Under New York’s Triborough Amendment, the only law of its kind in the country, union contracts negotiated during good times cannot be re-negotiated during bad times. Not unless the union agrees.

That is our situation in Irvington today. We are saddled with a legacy contract negotiated during the boom, and nearly all of the provisions agreed to by the board when home prices were rising 10% a year live on in the new contract. Meanwhile the district reports that taxable assessments are down 10%, and the data I’ve seen suggest that individual homes have lost 20% of their value since the crash. Some residents have lost jobs, and wage growth across the country slowed radically after 2007, which means wage growth slowed radically for many here as well.

But Triborough, the single largest mandate imposed upon school districts by the state, has meant that the district must continue to fund roughly 4% increases for school employees each year. Funding 4% annual increases when your own compensation is not rising — and your home value has dropped — is pretty much the definition of “unsustainable,” and that is why the tax cap passed.

In truth, it’s the contracts that need to be capped. Not the budgets. But since Albany does not have the wherewithal to repeal Triborough, the problem has been left to voters to address inside the privacy of the voting booth.

Worker pay 2011 and 2012 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Worker Wages 2011 & 2012
“Most Americans are still far from the income they had before the crisis, and many of the new jobs are not particularly stable or high paying.”
After Cashing In on Job Cuts, Wall St. Looks to Worker Upturn
By NATHANIEL POPPER
Published: March 10, 2013

Sticky wages in 2011 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Not your Father's bell curve - sticky wages

The tall bar in the middle represents workers who had a wage increase of $0 in 2011
People to the right of the bar had pay raises
People to the left of the bar had pay cuts
Why Has Wage Growth Stayed Strong?
By Mary Daly, Bart Hobijn, and Brian Lucking

IUFSD taxable assessments (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

3.5.2013 Taxable Assessments
source:
Superintendent’s Proposed Budget
March 5, 2013

New York State School Board Association opposes Triborough, and Irvington’s BOE has voted to approve NYSSBA’s position.

AND SEE:
• Per pupil spending $28,517
• ELA scores 12.18.2012
• 13 million jobs gap
• Irvington Parents Forum at Yahoo
• Irvington Union Free School District