Ohio Governor John Kasich faces a moment in history where his major initiative to reform the relationship between public employee unions and the taxpayers who pay for them has been soundly defeated in a state referendum.
The question Kasich must answer is whether this was a battle lost due to the mistaken tactic of including highly popular police and firefighter unions into the reforms or whether it is a lost war, dooming the state of Ohio to spiraling public employee costs that are political suicide to attempt to contain.
Public employee unions spent close to $30 million to defeat Kasich’s reform. Ironically, those unions got that money from mandatory dues collected from public employees who are paid by taxpayers. In a nutshell, $30 million of tax dollars that were paid to public employees were then used to convince the voters of Ohio that public employee union reforms should be rejected.
Public employee unions legally used their member’s dues to paint a picture of an Ohio where public safety is at risk due to changes in the relationship between police and firefighter unions and their taxpayer employers.
And Ohio voters, by a 61 percent majority bought it.
Now, reality strikes.
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