Bies takes aim at teacher salary cap Party lines disappear in quest to improve QEO By Deb Fitzgerald For The News-Chronicle One of Door County's state legislators has crossed the aisle to introduce a bill to abolish a law that has kept the lid on teachers' salary increases since 1993. The bill (AB 751) authored by state Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, takes aim at the qualified economic offer (QEO), required as the basis for negotiating with teachers. "I've expressed since running for office that I didn't like the QEO, but didn't have an answer to fix it at the time," Bies said. "This would restore for the teaching profession the same abilities all other organized professions have to negotiate in good faith bargaining to determine what their labor contracts will entail." Bies' bill has gained support from both Gov. Jim Doyle's office, which said it would work with Bies on it, and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state's largest teacher union. "This is a major victory for Wisconsin's great schools," said Stan Johnson, president of WEAC. "The fact that a Republican has introduced the bill and that there are other Republicans co-sponsoring the measure shows that lawmakers realize the harm this law has done over the past 10 years." But Rep. Steve Nass, R-Palmyra, said the bill would increase property taxes and wreak havoc on the education system. As chairman of the Labor Committee where the bill was referred, Nass said he plans to let the bill die in committee. "If we do away with the QEO, we've got to deal with cost controls and the binding arbitration law," Nass said. "If we don't, we will go right back to 6- and 7-percent increases every single year." Compensation packages that outrace inflation would force school boards to seek more money from the taxpayers through a referendum, Nass said. If the electorate said "yes," property taxes would increase; if the electorate said "no," the money would have to come out of academics, Nass said. The bill remains a "work in progress," Bies said, adding that he brought it forward at this time to start a conversation to produce a piece of legislation everyone could vote for. "The Republican party doesn't support this right now because they believe it will raise taxes," Bies said. "I think that possibility exists, but we're talking about being fair to a profession. If you don't have the salary and benefits that are offered in other places, all of a sudden you don't have quality people applying for positions anymore." The current QEO law went into effect in 1993 and allows school boards to avoid arbitration by imposing settlements that cap teachers' salary and benefits package at 3.8 percent. In practice, most schools settle above the QEO, said Steve Seyfer, superintendent for Gibraltar Area Schools. "The QEO has never been imposed in the Gibraltar district, but the revenue limit is an annual imposition," Seyfer said. Eliminating the QEO without looking at revenue limits would be "narrow-minded legislation," Seyfer said, particularly when the return to arbitration could mean a return to large salary settlements. "It's all potential, it's all theoretical, but the door would be open," Seyfer said. The bill encourages teachers and school boards to come to an agreement before arbitration by creating a "peril" of power, Bies said. "In my version," Bies explained, "the arbitrator would have all these powers to decide one way or the other, or to take what he wanted from each side, or to say they're both so far out that he's not going to allow anything." Though Bies has broken ranks with his party to introduce the bill, Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said Bies' move "strengthens the team." "That doesn't mean (Bies' bill) is going to pass," Gard said. "But I've told all my Republican colleagues that if the place is going towork, they need to feel like they can vote their conscience. That has made our team more unified and stronger on some of the big issues of the day." Nass said his plan to let the bill die in committee is not a partisan action. When the Democrats last controlled the Senate, they let a similar QEO bill die in committee, he said, and Democrats controlled the Assembly when QEO became law in 1993. "I believe even the Democrats know it will take both parties to get us out of this," Nass said. "For the property taxpayers, the QEO and revenue limits are good for right now. But are they perfect? Probably not. But do we have something to replace it? No."