Michigan Education Association accused of overpaying staff, carrying too much debt
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-10 11:39:06 | Word Count: 707
The Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, is paying its staff excessive salaries and carrying more than $100 million in debt at a time when its members are losing jobs and facing pay cuts, says a school finance watchdog group called Education Action Group.
But state and local union leaders argue the Education Action Group paints an overly bleak picture, saying the debt represents total pension debt to be paid out over decades, and salaries are appropriate for a union representing 157,000 members.
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They also say the Muskegon-based group, which has injected itself in recent Board of Education races and recently called on the Grand Rapids board to dump its union-affiliated insurance carrier, should shine a light on its own finances.Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters was paid $290,741 in salary and reimbursements, EAG leaders said, pulling figures from documents filed last month with the U.S. Labor Department.
Executive Director Luigi Battaglieri was paid $249,075, when the average Michigan teacher made $56,096.
The union also reported carrying debt of $124 million, up from $36 million a year ago.
"The public has a right to know that it's dealing with a financially shaky organization," EAG spokesman Steve Gunn said.
"The union lectures school boards about having top-heavy administrations and evils of outsourcing. But if the salaries we're seeing are an indication of how they spend their own money, they're terrible money managers."
MEA spokesman Doug Pratt said the debt figure is misleading, saying it represents the total anticipated pension payout for current and retired employees.
"It's like saying the average American family is drowning in debt because continued from a1
they have a mortgage," he said.
"The only thing we have to pay out in the next year is what's due next year, and we can easily cover that."
Pratt said the pension fund fluctuates with interest rates and the stock market, and the change in value is similar to what other pension-paying organizations have experienced.
Pratt said the listed salaries also are misleading since they include expense reimbursement, such as mileage. Salters is listed as getting $290,741, but her salary is $239,105.
The MEA rases money by collecting dues from its members, who pay 1.5 percent of their salaries, capped at $620 a year.
"We're a membership-driven organization and, if the members thought the salaries are excessive, we'd hear it," Pratt said.
"I think people appreciate that Iris is a CEO of a $79 million a year operation."
Grand Rapids Education Association President Paul Helder said he has not heard members complain about MEA salaries.
"Iris represents every teacher in the state, and she doesn't make all that much more than Bernard Taylor makes to oversee 1,600 teachers here in Grand Rapids," Helder said.
Taylor gets $190,000 per year in base pay and an annuity payment equal to 14 percent of the base in 2009-2010, plus a car.
EAG Vice President Kyle Olson appeared before the Grand Rapids school board last month and was rebuffed after calling on members to dump the teachers' union-affiliated health insurance carrier.
The group also spent money in the recent school board election, sending postcards showing three union-endorsed candidates as marionettes manipulated by Helder.
The group in 2008 erected billboards depicting a cigar-chomping union boss trying to control the schools and had nationally known political pundit Dick Morris participate in a video blasting the union.
The union has long called for the EAG to reveal who pays for mailings and other activities.
"At least we know where the MEA's money comes from," Helder said. "Kyle Olson won't tell people where all his money comes from."
Olson has said the group runs on contributions.
"We're not a public agency that contracts with public governments," Gunn said.
