ST. PAUL – With another state budget deficit looming, State Rep.Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, wants to give lawmakers another opportunity to control runaway state spending.

In 2003 Buesgens introduced a plan to reform the Public Employee Relations Act (PELRA), which governs collective bargaining between public employers and public employees. At the time, Buesgens pointed to imbalances in the system that allowed bargaining units to extract huge settlements, which then forced higher government spending. Those same imbalances still exist and continue to raise spending beyond what taxpayers can afford.

"I’m reintroducing this bill to give my colleagues a second chance," Buesgens said. "Since I first put this idea forward in 2003, we’ve seen why it is so necessary with three settlements totaling more than half a billion dollars. The PELRA is driving government spending and taxpayers are being asked to pay a price they can’t afford."

The PELRA drives government spending in several ways, most notably by lacking any references to financial limitations of public employers and providing no ways to curb demands that lead to excessive settlements.

The Buesgens bill (House File 2997) would eliminate those cost drivers by requiring that contracts between public employers and bargaining units must not spend more money than is available during the contract term plus one additional year. Buesgens said this structural balance will ensure public employee unions do not force public employers to spend more tax money than is reasonably available.

"When you look at settlements for state employee unions, increases regularly top $200 million. That’s not counting increases for local government or school employees," Buesgens said. All public employees fall under the PELRA guidelines, including state, local government and public school workers.

At the state government level, 90 percent of agency employees fall under one of the 17 collective bargaining units, according to the Department of Employee Relations. In the last 10 years, spending grew from $3.4 billion to $5.6 billion on contract settlements for those units.

"We have to remember that we are ultimately dealing with taxpayers’

money in these settlements," Buesgens said. "We missed a chance at reform in 2003, but it’s not too late. I’m urging my colleagues to give this bill serious consideration."

The bill includes several other cost containment measures, including giving employers more control over the design of insurance plans, requiring a common accounting method so proposals can be accurately compared by all parties and limiting strike capabilities. Under the bill, public employees may only strike if their final contract offer is less than the maximum amount available.

"We have two choices," Buesgens said. "We can fuel the spending engine with ever-increasing taxes or we can make the engine more fuel efficient. If being ‘green’ is the fashionable thing to do, then this bill is ‘green’ in the most important way: It protects taxpayers’ wallets."