Latest / Chuck Douglas / State Senator Andrew Breener in studio

Transcript

State Senator Andrew Breener in studio · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Gout, Chuck Douglas, you know who you are. We get
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  Speaker 1: one hour together, which means I talk really fast. You
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  Speaker 1: must listen even faster. My number eight two one nine
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  Speaker 1: eight eight six eight two one WTV and fortunately State
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  Speaker 1: Senator Andrew Brinners still in studio. He agreed to hang
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  Speaker 1: out for a while in the Power Hour because we
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  Speaker 1: just had so much to talk about last hour and
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  Speaker 1: got a couple of messages during the break here on
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  Speaker 1: the Facebook messenger, on the Twitter and valid points. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not going to use names because if they want their
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  Speaker 1: names on there, they'll actually call the show and and
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  Speaker 1: put it out there. But we had one one person
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  Speaker 1: who said she's been working for her department or state department,
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  Speaker 1: got hired two weeks before the COVID cinemall home and
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  Speaker 1: made a great case, made a great case, and it
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  Speaker 1: brought up something else that Andrew and I were talking about,
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  Speaker 1: and that is the fact that you know, the downtown parking,
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  Speaker 1: which is why the government. See, if the government, municipal, county, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: really wanted to make some money, instead of building apartment
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  Speaker 1: buildings and condominiums that people can't afford, we be building parking.
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  Speaker 1: We would be let's do some underground parking. Let's do
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  Speaker 1: Parking is a big deal if you're whether it's residential
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  Speaker 1: or for the businesses, parking is a big deal. And
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  Speaker 1: if it costs a little bit less to pay you know,
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  Speaker 1: the state or the county ten bucks instead of paying
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  Speaker 1: twenty bucks to a parking lot company, the state would
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  Speaker 1: make money, the consumer would save money, and it would
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  Speaker 1: be good all around. But if you're paying twenty bucks
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  Speaker 1: a day to park and you're going back downtown to
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  Speaker 1: a state building to work, that's one hundred bucks a week,
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  Speaker 1: that's fifty two hundred dollars a year pay reduction essentially
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  Speaker 1: you're going to take by going back to work. And
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  Speaker 1: she makes a great point.
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  Speaker 2: And some people will also make the point that you know,
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  Speaker 2: they do have kids and instead of now they're going
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  Speaker 2: to need to get childcare that is substantially higher. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I know, people spending five hundred or more one thousand,
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  Speaker 2: you know, dollars in a week or a month, depending
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  Speaker 2: on how many kids they have, and that cost will increase.
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  Speaker 2: But then again, because they're dealing with their kids, you know, again,
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  Speaker 2: where is is their productivity being measured and is it
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  Speaker 2: being majured properly remotely if you can do that, and
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  Speaker 2: I know that many private sector companies you've got keyloggers,
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  Speaker 2: you've got other things you can do to track people
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  Speaker 2: if those kind of you know, metrics were in place.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily against somebody working remotely if in fact,
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  Speaker 2: you can prove you you know, you're you're being productive.
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  Speaker 2: But when we've got some parking garages in downtown Columbus
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  Speaker 2: near the Steakhouse that have been pretty empty for the
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  Speaker 2: last four years, We've got buildings down there that have
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  Speaker 2: been completely empty, and the question is, you know, should
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  Speaker 2: we keep those or should we sell them? Or in fact,
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  Speaker 2: if people are down there working and they're productive, you know,
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  Speaker 2: will they you know, start utilizing some of the things.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe they won't.
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  Speaker 1: And and you know, her.
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  Speaker 2: Point was, you know, I'm not if I can't afford,
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  Speaker 2: you know, my parking, I may not be able to
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  Speaker 2: go to the local restaurant to buy something there for lunch.
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  Speaker 2: That may be the case, and they'll have to box
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  Speaker 2: their lunch or something. But I think that we need to,
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  Speaker 2: we really do need to make sure that most employees
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  Speaker 2: who are working customer service or in a position where
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  Speaker 2: they're doing their customer service work. And as long as
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  Speaker 2: we're doing you know, the right metrics to follow their productivity. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: I don't care if they're local or you know, they're remote,
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  Speaker 2: but if we're not doing that, then they should be
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  Speaker 2: down there. But also you need people together to work
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  Speaker 2: collaboratively to come up with, you know, things to improve government.
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  Speaker 2: And I know that doesn't happen if you don't even
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  Speaker 2: know that the laws have changed, and that has happened
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  Speaker 2: in many of our state agencies.
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  Speaker 1: And I would love to see a situation where they
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  Speaker 1: were allowed to Essentially, why collective bargaining. If you're working
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  Speaker 1: for the state, you're in a union sometime somekay, if
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  Speaker 1: this means enough, you know, get the signatures, just like
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  Speaker 1: you would if you were trying to unionize the office.
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  Speaker 1: Get the signatures to say we want to present this
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  Speaker 1: case for a remote work thing, if even on a
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  Speaker 1: you know, a part time basis, maybe a week in
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  Speaker 1: the office, a week at home, a week, get something
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  Speaker 1: like that and negotiate that out. Because the state is
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's nothing more than representatives of the people.
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  Speaker 1: And if we can get the right people in the
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  Speaker 1: right places to sit down and look at these terms
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  Speaker 1: here's we'll go for this, but here's what we're going
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  Speaker 1: to ask for in return. As Andrew mentioned, we need
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  Speaker 1: these metrics. We need to know we can measure the productivity.
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  Speaker 1: And if this is not meant for you know, say
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  Speaker 1: three evaluation periods in a row or something like that,
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  Speaker 1: this thing automatically collapses and we're all back in the office.
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  Speaker 1: You need to understand that going in. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's maybe that's my real estate mind talking. Everything's negotiable.
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  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 2: Well, but then again, you're also self employed. I mean
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  Speaker 2: to take a look at that. If you're self employed,
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  Speaker 2: you have to go work. It's not a question of
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  Speaker 2: if you if you want to get those deals closed,
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  Speaker 2: you have to be out there hustling to get the
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  Speaker 2: deals and then working to get them closed, and then
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  Speaker 2: you're paid a commission check afterwards. All these employees are salaried.
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  Speaker 2: They're not only salaried, but they've got years of benefits.
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  Speaker 2: They've you know, they've got many years in they're building
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  Speaker 2: up a good retirement and a lot of those things
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  Speaker 2: are all happening, you know, And and they're producing things
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  Speaker 2: for government. They're not producing things in the private sector.
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  Speaker 2: From a standpoint of productivity. They're they're thereas you know,
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  Speaker 2: to help people like you know, medicate or you know,
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  Speaker 2: helping them get through their you know, the needs that
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  Speaker 2: they may have of an individual or a family. Same
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  Speaker 2: with education, or same with any of their other state
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  Speaker 2: agencies and departments. They're there for a service. So they
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  Speaker 2: they should be there, they should be working, and we
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  Speaker 2: should be able to measure that. And I think that's
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  Speaker 2: why you're seeing this big pushback in the private sector
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  Speaker 2: as well as the public sector to get these employees
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  Speaker 2: back in there, because I am very confident that the
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  Speaker 2: productivity has fallen substantially for quite a bit of our
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  Speaker 2: quite a few of our state agencies as well as
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  Speaker 2: in the private sector. That's why you see people like
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk and he's got his dose kids hanging out
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  Speaker 2: in cots, kind of like he did to try to
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  Speaker 2: keep you know, his business going for Tesla. You know,
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  Speaker 2: he had that cod on the floor to make sure
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  Speaker 2: the productivity lines or the lines were working. And we
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  Speaker 2: need to do that in government, and we need a
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  Speaker 2: kind of an urgent thing to do this because the taxes,
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  Speaker 2: I mean talking about property taxes at the local level.
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  Speaker 2: People are talking about their property taxes for school those
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  Speaker 2: costs have gone through the roof and the values of
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  Speaker 2: properties have gone up, so people's property taxes have gone up.
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  Speaker 2: We're working as legislators to try to get that down.
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  Speaker 2: I'm working on that, I know my colleagues are. But
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  Speaker 2: then you also need your state agencies to also be
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  Speaker 2: coming up with ideas to think, Okay, how can we
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  Speaker 2: streamline some of these processes so we don't need as
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  Speaker 2: many you know, behind the scenes bureaucrats or behind the
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  Speaker 2: scenes people to collect certain data or do certain things,
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  Speaker 2: like in the Department of Education and Workforce as an example,
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  Speaker 2: where we you know, passed a bill two years ago
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  Speaker 2: to bring people together to connect workforce and connect the
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  Speaker 2: school in K twelve to make sure that that works better.
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  Speaker 2: But if they're still working remotely or they're not coming
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  Speaker 2: together as a group, it's kind of hard to say
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  Speaker 2: that they're actually improving the department and improving the services
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  Speaker 2: that we need for our kids so that they're able
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  Speaker 2: to learn and actually prosper.
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  Speaker 1: And you told me off the air, I just what
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  Speaker 1: you are. You're going to chair Education committee again this year? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: any big plans And while we've got this momentum going
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  Speaker 1: is that you have some stuff on the table you
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  Speaker 1: want to jump on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm actually I've introduced a placeholder bill, Center Bill
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  Speaker 2: ninety three that would completely transform the education funding system
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  Speaker 2: and go to a Milton Freeman style system where the
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  Speaker 2: money follows as student. Finally, it's been worked on for
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  Speaker 2: six months. I've got to say we were working on
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  Speaker 2: in the last General Assembly. I'm still working on it,
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  Speaker 2: so that's why I had to put a placeholder bill.
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  Speaker 2: That bill we hope should be able to be in
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  Speaker 2: the Finance Committee. It's already been referred to Finance, but
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  Speaker 2: we should have a substitute bill, I would hope by March,
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  Speaker 2: and this would be a bill that just transforms it completely.
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  Speaker 2: I mean it would be a change moving away from
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  Speaker 2: property taxes. I would substitute in the income and sales
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  Speaker 2: taxes and it would be revenue neutrals, so we're not
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  Speaker 2: raising anybody's taxes on a net, we're actually keeping that neutral.
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  Speaker 2: But with the efficiencies you get of having the money
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  Speaker 2: follow the student, local school boards will have to make
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  Speaker 2: tough decisions for the ones that aren't making the tough decisions,
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  Speaker 2: and you're gonna have to see a better quality of product,
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  Speaker 2: because if you don't, the kids will be able to
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  Speaker 2: go from point A to B and all the money
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  Speaker 2: will be able to follow them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the expansion of charters will be amazing.
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  Speaker 1: If this happens, that's going to be a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: And the unions will hate that idea. They will, which
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  Speaker 1: you're going to have an uphill battle with that.
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  Speaker 2: But we've been having that uphill battle with the unions
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  Speaker 2: over the last I've been fighting them pretty much, especially
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  Speaker 2: the labor union that specifically for the teachers' unions over
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  Speaker 2: the last decade. Anything we do that expands school choice
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  Speaker 2: they just absolutely oppose. I don't understand that. I know
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  Speaker 2: that some of the teachers unions have actually tried to
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  Speaker 2: unionize some of the charter schools. The problem with trying
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  Speaker 2: to do that, though, is the charter schools can go
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  Speaker 2: out of business, and if you know, they can't if
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  Speaker 2: they don't have enough money to pay for their own teachers.
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  Speaker 2: And reality is like Columbus Public because they have so
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  Speaker 2: much more money available to them, literally a billion dollars,
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  Speaker 2: they can go and they can hire all these good
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  Speaker 2: teachers out of the charter schools and haul them into
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  Speaker 2: their system. Unfortunately, you see still some stagnant results, which
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  Speaker 2: is why we've got to put those checks and balances
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  Speaker 2: in and allow that money to follow the students.
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  Speaker 1: The idea that the you know, the charter schools at
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  Speaker 1: this point are not unionized, will also go by the wayside,
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  Speaker 1: because if this ball gets rolling, the charters pop up,
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  Speaker 1: that's going to be the next step. The public school
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  Speaker 1: unions will object strongly and the charters will get unionized
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  Speaker 1: fairly quickly. Because a lot of and I've been on
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  Speaker 1: some charter boards, the teachers who come to charter schools
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  Speaker 1: are as a general rule, fresh out of college working
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  Speaker 1: relatively cheap compared to what the public school contracts get them.
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  Speaker 1: Once they've got a couple of years of experiencing a
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  Speaker 1: charter under their belt, man, they jump into that public
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  Speaker 1: school system, their income doubles because they know they've got
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  Speaker 1: that union thing. So that's going to make the likelihood
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  Speaker 1: of chartered teachers becoming union members quickly pretty high.
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  Speaker 2: It's possible that that'll happen, especially if the charter schools
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  Speaker 2: are getting the same amount of money. And this is
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  Speaker 2: a thing that you know, the unions will say, well,
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  Speaker 2: there's no accountability of the charter schools. Well, the fact
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  Speaker 2: is they are there is we have a system that
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  Speaker 2: shuts down the charter schools. So I'm actually also reintroducing
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  Speaker 2: a bill that would say that if you're a traditional
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  Speaker 2: public school and you're failing the kids, just like we
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  Speaker 2: shut down the charter schools, we will also either reorganize
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  Speaker 2: or shut down the traditional public schools that are also
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  Speaker 2: failing the kids. And when you've got school buildings in
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  Speaker 2: school districts where ninety percent of the kids are failing
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  Speaker 2: as state standardized tests in math and English, and we
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  Speaker 2: have them all over the state, unfortunately in our urban schools,
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  Speaker 2: then we definitely need some accountability there, and we need
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  Speaker 2: to restructure those schools. We need to reorganize them, or
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  Speaker 2: we need to shut them down, and we need to
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  Speaker 2: just quit saying, hey, status quo is fine. It is not.
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  Speaker 2: And especially if you're trying to bring in the intels
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  Speaker 2: of the world and you're trying to bring in all
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  Speaker 2: these technology companies, those companies are going to need kids
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  Speaker 2: who are educated, and kids who can't read their diplomas
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  Speaker 2: are not going to be able to get those jobs.
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  Speaker 1: I'll give you something to ruminate on here before I
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  Speaker 1: go into the traffic breaking that is this what my
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  Speaker 1: youngest son. When the state established the standard, the state
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  Speaker 1: test for Ohio graduation, they start administering that in tenth grade.
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  Speaker 1: They give you a chance to screw it up twice
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  Speaker 1: before your senior year. Well, he took all the parts
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  Speaker 1: in tenth grade. He passed all of the parts in
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  Speaker 1: tenth grade. And he said, so here's my question, Dad,
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  Speaker 1: If this shows that I'm ready to graduate from high school,
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  Speaker 1: why am I going to high school another two years
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  Speaker 1: after this? And I thought, wow, I can't argue with
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  Speaker 1: my teenage son. That was an amazing question.