COLUMBUS, Ohio — While a police officer shortage is plaguing departments across the state, an Ohio bill is headed to the House floor that aims to solve the problem. The legislation could fix understaffing, but at what cost?
There are fewer boots on the ground, longer working hours, and delays for residents who need emergency services.
"It takes hours for an officer to show up because it's so understaffed," Mike Weinman, a retired Columbus police officer, said.
News 5 Investigators first told you how the city's police officers were leaving the force at an alarming rate more than two years ago in our exclusive investigative series "Dangerously Understaffed."
RELATED: Dangerously Understaffed
This problem could be exacerbated by the pension fund troubles. Right now, The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund (OP&F) needs to get more money, or it will need to cut benefits.
Weinman, who is the spokesperson for the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, said a bill passed out of the Pensions Committee would help fix both issues.
"If you have a good, strong pension, it attracts people to the career field," the retired officer said.
Republican state Reps. Cindy Abrams (Harrison) and Thomas Hall (Madison Twp.) introduced House Bill 296. It would increase employer contributions to the OP&F, raising city input from 19.5% to 24% for police in a span of six years. It would also raise employee contributions from 12.25% to 12.5% in 2030.
The required employer contribution is an amount equal to a percentage of each employee’s salary. Right now, cities pay 24% into the fund for full-time professional firefighters, so H.B. 296 would just make the cities pay an equitable amount for the full-time municipal police officers.
"Not only is that fair, but it helps the solvency of the fund," Weinman said.
But the price of fund solvency may bankrupt cities.
"We're concerned about the long-term cost implications that this unfunded mandate would have in our cities," said Keary McCarthy with the Ohio Mayors Alliance.
The 30 biggest cities would bear the brunt of these costs. According to McCarthy, they pay $300 million into the pension fund. With H.B. 296, a total of more than $80 million would be imposed across all cities.
"That's $80 million less that we're going to have for our cities to pay higher wages and benefits for our first responders," McCarthy said. "It's going to prevent us from hiring new officers and increasing our staffing levels."
According to Keary's research, this means that Columbus would pay an additional $15 million, Cleveland with $5.5 million and Cincinnati with $4.6 million.
To pay the increased contribution, McCarthy said cities may have to raise taxes on residents. But, he added, if the bill isn’t passed, this could encourage cities to raise wages in order to recruit.
"If we can increase payroll to bring in more officers, to hire more officers and put more payers into the system — that's going to have the best, most positive impact on the fund's long-term fiscal health," he said.
Not unique to OP&F, the fund has more retirees and beneficiaries than active members who are paying in. Thus, intergenerational equity could be off. Simplified, this means that there may not be equal treatment in pension financing between generations.
However, there were massive benefit changes in 2012, when the retirement age for first responders was raised from 48 to 52, cost of living adjustments (COLAs) were eliminated until members turned 55 and said COLAs were capped at 3%.
According to the bill sponsors, this led to a $3.2 billion decrease in unfunded liabilities.
Weinman points out that employer contributions haven’t been raised since the 1980s, so this is long overdue for helping the people who risk their lives daily.
"Government's number one priority is the safety of its citizens," the retired officer said. "That's where the investment should be going."
The bill passed out of the Pensions Committee 12-3 and will be on the House floor in December. Only state Reps. Angie King (R-Celina), Adam Holmes (R-Nashport) and Ismail Mohamed (D-Columbus) voted against it.
Money, money, money
It's not just OP&F that wants more money.
The retired teachers' pension fund, the one that I have been covering constantly for a year, is making moves to ask employers to pay more to their fund.
State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) plans to ask lawmakers to increase their employer contributions — which also haven't been updated in decades.
Unlike police and fire, though, STRS members don't have as much of a COLA.
Also, unlike police and fire, STRS is in constant chaos.
RELATED: Here's the new interim head of the retired teachers' pension fund
OP&F also has some drama with STRS, as do the other four pension funds in Ohio.
Ohio police officers are urging lawmakers not to punish them and the rest of the retirees for the controversy going on inside STRS. Statehouse Republicans proposed combining all five public systems to cut costs and stop alleged corruption.
RELATED: ‘Don’t lump us in’ — Ohio police reject GOP’s pension system overhaul due to teachers’ controversy
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
