Senate bills: Not much reform

The bills were hyped as a way for local governments to save millions of dollars in labor costs by reforming the way local governments must handle labor contracts. In the end, no labor organization opposed the set of bills and no local government organization supported "the reforms" that passed the Senate this month.

 

The main issue within the package of bills was to amend PA 312, the law that governs the requirement that binding arbitration be offered to police, fire and EMS employees. The changes were contained in Senate Bill 1072, which was offered by Sen. Randy Richardville (R-Frenchtown Chtr. Twp.).  At issue was the problem that binding arbitration often puts local governments in the position of cutting money out of one part of their budget in order to fund binding arbitration decisions. Local governments focused the discussion on ability-to-pay issues as well as the use of internal comparables.  Instead, the Senate passed a bill that would tighten the time period for receiving arbitration determinations, unless both parties agree to an extension.

 

A substitute version of the legislation that passed the Senate less than 24 hours after being made public may in fact end up hurting local governments that create cooperative public safety services. Currently, PA 312 only applies to police, fire and EMS services run by cities, villages, townships or counties. The Senate amended the legislation to expand binding arbitration to any authority or other entity created by a city, village, township or county to provide these services.

 

Two other bills received consideration this month. SB 1085 amends the Intergovernmental Transfer of Functions and Responsibilities Act and was offered by Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Chtr. Twp.), and SB 1086 amended the Urban Cooperation Act and was offered by Sen. Bill Hardiman (R-Kentwood).  Both laws specify that no employee can be financially disadvantaged when merging or transferring government functions. While local government organizations urged the Senate to eliminate this language from the law, the Senate instead specified that the no financial disadvantage language would remain valid until such time that a new labor contract is established.