have worked hard to engage the sympathies and support of the broader public. Rhode Island public employee unions, despite their big defeat in the pension battle, do not seem to realize that much more than political muscle is required if they are going to successfully make their case on future issues.
In this holiday season let’s not lose sight of one of the few good news stories in today’s politics--- the adoption of comprehensive pension reform and the public rewarding its chief architect Treasurer Gina Raimondo with deserved high poll numbers. And please join me in sending an end-of-the-year contribution to Crossroads Rhode Island.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Related Articles
- Rob Horowitz: It’s Time to Create A National Infrastructure Bank
- Rob Horowitz: Perry Hurt By Debate Performances
- Rob Horowitz: Newt Bucks the Conservative Tide On Immigration
- Rob Horowitz: Potential New Life for Campaign Finance Reform
- Rob Horowitz: Newt Bucks the Conservative Tide On Immigration
- Rob Horowitz: Public Employee Unions Losing Pension Battle
- Rob Horowitz: North Providence Must Reverse New Swearing-in Policy
- Rob Horowitz: RI Leads the Way on Pension Reform
- Rob Horowitz: Chafee Does the Right Thing on In-State Tuition
- Rob Horowitz: Obama Jobs Speech Resets the Table
- Rob Horowitz: Republican Presidential Nomination Contest Remains Wide Open
- Rob Horowitz: Climate Change Put on the Back-Burner
- Rob Horowitz: Occupy Wall Street Should Look to MLK
- Rob Horowitz: Give Municipalities the Ability to Act on Retiree COLAs
- Rob Horowitz: Pension Reform Poised for Adoption
- Rob Horowitz: Important Lessons for Occupy Movement
- Rob Horowitz: Pension Reform is a Political Winner
