Former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was indicted last week on federal corruption charges. House Democrats, including me, voted overwhelmingly to re-elect DiMasi as speaker in January and he served briefly before resigning later that month. What were we thinking?
Government Reform
children and families, election laws, ethics rules, insider jobs, pensions & benefits, structure and operations, transparency
State employee health insurance premiums
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 …
Reform before revenue, part 2 — pension reform
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.
Reform before revenue — the legislative agenda this spring
Our mantra in the legislature this spring is “Reform before Revenue.”
Ethics reform
Last night, the House passed a very strong ethics reform bill. Speaker Deleo, understanding the deep public anger about the scandals of the recent past, made this bill his top early priority. Transportation and pension reform bills will follow over the next few weeks.
Embracing change in municipal health insurance
I have decided to co-sponsor a controversial health care cost control bill authored by the Massachusetts Municipal Association.