The city and its police officers have a new contract.
Officers ratified the three-year deal on Tuesday night, the same night the South Milwaukee City Council voted unanimously to approve the new contract.
Some highlights:
- The deal includes a 1% pay raise retroactive to Jan. 1, followed by a 1.25% raise to go into effect on July 1. In 2013, the deal calls for a 2% pay raise on Jan. 1 and a 1% raise on July 1. A 3% raise goes into effect on January 1, 2014.
- The contract also calls for union members to pay more for their health insurance and, over time, have their contributions to the lowest cost health plan equal that of the city’s non-union workers (and AFSCME employees starting this summer). So by January 1, 2014, the city will pay 88% of the lowest cost health plan for all city workers, excluding firefighters, who have yet to agree to a new deal with the city. New police hires will contribute 12% immediately, under the new deal. The contribution for current officers is phased in over the next two years to get to that 12%.
- The same phasing approach holds true for retirement contributions, and by July 1, 2014, all police officers will pay 100% of the employee-required contribution to their Wisconsin Retirement Fund pension – the same percentage all non-public safety employees will be paying by then.
This deal is good example of shared sacrifice, and it certainly brings a level of pain to both sides.
For the police officers, as with other public workers who have been forced to pay more for their benefits in the past year, the pay raises won’t be enough to cover the increased health insurance and pension contributions. So, in essence, the deal represents a take-home pay cut.
For the city, the fact we’re providing a pay raise this year negatively impacts our budget to the tune of more than $130,000. We always knew this was a possibility when we approved our 2012 budget last fall, but the reality is sobering, and the pay raises will require significant cuts to a police department budget already cut to the bone. The immediate impact: We likely won’t fill an open officer position for the foreseeable future to help cover the added costs.
In other words, times are as tough as ever with local budgets. And the resulting cuts are real. This contract fairly reflects that.
South Milwaukee Blog 