Home 
Local Aid and Finance Gov. meets with mayors to hear local concerns
Gov. Deval Patrick engaged in a lively discussion yesterday in New Bedford with mayors from across the state, listening to a range of municipal concerns, all of which reflected one central issue: the fiscal crisis facing cities and towns.
The 25 mayors, gathered for a monthly meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, said the state needs to work with local officials to develop creative solutions to long-term problems – particularly soaring health care and pension costs – that threaten the fiscal health of communities.
The governor, who listened more than he spoke, acknowledged that communities, just like a host of other constituencies throughout Massachusetts, are facing hard times.
“I know you don’t have the resources you need,” he said.
But he said he is ready to work with local leaders on reforms that will help to control costs in certain areas that are far outstripping any growth in local revenue.
“Now is the time, it seems to me, to go hard at those intractable big issues, those hard things that we’ve put off a long time – and maybe [health insurance] plan design falls into that category – in order to ensure that we’re as strong as possible when this [economy] turns around.”
The mayors told the governor that the most effective way to control local health care costs would be to allow cities and towns to make health insurance plan design decisions outside of collective bargaining – just as the state does for its employees.
“Our desire to control health care plan design as the state does is really a noble effort because it will cut our costs, and we’ll be able to save jobs,” said Beverly Mayor William Scanlon, the vice president of the MMA. “And that should be the driving force.”
A number of mayors gave examples where unions have rebuffed efforts to rein in health insurance premiums. Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins said unions took her city to the Labor Board on a claim of unfair labor practices when the city raised doctor visit copays from $10 to $25 – an action the state can take without union approval.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said that more than 80 percent of the city’s tax levy growth each year is consumed by health care cost increases. Taxpayers, he said, are hungry for reform.
The mayors also highlighted pension obligations as an unsustainable cost, particularly since pension systems lost about 30 percent of their value in the recent stock market crash.
“This is the number one weak knee right now in municipal government, the pension funding system,” said New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang. “It will swamp health insurance. … We need to look at this for the long-term.”
A two-year extension of the deadline for fully funding municipal pension obligations, included in pension reform legislation that was signed into law on June 16, will help, the mayors said, but a long-term solution is needed.
Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, president of the Mayors’ Association, said the problem is “bigger than health insurance,” particularly in light of massive losses in pension investments.
“This is a looming disaster,” said Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette.
Looking to the year ahead and the possibility of an economic turnaround, Gov. Patrick said the state ultimately will be well-served by its commitment to what he called “areas of unique strength in Massachusetts,” such as the life sciences, renewable energy, education, health care, and information technology. But, he added, it will take longer to get out of the economic slump than it took to get in.
“I think for the coming year [fiscal 2010], we know how bad it’s going to be, because I think we’re about at the bottom, and we’re going to drag along the bottom for a while,” he said. “Most economists predict that business activity will start to pick up around the end of this calendar year. But unemployment will lag. Tax receipts will lag.”
He added, however, “I don’t think we’re going to have to go back” and make emergency budget cuts under Section 9C during fiscal 2010.
Fiscal 2011, however, “is going to be a lot harder,” he warned, in part because the state is using one-time revenues – including about $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds – to balance the fiscal 2010 budget, and those funds won’t be available in fiscal 2011.
“The [federal] money for education, which has made it not as bad as it would have been – that’s finished in FY10, because we had to go deeper into it this year than we had hoped to.”
The governor said the federal stimulus bill was not large enough, particularly for infrastructure projects.
“The stimulus bill is not what people think it is,” he said. “It was not a blank check written by Congress to me – and you just have to get me in a good mood, and I will disperse it.
“The Congress made the decision … to use specific programs to disperse the money. That was their oversight mechanism.
“I can tell you there’s not enough for everybody,” he added.
Despite the challenges, however, the governor said he remains optimistic.
“I am confident that if we lean on each other, if we stick together, if we keep pressing, if we stay on the course that emphasizes these innovative and breakthrough industries and opportunities, then our best days are ahead,” he said.
Local Aid and Finance Gov. meets with mayors to hear local concerns
Gov. meets with mayors to hear local concerns
Gov. Deval Patrick engaged in a lively discussion yesterday in New Bedford with mayors from across the state, listening to a range of municipal concerns, all of which reflected one central issue: the fiscal crisis facing cities and towns.
The 25 mayors, gathered for a monthly meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, said the state needs to work with local officials to develop creative solutions to long-term problems – particularly soaring health care and pension costs – that threaten the fiscal health of communities.The governor, who listened more than he spoke, acknowledged that communities, just like a host of other constituencies throughout Massachusetts, are facing hard times.
“I know you don’t have the resources you need,” he said.
But he said he is ready to work with local leaders on reforms that will help to control costs in certain areas that are far outstripping any growth in local revenue.
“Now is the time, it seems to me, to go hard at those intractable big issues, those hard things that we’ve put off a long time – and maybe [health insurance] plan design falls into that category – in order to ensure that we’re as strong as possible when this [economy] turns around.”
The mayors told the governor that the most effective way to control local health care costs would be to allow cities and towns to make health insurance plan design decisions outside of collective bargaining – just as the state does for its employees.
“Our desire to control health care plan design as the state does is really a noble effort because it will cut our costs, and we’ll be able to save jobs,” said Beverly Mayor William Scanlon, the vice president of the MMA. “And that should be the driving force.”
A number of mayors gave examples where unions have rebuffed efforts to rein in health insurance premiums. Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins said unions took her city to the Labor Board on a claim of unfair labor practices when the city raised doctor visit copays from $10 to $25 – an action the state can take without union approval.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said that more than 80 percent of the city’s tax levy growth each year is consumed by health care cost increases. Taxpayers, he said, are hungry for reform.
The mayors also highlighted pension obligations as an unsustainable cost, particularly since pension systems lost about 30 percent of their value in the recent stock market crash.
“This is the number one weak knee right now in municipal government, the pension funding system,” said New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang. “It will swamp health insurance. … We need to look at this for the long-term.”
A two-year extension of the deadline for fully funding municipal pension obligations, included in pension reform legislation that was signed into law on June 16, will help, the mayors said, but a long-term solution is needed.
Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, president of the Mayors’ Association, said the problem is “bigger than health insurance,” particularly in light of massive losses in pension investments.
“This is a looming disaster,” said Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette.
Looking to the year ahead and the possibility of an economic turnaround, Gov. Patrick said the state ultimately will be well-served by its commitment to what he called “areas of unique strength in Massachusetts,” such as the life sciences, renewable energy, education, health care, and information technology. But, he added, it will take longer to get out of the economic slump than it took to get in.
“I think for the coming year [fiscal 2010], we know how bad it’s going to be, because I think we’re about at the bottom, and we’re going to drag along the bottom for a while,” he said. “Most economists predict that business activity will start to pick up around the end of this calendar year. But unemployment will lag. Tax receipts will lag.”
He added, however, “I don’t think we’re going to have to go back” and make emergency budget cuts under Section 9C during fiscal 2010.
Fiscal 2011, however, “is going to be a lot harder,” he warned, in part because the state is using one-time revenues – including about $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds – to balance the fiscal 2010 budget, and those funds won’t be available in fiscal 2011.
“The [federal] money for education, which has made it not as bad as it would have been – that’s finished in FY10, because we had to go deeper into it this year than we had hoped to.”
The governor said the federal stimulus bill was not large enough, particularly for infrastructure projects.
“The stimulus bill is not what people think it is,” he said. “It was not a blank check written by Congress to me – and you just have to get me in a good mood, and I will disperse it.
“The Congress made the decision … to use specific programs to disperse the money. That was their oversight mechanism.
“I can tell you there’s not enough for everybody,” he added.
Despite the challenges, however, the governor said he remains optimistic.
“I am confident that if we lean on each other, if we stick together, if we keep pressing, if we stay on the course that emphasizes these innovative and breakthrough industries and opportunities, then our best days are ahead,” he said.
Written by MMA Publications/Web Director John Ouellette
