Let public worker pacts be seen
Central Islip Senior High School Credit: Kevin P Coughlin
Voters in Central Islip will weigh in on a school budget today that includes layoffs for 86 teachers, even as property taxes increase 6.5 percent and the average (still employed) teacher gets a 9 percent raise. It's all thanks to a fat 10-year teacher contract approved six years ago.
That Central Islip residents were saddled with a contract binding future school boards and budgets for a decade is a mistake. That voters were left in the dark about it is worse.
School boards and other governmental entities conduct labor negotiations in secret, agreeing to contracts workers get to ratify, but taxpayers can't see. That could change via legislation before the State Assembly requiring disclosure of public-employee contracts after union members ratify them.
The bill also requires an analysis of contract costs to be posted on the Internet, so residents could speak out for 14 days before officials could approve the contract.
Another bill before the Assembly that should become law would require disclosure of any document acted upon by a governmental body at a public meeting.
If, even with such laws, voters on Long Island want to vote for school boards that give generous, ultra-long-term contracts, that's fine. If taxpayers knowingly supported huge pay hikes for some teachers, pink slips for others and big tax increases, that would be their right. Now, though, they do so blindly, and that's not right at all.
