Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
During the MMA’s Annual Business Meeting on Jan. 23, members adopted resolutions opposing unfunded mandates, calling for health insurance plan design authority, and seeking to relieve communities of an obligation to fund the state’s share of the Police Incentive Pay Program (unless required by contract language to do so).
The resolutions deal with major reform and funding issues confronting cities and towns and call for strong action by the state to provide immediate relief to municipalities and local taxpayers.
• See text of 2010 MMA resolutions
The Resolution Opposing Current and Future Unfunded Local Mandates calls on the Legislature and state administrative agencies to refrain from imposing any unfunded mandate on municipalities. Local governments cannot continue to absorb these mandates and the workload they impose without compensation, reimbursement, or other relief from the state, no matter how worthy the cause.
The resolution identified the issue as a particularly urgent matter in light of recent reductions in local aid and state reimbursement programs.
The mandates resolution was proposed by the MMA’s Policy Committee on Municipal and Regional Administration.
The Resolution Calling for Health Insurance Plan Design Authority for Cities and Towns asserts that cities and towns should be able to make changes outside of collective bargaining, just as the state does.
Municipal health insurance costs are soaring, but communities have very limited ability to control these costs because they are required to seek union approval in order to make changes to copays, insurance carriers, or diagnostic test and pharmacy benefits, for example.
The resolution calls on the Legislature and the governor to enact “meaningful reform” to provide municipalities with the authority to control the design of health insurance plans for municipal employees. The purpose is to reduce costs and save municipal services and municipal jobs.
The plan design resolution was proposed by the MMA’s Policy Committee on Personnel and Labor Relations.
The Resolution Calling for Action to Prevent Unfunded State Mandates in the Police Career Incentive Pay Program would clarify that cities and towns with no superceding contract language should only be responsible for their share of the program.
Cities and towns accepted the so-called Quinn Bill based on a promise of 50 percent funding from the state. The state’s decision to withdraw its financial support for the program should not impose a huge new unfunded mandate or burden on municipalities and local taxpayers. Communities are upholding their side of the agreement, but should not be required to pick up the state’s share as well.
The Quinn Bill resolution was proposed by the MMA’s Policy Committee on Personnel and Labor Relations.
The policy committees that drafted the three resolutions sought member comments throughout December. The proposed resolutions were posted for review on the MMA Web site and were printed in the December and January issues of The Beacon.
