Montgomery County Taxpayers League Program: Doug Prouty (MCEA) and Gino Renne (MCGEO)

The next monthly meeting of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League is scheduled for Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. in the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Avenue, 5th Floor Conference Room, Rockville, MD.  For directions go here.


Speakers: Doug Prouty, President, MCEA and Gino Renne, President, MCGEO

Topic: The Role of Public Sector Unions in Montgomery County
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These are the questions that have been sent to Messrs. Prouty and Renne in advance of the meeting:

1. Public employees at the federal, state and local levels perform very similar functions for the public (except for foreign policy and defense). They are protected, like private sector workers, by a wide range of laws. Unlike the private sector, they benefit from more stable and dependable employment. Why are public employees deserving of collective bargaining rights?

2. Collective bargaining at the federal level does not cover salaries and benefits but does cover conditions of employment. Why do public sector unions in Montgomery County deserve collective bargaining rights that cover the whole range of compensation while federal unions do not?

3. Federal unions, like Montgomery County unions, are well-organized and appear to have a strong influence on lawmakers. However, federal employees, unlike Montgomery County public employees, are prohibited from most political activities as they are governed by the Hatch Act. Why should Montgomery County public employees not be restricted in the same way? What effect would this have on your unions?

4. Across the country, public service unions have been confronted with the choice of either (a) retaining employment levels but receiving a decreased level of benefits or (b) reducing employment while maintaining the level of benefits. While many in the private sector opt to retain employment at the cost of reduced benefits, it appears that your unions have chosen benefit retention at the cost of reduced employment. Could you explain the thinking behind choosing reduced employment levels?

5. When the economy was strong, county tax revenues were also strong, county taxpayers were getting jobs and buying houses and county employees shared in those revenue increases. But with the economy now weak, county tax revenues are also weak, and county taxpayers are losing their jobs and their houses. Should county employees also be expected to share the same burdens as the taxpayers who support them?

6. What are your views if contracts for all unions in Montgomery County, including the MCPS unions, were approved by the County Council?

7. Why is the MCEA health benefits system more generous than that of MCGEO-covered members? Why do teachers get supplemental pension funding when no other teachers in the state of Maryland do? It appears to us that county workers covered by MCGEO are sacrificing more towards the county's ongoing budget deficit than those covered by MCEA? Why are MCEA members exempt from benefit cuts?

8. MCPS teachers have a system of 20-step increases within each salary grade, all of which are automatic. The current system of step increases has resulted in the highest pay going towards athletic instructors. MCEA continues to defend step and grade increases over merit pay? Why?

9. The federal government, most of the private sector and much of the Montgomery County Government has moved away from a defined benefit system of retirement towards a defined contribution system. When will MCEA-covered workers move in the same direction and if not, why not?

10. Both MCGEO and MCEA have been very successful in gaining generous salaries and benefits for its members, many of whom do not live in the county and do not pay taxes but who gain much from the Montgomery County taxpayer. What could be done to encourage those non-resident union members to move into the county?