Mayor Kim Driscoll's aggravation is understandable, as she awaits word from several key city unions on whether they will accept a new health plan that could save Salem a total of $1.45 million in the first year.
But taxpayers' frustration should be directed at a Legislature that once again this year dropped the ball on a measure that would have allowed mayors and selectmen greater latitude in designing health coverage for their employees.
The Democratic leadership in the state House and Senate offers apologies for not being able to offer more in the way of local aid, and pays lip service to the idea of keeping health costs down. But the fact is that once again this session fear of union retribution caused legislators to back off from giving municipal officials the tools they need to force concessions on this mother of all budget busters.
In an interview with WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller that aired Sunday, Melrose Mayor Rob Dolan, who heads a statewide coalition of urban chief executives, said he and his colleagues were "extraordinarily disappointed" with the Legislature's failure to approve a strong plan design measure this year. And he went so far as to suggest the state's mayors might sit out this year's legislative races as a show of their dismay.
Earlier this month, the Lowell City Council, in a surprising show of resolve, voted 8-1 to file a home-rule petition allowing their city to join the state's insurance program without union approval. The state plan, administered by the Group Insurance Commission (GIC), offers more modest benefits than those to which most city and town employees are accustomed, but at lower rates that those most cities and towns are currently paying.
Driscoll, Dolan and their colleagues have repeatedly said plan design is essential to avoiding layoffs and cuts in services.
Yet as cities and towns face slow strangulation as the result of skyrocketing health and pension costs, legislators have been loath to respond. The problem is they still fear the unions more than they do the voters.
That has to change.
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