There have been few times that I, as a conservative, agree with Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle, yet I believe that we should work together where common ground is possible.

Mayor Suttle’s March 10 Midlands Voices essay paints a picture of contract negotiations between the City of Omaha and the police union that are held hostage by the Commission of Industrial Relations (CIR). Mayor Suttle raises the concern that “if our contract goes to the CIR, we risk far too much progress” being lost.

Now is the time for the Suttle administration to join the movement for significant reform of the Commission of Industrial Relations.
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The CIR is an unelected unit of state government with the legal authority to arbitrate disputes between local governments, such as cities, school boards and public employee unions. At its core, through its decisions the CIR sets the salaries and benefits of public employees in the state of Nebraska.

Nebraska municipal budgets, which are funded by property and sales tax revenue, spend roughly 70 percent on employee salaries and benefits. By dictating how much government employees make by settling contract disputes, the CIR sets the pace for government spending, which directly impacts the level of taxation to afford that spending. To prevent more job losses or tax and fee increases to pay for CIR unfunded mandates, now is the time for significant reform.

State Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln has introduced a CIR reform package in the Legislature. Legislative Bills 1040, 1041 and 1042 have received a hearing by the Business and Labor Committee, but to date the committee has taken no action. Sen. Fulton’s legislation would ensure a reasonable standard for determining the salary of public employees.

Currently, the CIR determines public employee compensation by comparing an array of cities to the Nebraska municipality in question. Cities the CIR has placed in Omaha’s array include Minneapolis (with a metro population of 3.5 million, compared with Omaha’s 837,000), Denver (2.3 million) and Cincinnati (2 million).

It is unreasonable and economically irresponsible to compare Omaha to metropolitan areas four times its size. Of course salaries and benefits are higher in larger cities, and that is why Mayor Suttle and elected leaders across Nebraska fear the CIR. Sen. Fulton’s legislation would put reasonable limits on cities the commission can use in its array.

The CIR reform package also would require the commission to consider, in the words of former Fahey chief of staff Paul Landow, “the economic stress a city or its taxpayers are under.” The current CIR formula does not take into account a city’s ability to pay. For a city like Omaha, where unemployment has risen and there are serious budget issues, having the CIR consider the financial climate could prevent mandatory salary or benefit increases when taxpayers cannot afford them.

Reform also would force the CIR to compare public sector jobs to private sector jobs. Obviously, there is no comparable job for a firefighter or police officer, but there are private sector plumbers, administrative assistants, engineers and even teachers. It has been reported that the average government employee in the City of Lincoln makes $10,000 more than the average private sector employee.

Reforming the CIR to compare apples to apples can go a long way toward lowering the cost of government and providing meaningful tax relief to the citizens of Nebraska.

Nebraska families are forced to make sacrifices during these difficult economic times. Our local governments should be doing the same, but the CIR — or the threat of the CIR by public employee unions — makes it virtually impossible to rein in spending and control tax rates.

CIR reform is not a liberal or conservative issue; this is about responsible government. Mayor Suttle has expressed the same sentiment of Republican and Democratic mayors across the state, that we cannot “hand our fate to the CIR.”

Nebraskans are demanding bold leadership to solve our serious economic problems. Mayor Suttle can help by being an ally for CIR reform.