"Mayors want health costs on ballot; Legislators say cities to blame for benefits" by Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff | March 10, 2010
Of course, when they vote to pad their taxpayer-provided pensions and health care for themselves and their friends up on the hill, that's just fine.
A group of Massachusetts mayors, fed up with what they say is legislative inaction on skyrocketing municipal health care costs, has launched a ballot initiative for 2012 aimed at giving cities and towns more flexibility in reducing expensive benefits for employees, retirees, and elected officials.
Oh, yeah, damn right that will piss off the legislature:
The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
Yeah, what right does the taxpaying public have to know what their "public servants" are doing wit THEIR MONEY, 'eh, Bay-Stater?
Also see: The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
That explains all the s*** legislation they pass.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston hosted a strategy session of about 20 mayors in City Hall Friday. The group emerged with a proposal to allow communities to reduce benefits without union negotiations. Under current state law, cities and towns are limited in what changes they can impose outside collective bargaining.
“The status quo is unacceptable,’’ said Mayor Thomas Ambrosino of Revere, one of the group’s leaders. “Without change, most communities will have to do more of the same, more reductions in services, more layoffs.’’
“There are a lot of frustrated mayors out there,’’ he said.
But yesterday, state Senate President Therese Murray blasted the mayors’ plan to circumvent the Legislature and go directly to voters, saying the problem was largely of the mayors’ making.
I love a pot of a lying, looting legislature hollering kettle, don't you?
And HEAVENS FORBID that VOTERS SHOULD DECIDE ANYTHING in Massachusetts!
"Leaders.... have suggested they would ignore the result even if voters approved the question"
Also see: I Made Forbes Magazine
Sort of a pattern with them.
Didn't Bostonians dump British in the harbor for such behavior some years ago?
Why even bother voting?
City leaders handed out generous pay raises for years and tolerated exploitation of pension loopholes, Murray said.
Oh, like what happens up on the hill.
“It’s time for the mayors to step up to the plate,’’ she said. “They have to look in the mirror on this. For years, they have been putting together their budgets, and now it is reaching a peak.
“It’s about time they managed their own funds better . . . instead of coming in here and saying, ‘You got to do A, B, C, and D.’ ’’
Have you checked your balance sheet, you disgusting piece of hypocritical slime?
These people can't hear the voters and can't smell their own shit, can they?
They deserve a comeuppance in a major way.
With health care costs straining cities and towns, political pressure is building on lawmakers to give municipalities more control over what benefits they provide and to whom. But there are divisions on Beacon Hill about what to do and how much to challenge the bargaining rights of labor unions....
Yeah, PUBLIC LOOTING UNIONS, folks.
You know, I wouldn't begrudge them it if OUR TAXES weren't going to Hollywood, biotech losers, green tech flops, and interest payments to banks.
But that being the case.... !!!!!!!!!!!
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said in an interview that he was not so sure that a measure would pass, and he seemed cool to the idea of stripping long-held collective bargaining rights from the municipal unions representing police, firefighters, teachers, and other employees....
Yeah, if you are in an auto union or something the contract can be reopened because government "requests" it.
Un-flipping-f***ing-real!
And they wonder why we are f***ing furious?
DeLeo met behind closed doors yesterday with House members, in part to discuss municipal health care costs.
Yeah, THAT is how they DO EVERYTHING here in "liberal, tolerant, open" Massachusetts.
Yup, LIBERAL FASCISM is the WORST KIND because it PRETENDS to be something else!
“We have the health care costs versus collective bargaining rights of workers. There’s a concern about further diluting collective bargaining rights. This is not an easy issue.’’
Yeah, when it comes to "public servants" who are basically STEALING FROM YOU, taxpayers!!!
Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, which in the past has pushed for communities to join the state’s health insurance plan, was noncommittal yesterday on efforts to change the system....
Well, the sooner he leaves the better. What a terrible choice we made in 2006.
The Globe reported last week that health care costs added more than $1 billion to municipal budgets from 2001 to 2008, with many communities providing unusually generous benefits for employees, retirees, and elected officials.
Some cities now devote close to 20 percent of their budgets to health care costs.
Municipal unions have largely succeeded in fighting off benefit reductions. Many municipal workers and retirees in the state’s larger cities enjoy plans in which the city pays 80 percent or more of the premium, and copayments for office visits are as low as $5.
To get a question on the 2012 ballot, the mayors would have to collect the signatures of tens of thousands of voters who are in favor of the measure....
Should NOT BE TOO HARD!!
Well, at least you SEE WHO Beacon Hill is looking out for -- and IT AIN'T YOU, taxpayers!
You are just a FOREVER-GIVING CASH COW that always gives MORE MILK!
That's why TAX INTAKES are TAKING a DIVE!
WE HAVE NO MONEY, a**holes!!
WE CAN'T BUY ANYTHING and thus CAN'T PAY TAXES!
So what is there solution EVERY SINGLE TIME?
MORE TAXES!!!
