NEWS

School employees to Snyder, Schuette: Give us our money back

RJ Wolcott
Lansing State Journal

LANSING - More than 33,000 signatures were submitted to Governor Rick Snyder's and Attorney General Bill Schuette's offices this morning asking them to let more than $500 million go back to school employees.

At issue is money collected from more than 200,000 Michigan school employees — from superintendents to bus drivers —  for future retirement benefits. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on June 7 that the 2010 law mandating that 3% of each employee's salary be withheld for future retirement costs was unconstitutional.

Appeals court rules for school employees on 3% refund

State officials have until mid-July to appeal the court’s decision.

“The governor is reviewing the ruling and has not yet made a decision on whether to recommend an appeal,” said spokeswoman Anna Heaton.

It’s time that the state let school employees' money come back to them, said Deborah McMillan, a Lansing School District teacher.

“We’re urging the state to stop the appeals and give back our hard-earned money,” she said. McMillan has been in Lansing for 28 of her 40 years as a teacher. The state is currently holding $4,050 of her money, plus interest, she said.

Steven Cook , president of the Michigan Education Association, said it isn’t clear how long it would take to get employees their money back, even if the state didn’t file an appeal.

“We’re demanding the state stop beating a dead horse and wasting tax dollars on appeals,” he said during a Thursday press conference.

The MEA represents approximately 140,000 former and current school employees across the state. The American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, which represents about 35,000 educators, joined the MEA in its call for ending appeals.

"This money belongs to the women and men who work every day to educate our children," said AFT president David Hecker.

MEA Board of Directors member and Novi teacher Tom Brenner, left, and Hamtramck teacher Michelle Cook make their way to deliver a box of petition signatures to Gov. Rick Snyder's office in the George W. Romney Building on Thursday, June 23, 2016. The American Federation of Teachers-Michigan​ and the Michigan Education Association delivered more than 33,000 petition signatures to Gov. Snyder's and Attorney General Bill Schuette's office to ask the state to stop appealing court rulings which find school employees are owed $550 million. Public Act 75 of 2010, mandated all school employees contribute three percent of their salary through an involuntary payroll deduction to fund retiree health care. The act was struck down by the trial court and the Michigan Court of Appeals. The case has been appealed previously by the state.

The 2010 law that made the withholding of 3% of school employee’s salaries was signed by then-governor Jennifer Granholm in 2010. The Michigan Supreme Court was asked in 2012 to examine the law after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional. The case was passed back down to the appeals court after sitting on the docket for two years, which ruled it unconstitutional again earlier this month.

The signatures presented were collected online in a week's time, said MEA spokesman Doug Pratt.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.