Michigan’s teachers don’t make large salaries, but they enjoy good benefit packages. Or they did, until the state Legislature decided to reduce those benefits. Of course, state lawmakers didn’t touch their own salaries and benefit packages.
As part of statewide efforts to cut costs and balance the 2007-08 budget, Michigan lawmakers voted to require teachers hired after June 30, 2008, to contribute 2 percent more from their pocket toward their pension, to work longer to qualify for full health care benefits and to no longer buy service credits to add years to reduce their health insurance costs.
But how will this affect Michigan? The state currently has an overabundance of teachers, one of the few occupational fields in Michigan actually thriving. The revised benefit ruling will likely encourage more graduates with teaching degrees to look elsewhere, hopefully leaving a strong pool of teachers who love the job and love the state, even with more stringent benefits.
The problem will arise if too many teachers leave Michigan in search of better wages and benefits in other states.
The biggest problem with the Legislature’s ruling is Michigan lawmakers did nothing to try and reduce their own generous salaries and benefits packages. Their most extravagant benefit is free lifetime health insurance for lawmakers once they’re 55 years old, granted after serving only six years in office.
Because Michigan sets term limits for lawmakers, six years is the maximum amount of time they can serve. Still, it’s hardly long enough to justify a lifetime of free benefits, especially when they turn around and raise taxes for Michigan citizens and cut benefits for state teachers.
Some lawmakers agree. Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy, introduced legislation into the House that would end the eligibility for benefits, starting with the 2007 freshman legislators. He believes health care is such a necessary expense that it should be addressed.
A separate bill passed in the House in May that would eliminate lifetime benefits for legislators. Months later, it still hasn’t been taken up by the Senate. This bill would apply to the next group of incoming legislators, not the 2007 freshmen.
After months of party-line arguing and inaction, the state Legislature has shown how brazenly selfish it can be. In the face of a $1.75 billion budget shortfall for the 2008 fiscal year it chose to squeeze money out of everyone else before its own.
The state needs to cut out-of-control spending in many, many areas of the government, if only to prove that the extra money from the expanded sales tax will be used prudently. While teachers have some of the most important jobs in the U.S. and are some of the main reasons we’re all here at a university, the teacher benefit changes may not be too bad. However, state lawmakers can’t continue to live easy off the nonexistent fat of the land.
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