Senator asks state to halt payroll deductions for educators group
The N.C. Association of Educators did not cooperate with an audit report detailing their membership. As a result, Sen. Ralph Hise says the group cannot meet the legal threshold for employees to have their dues automatically withheld.
Posted — UpdatedPayroll deductions allow employee groups to collect dues automatically rather than require members to write monthly checks.
Hise has long been an opponent.
"I don't think it's a proper use of state resources for us to be collecting money on behalf of a private organization," he said.
Hise added that lawmakers have suspected for a while that NCAE lacked the requisite number of members. Now, with its failure to cooperate with the Auditor's Office, he said both the state and local school districts should stop collecting dues.
"There is no longer the legal authorization for them to collect," he said.
Claire Ennis, employee relations coordinator with the Office of State Controller, said her office had just received the audit report Friday. Officials, she said, plan to review the report and meet on Monday to take whatever action is required by law.
A spokesman for the NCAE didn't immediately return phone calls or respond to an email. The group says on its website that it has 70,000 members.
According to the audit report, 9,452 individuals whose payroll or retirement checks are processed by the state automatically pay dues to NCAE. This doesn't account for the organization's total membership.
Auditors say that the another teacher advocacy group representing members in Chapel Hill and Carborro, also failed to turn over its membership numbers.
This isn't the first time dues collection has been at the center of a tussle between the NCAE and lawmakers.
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