House shows strong leadership and vision

From The Beacon, May 2011

Every few years the legislative process unfolds in dramatic fashion to create a clear and defining moment on Beacon Hill. Just a few nights ago, on April 26, local officials witnessed such a moment, as the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve landmark legislation to provide real and meaningful relief and reform to address skyrocketing municipal health insurance costs.

This victory would not have been possible without the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Robert DeLeo, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Brian Dempsey, reps. Stephen Kulik and John Scibak, and 109 other members of the House who voted to give local officials the ability to update municipal health plans.

The purpose of the legislation is simple: to give local officials the ability to increase co-pays and deductibles up to the level that state employees pay or to join the Group Insurance Commission, thus allowing taxpayers to save $100 million in avoided health insurance increases and use that savings to protect essential education and municipal services and preserve thousands of jobs for teachers, police officers, firefighters and others, all while guaranteeing that municipal unions would continue to have more bargaining power over health insurance than state employee unions and that local workers and retirees would share in the savings and be reimbursed for a portion of their costs through HRAs.

The House voted to include this vital reform as a key section of their fiscal 2012 state budget, thus offsetting the $65 million local aid reduction that communities are facing due to the state’s $1.9 billion budget gap. This will be the fourth consecutive year of reductions in Unrestricted General Government Aid, for a total loss of $481 million (37 percent) in critical funding that communities use to reduce the property tax burden and pay for vital services.

The House municipal insurance reform plan is strong, fair, balanced, and effective, and it represents a major step forward for cities and towns, and a strong partnership between municipal leaders and their representatives.

This was not an easy vote, primarily because the state’s public sector unions have chosen to dial up the rhetoric and hyperbole to extreme levels, calling the measure “an assault on the middle class,” and drawing inaccurate and outlandish comparisons to anti-collective bargaining legislation in Wisconsin and Ohio. Labor flooded the airwaves with paid radio advertisements, flooded the halls of the State House with lobbyists and union officials, and unleashed a torrent of distorted words claiming that somehow legislators who support limited plan design authority for communities were abandoning the working families of Massachusetts.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Speaker DeLeo and his leadership team have built long and distinguished careers because they have championed the middle class and working families, and the rhetorical distortion by those who oppose reform is unfortunate, unfair, and absurd.

Indeed, the House of Representatives is standing up for reform in order to protect middle class taxpayers, preserve the jobs of middle class workers, and guarantee quality education and municipal services for working families.

The next challenge will be whether the members of the Senate will join with their House colleagues in focusing on the reality instead of the rhetoric. We need our senators to display the same leadership and vision displayed by the 113 representatives who stood up for meaningful reform and action.

There will be calls for further compromise to water down the House plan. The fact is the House plan represents the moderate “middle ground” approach that includes a voice (not a veto) for labor, flexibility and authority for local officials, protections for municipal employees, and superior bargaining authority for municipal unions compared to their state government counterparts. Speaker DeLeo and Chair Dempsey have developed a framework that achieves all these goals while being strong enough to represent powerful reform.

Senators must show the same leadership, determination and resolve. In other words, local officials now look to the Senate to take advantage of the clear and defining moment we witnessed on April 26, and stand up against the rhetorical tactics and antics that are being used to stymie reform and relief for cities, towns and taxpayers.

This will not be easy, but leadership rarely is.