CITY HALL

Unions tell city not to balance Louisville's budget on the workers' backs

Courier Journal

Union leaders on Monday urged Mayor Greg Fischer and the Louisville Metro Council not to balance the city's budget on the backs of front-line workers, a week after Fischer's team asked unions to consider a pay freeze.

None of the unions represented at the Monday press conference accepted that request, and instead made a plea for council and the mayor to work together to find a "real solution."

"If you voted no on the mayor's proposed (tax hike) and you don't have a third option, or you don't have an idea other than cutting jobs and cutting services, then I have a problem with that," said Tracy Dotson, president of the union representing Metro Corrections workers.

Many of the gathered union leaders expressed frustration at the Louisville Metro Council, rather than the mayor, whose idea to triple the insurance premium tax to fill a projected $35 million budget shortfall was rejected by the council last month.

Background:Louisville wants city unions to consider a pay freeze to help with budget

The council had an opportunity to invest in the city and its future, said Brian O'Neill, the president of the professional firefighters union, but it chose not to.

"We're hoping that they can come up with some real ideas — that we can come up with some savings, come up with new revenue — that's not going to harm workers, and that's going to keep this city moving in a forward direction," O'Neill said.

John Hamm, Louisville's human resources director, asked last week for unions to consider voting on the proposal and responding by Friday as to whether members would be "willing to assist" in implementing a "true zero percent (0%) wage increase," according to a letter obtained by the Courier Journal.

In a statement ahead of the press conference, Fischer said he hated the idea of asking union members to give up their cost-of-living increases, just as he hates the other cuts the city faces.

"I understand that hard-working men and women are deeply frustrated about the cuts that we face in Metro Government," Fischer wrote. "I share their frustration."

"... That's why I proposed new revenue," Fischer said, adding that he planned to continue working to implement the "council's cuts" with as little pain to workers and residents as possible.

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Some union leaders have been vocal critics of the request, including the president of Louisville police's Fraternal Order of Police, who on Thursday said he wouldn't insult his members by bringing it to them for a vote.

"All of Louisville benefits from our services, and I think that it's cowardly public policy to force the employees of Louisville Metro to shoulder this budget burden, when the government can't seem to get their act together to help spread that across the city," said FOP president Nicolai Jilek, who wasn't present at the Monday press conference.

Louisville faces a budget shortfall of $35 million in the upcoming fiscal year, created in large part by the city's increasing pension obligation. That deficit is expected to increase by $10 million in each of the next three years, growing to $65 million in fiscal year 2022-23.

Fischer had proposed filling that hole by tripling the insurance premium tax on policies except for health and auto insurance. But last month, the Metro Council rejected even a more modest proposal to double the tax — leaving city leaders to balance the budget by cutting services or finding other efficiencies.

Fischer is expected to present a budget to council members on April 25. It will be voted on in late June, ahead of the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

He said at a news conference last week that 75% of the city's workforce is represented by unions, so the city began by asking them to accept the wage freeze.

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Officials are looking at the possibility of eliminating cost-of-living increases for city employees overall in the upcoming fiscal year, he said. Personnel costs make up 70 percent of the city's budget.

"That makes it impossible to balance this budget without hurting hardworking, talented people," Fischer said in the Monday statement. "My administration reached out to unions representing Metro employees to see if they would be interested in forgoing cost-of-living raises for the upcoming year as a way to have to avoid some of the layoffs we face."

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a Courier Journal question about the savings the city would see if cost-of-living increases were eliminated in fiscal year 2019-20.

Many unions representing city workers have guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments or other wage increase mechanisms. Those amounts vary widely, said Tim Morris of the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council, which represents roughly 4,000 public sector employees in eight or nine different unions.

The Louisville police union, which is not part of the GLCLC, has a contract that guaranteed percent pay increases but expired in 2018. Under a wage freeze, Jilek said, FOP members would have had frozen longevity pay increases, which he called a valuable retention tool.

And the Metro Corrections union has cost-of-living allowances guaranteed at a 2% increase until fiscal year 2022-23, Dotson said. Those workers' longevity increases depend on time served.

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Dotson said at Monday's press conference that some union contracts prohibit layoffs. His union's contract does not.

Last week, Dotson said just one member of his union said they would accept the wage freeze — and that was only because that member was about to retire.

"Everyone else has been pretty emphatic," Dotson said. "... This is the worst-case scenario."

Dotson's union put out a strongly worded statement the night of the Louisville Metro Council vote, warning that his members would remember.

And on Monday, he took specific aim at the "flippant" remarks made by Republican council members Kevin Kramer, R-11th District, and Anthony Piagentini, R-19th, as well as Councilman David Yates, D-25th, leaving for Hawaii after the vote.

"The point is the indifference we see on this council with those 'no' votes," Dotson said. "... You're talking about people's livelihoods."

Piagentini tweeted, "Read my lips (or at least for this vote...). No new taxes," after the council vote against the tax hike on March 21.

And Kramer, who leads the seven-member Republican caucus, previously told a TV station that a cost-of-living freeze is reasonable.

A spokesman for council Republicans said Kramer's comments were consistent with what members had said before the vote, and that cost-of-living adjustments have been implemented by previous mayoral administrations.

As for Piagentini's tweet, spokesman Steve Haag said: "Councilman Piagentini takes the process of creating a budget and addressing these issues seriously, and the decisions made by the council will have an impact on not only city employees but every person in our community."

Yates did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Council members voted 11-15 against the tax hike.

Eight Democrats joined the seven-member Republican caucus in voting no: Jessica Green, D-1st District; Keisha Dorsey, D-3rd; Donna Purvis, D-5th; Paula McCraney, D-7th; Mark Fox, D-13th; Cindi Fowler, D-14th; David Yates, D-25th; and Brent Ackerson, D-26th.

Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.