House Votes to End Taxpayer-Financed Union Negotiators

In the Troy Public School District, a teacher whose total compensation tops $139,000 is paid by the district to do union business.  There are 39 other school districts that have similar arrangements and these cost taxpayers $2.7 million.

House Bill 4059 would end that practice. It passed the state House of Representatives on a vote of 59-47 this week. All Democrats and three Republicans voted against the bill.

The Republicans voting with Democrats against the bill were Reps. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan; Paul Muxlow, R-Brown City; and Dale Zorn, R-Ida.

The bill still needs to be passed by the state Senate and the signed by the governor to become law. It is sponsored by Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy.

“Paying someone with taxpayers’ dollars to negotiate against the taxpayer – it makes no sense,” said Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville. “It’s an abuse of taxpayers’ dollars by one of the wealthiest unions in the states.”

Doug Pratt, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, didn’t return an email seeking comment.

Some of the agreements are in union contracts. The bill wouldn’t impact those arrangements until they expired. But the union officials couldn’t be paid by taxpayer dollars in future agreements.

Michigan Capitol Confidential highlighted the practice of paying teachers to not teach and work on union issues in a March 29 story.