COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio House has passed pension reform to combat police understaffing, but the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
The police shortage plaguing cities across the state may be one step closer to being fixed.
"If we don't have that strong and secure retirement, we're not gonna be able to get our best and brightest to join this profession when we need them the most," Ohio Fraternal Order of Police President Jay McDonald said.
The House passed the historic police pension reform Wednesday evening. Right now, The Ohio Police and Fire Pension needs to get more funding, or it will need to cut benefits.
In order to fix this problem, 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.
It passed in bipartisan fashion 66-25.
McDonald, who is also the Marion Police Chief, said the House was the easy chamber.
"They're pulling out the stops to try to stop this bill," the chief said.
The bill is moving to the Senate, where local leaders are already meeting with lawmakers to reject it.
According to OP&F financial reports, cities pay more than $600 million into the pension fund annually, with $300 million coming from just the top 30 largest municipalities. With H.B. 296, a total of more than $80 million would be imposed across all cities.
To read much more in-depth about the bill, click here.
It would cost all cities in Ohio a total of 80 million dollars added to the 600 million they already pay into the pension fund.
On Monday, A dozen local leaders from across the state came together to oppose the bill.
"This bill would devastate public safety in our communities," Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said, noting that the proposed increased cost to the fund would be like laying off more than 40 officers. "It would cause police and firefighters to be paid less well, and it would cause there to be fewer of them."
A group of local officials with the Ohio Mayors Alliance (OMA), which represents the 30 largest cities in the state, and the Ohio Municipal League (OML), which represents 900 municipalities, met Monday to express their opposition to the bill.
RELATED: Although understaffed, Akron mayor rejects bill meant to fix police understaffing
The municipalities have also found support from the business community.
"Unless taxpayers are willing to increase contributions for the employer side, then there won't be enough police force for some cities that are already struggling to find enough cadets for their police classes," Tony Long with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce said.
Long said cities can’t afford this, and the financial burden will fall on residents and small businesses.
"If you have to increase either a police levy in the township or you have to increase the city income tax rate, businesses pay that through the municipal net profits tax — which would then increase the cost of your goods and services on top of it," the lobbyist said.
The employer contribution hasn’t been raised since the 1980s, so McDonald said this is long overdue to help the people who risk their lives every day.
"There are only two ways to fix this problem, either with more revenue from the employers or cuts to those men and women who serve their community for 30 years," the chief said. "So the question to legislators and mayors is, 'Which one do you choose?'"
But the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
"Getting this done before the end of the year, I think it's going to be extraordinarily difficult," Senate President Matt Huffman said. He wants to rely on the Ohio Retirement Study Council's expertise, and get more of their input.
"Pensions — it's a complicated business," the president said. The bill isn't completely dead, though. "We are certainly going to try to address it," Huffman said.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
