Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

What is the status of the health insurance bill?  I remain very concerned that this will be done in a way that allows municipalities to make unilateral changes in negotiated labor agreements — I gather that such a power is in fact a provision of the Senate bill, but NOT of the House bill.

In response to a proposal initially made by the Arlington teachers’ union, and after considerable consultation with many affected parties and experts, the members of the Arlington legislative delegation (Senator Donnelly, Reps. Garballey and Kauffman and myself) have developed and committed to support the amendment appearing below to the municipal relief bill. It will be [...]

I just completed this training which is now required for all state and municipal employees. The scenarios are reasonable and even sometimes interesting, but they are also confusing because a lot (over 2/3?) of the training is for state employees and does not seem to apply in the same way for municipal employees — or [...]

Groups from diverse perspectives — the Boston Foundation, Stand for Children, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation — are pushing for change in municipal health insurance. I think that the legislature is really beginning to focus on making something happen and I am starting to be hopeful that we’ll have a bill this spring.

I have some experience with Lawrence. In the early 90′s, I helped create and run the annual Bread and Roses Festival, which celebrates Lawrence’s labor history. A few years ago, I taught in Lawrence for a year. Several points. Lawrence is an immigrant and mill city with a tough history. Historically, its low-wage mill jobs [...]

I am responding to some comments I have seen here and also thinking about today’s Globe editorial on this topic. As a teacher and committed union member I think the recent spate of comments about teacher unions are WAY off as a generalization.  I do not dispute that some unions are stubborn about health costs [...]

Hi Will, Thx for your request for comment. Having spent 6 years in public office locally, I believe this bill is unlikely to be in our best interests as a Commonwealth.  Since  town and city govt’s are essentially at an impasse with organized labor, most notably teacher unions, the bill only postpones the inevitable.  As [...]

I applaud your efforts toward transparency re: state contracting. I am a bit concerned, however, re: transparency as understood by the Pioneer Institute.

Further below see a proposal made by the Arlington Education Association for an early retirement incentive ERI for teachers. I think this concept deserves some careful study.

Dear Mr. Brownsberger, I am writing to express my displeasure at the current education bill. I agree that there needs to be urgent action in poor performing schools. However, it is not only teachers that are to blame for such performance. We need comprehensive education reform that will look at the role of administrators, parents, [...]

Above all, it’s too complicated. Complexity creates abuses and inequities. It also makes the system hard to evaluate and undermines confidence in the system.

Recently I spoke with a colleague who has been unemployed for 6 months after being laid off from a large publicly traded employer.  He was an individual contributor engineer, working on implementing new features in a fairly mature piece of software; certainly not a position you could consider in any way as having access to strategic [...]

Gambling, health care cost control, further pension reform – these are the major issues that the legislature is likely to address this fall after we resolve the Kennedy succession. The theme? Continued financial pressure.

You can find plenty of press coverage about why non-competes ostensibly thwart recruiting top talent to start-ups. What you don’t hear about is how non-competes ultimately help new and established companies alike to retain the talent they’ve invested in, further nurtured and who have become star employees due to their rewarding tenure and success. How can today’s start-ups hope to mature into successful firms if their top performers are easily poached?

I voted this afternoon for the FY2010 budget which passed with 110 votes in the House and 31 in the Senate, in both branches more than the 2/3 needed to override a possible veto.

The legislature today will enact a strong pension reform that will eliminate rules that give some employees, mostly elected officials, special advantages.

Like roughly 80% of Massachusetts workers, public employees receive health insurance as part of their compensation.   The issue of how much active employees should contribute to the cost of that insurance has been controversial in every recent budget season.    Since the cost of public employee health insurance is just under $1 billion, the employee share [...]

Pension reform is probably the most fundamental and controversial among the reforms on the agenda this year.  Now seated on the Public Service Committee, I expect to give this area quite a bit of my own attention.

I have decided to co-sponsor a controversial health care cost control bill authored by the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

An outline of the financial issues that will be front and center throughout the coming legislative session.