Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon will have Beacon Hill's ear for the next 12 months using the bully pulpit of the Massachusetts Municipal Association presidency.
Scanlon, the dean of North Shore mayors and longest-serving chief executive in the city's history, was due to be installed this weekend as head of the group that represents municipal officials throughout the commonwealth. And you can be certain he will be pressing for more of the "tools" necessary to perform what is an increasingly difficult job — providing an adequate level of municipal services — education, public safety, public works, etc. — without breaking the bank or reaching too far into taxpayers' pockets.
They need the state's help, and indeed received welcome news Thursday when Gov. Deval Patrick announced that he expects school and other local aid to be maintained at current levels in the next fiscal year — despite a projected $3.8 billion reduction in revenues.
"This is far, far better than we could have hoped for," Scanlon said as he prepared to depart yesterday for the MMA's annual convention and trade show in Boston.
But as Scanlon made clear in comments at a meeting of the North Shore Alliance for Economic Development the previous day, money alone can't solve the fiscal crunch cities and towns are experiencing. Pressure is also building on the cost side of the ledger, particularly in terms of the wages and benefits owed municipal employees.
One relatively simple fix, which state government already avails itself of, is to allow city and town administrators greater flexibility in determining the "design" of the health care plans offered employees. The workers' share of the premiums would still be subject to negotiation, but the nature of the plan or plans offered, including the vendor and the amount of co-pays and deductibles required, would be a matter of management prerogative.
Scanlon posed the question of plan design for municipalities to House Speaker Robert DeLeo when he spoke before the Alliance at the Cummings Center on Thursday.
"It is on the radar screen," DeLeo replied. Plan design and other reforms should be front and center on Beacon Hill if Patrick and legislative leaders are serious about wanting to put municipalities in a position to lower property taxes instead of raising them every year.
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