On November 4, 2014, voters in Colorado had the opportunity to vote on Prop 104. This Proposition passed with 70 percent approval. The proposition will require that all negotiations that school boards engage in fall under the open-meeting laws of the state. Basically it would finally allow for transparency concerning the largest budget item a school board has to deal with.

Transparency is an issue that we want to publicize when it comes to finance. We want all levels of government to publish all expenditures and revenue that flows through their coffers. We are not as quick to apply this level of transparency to all other aspects of government. One area where this is greatly lacking is concerning union negations that go on every year in this state.

Iowa needs to take the steps to open up our union negotiations to protect both sides. This would allow the employees represented by the unions to know where both sides stand and how their interests are truly being represented. It would rid us of the smoke and mirrors that are currently going on behind those closed doors.

Every year Public Interest Institute reports on the Iowa Pay Gap. In 2011 the pay gap was 150.2 percent, and in 2012 that number had increased to 151.0 percent. This shows that on average government-union employees are receiving wage increases that the private-sector employees are not. In a report from the Goldwater Institute from January 2013, “we discovered that the presence of government unions and the strength of collective-bargaining laws explain a large portion of the pay gap between state and local government employees and private-sector employees.”

Since ending collective bargaining isn’t going to happen anytime soon, then the next best answer is to apply all our Sunshine Laws to union negotiations. The above report also stated that, “Ironically, during the 1970s, government unions and employees often sought to require collective bargaining to be transparent and subject to open-meetings laws.”

Of course if all union negotiations are open to the public it would greatly influence tactics by both sides. While we would expect normal behavior on the union representative side it would force the representative from the government side to work for what is best for the taxpayers, for they would immediately be responsible for the proposals that are agreed upon with the union representatives.

The conclusion of the Goldwater report really sums up why we need transparency in all levels of collective bargaining, “apart from highlighting such hypocrisy, this switch in position underscores that transparency in collective bargaining would likely curtail union clout that contributes to the pay gap between government employees and private-sector workers.”

So remember to discuss with your elected officials, in all levels of government, how they feel concerning transparency in the collective-bargaining process. We need to change the tide in Iowa and open up the negotiations for all the taxpayers to see what is going on and how the negotiations will affect our taxes.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Public Interest Institute. They are brought to you in the interest of a better informed citizenry.

Jennifer L. Crull is the IT Specialist, at the Public Interest Institute in Mount Pleasant.