From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:
The city can’t balance its budget on the backs of city employees. But the revenue gap must be bridged. And coupled with a need for more spending on public safety, roads and parks, everyone has to contribute to the solution – city taxpayers and city employees.
The Fort Wayne City Council was right to approve cuts to city employee benefits. The changes are reasonable and will save about $2 million.
The council also was wise to take more time to consider a proposal that would require the coordination of insurance benefits but also carve out health care benefits from the collective bargaining process.
Instead of being able to accrue a massive number of sick days, employees will get five sick days and a new short-term disability benefit. Another change ends a compensatory time off benefit for Patrolman’s Benevolent Association members, which will encourage police officers to use their allotted vacation time and reduce large cash payouts for unused vacation days.
The city will end up paying about $460,000 in overtime but spent $850,000 for payouts in 2012.
“Some of these benefits were a good idea when they were conceived, but they are no longer fiscally responsible,” City Attorney Carol Helton said.
As an example, she said, employees with 10 years of service formerly could use the payout for accrued sick time to remain eligible for city health insurance benefits even after they had left their post and taken a job with another employer.
“When we’re in a fiscal crisis, those are the type of benefits we can no longer afford,” Helton said. “We still want to be fair, but we have to be fiscally responsible.”
The city faces an $11 million revenue gap and needs additional money for police and fire academy classes, park maintenance and road repairs.
City employees may not like the changes but should understand that $4 out of every $5 in the city budget goes toward paying employee salaries and benefits. The only other options are cutting employees or services.
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