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 understand and experience the situation each of our 300+ towns have to negotiate more reasonable health benefits with a majority of their public employee unions. The unions are currently allowing entire town budgets to canabalize themselves rather than even discuss going to GIC. This is a major driving force in fiscal instability, and there is no solution on the horizon.
I would prefer to see Lawrence be the leader in moving to modern, “interest-based” bargaining that results in sustainable operation of city budgets, whatever that requires. I would vote for making that happen sooner rather than later.
(….and I am a life long democrat, pro labor, and completely devoted to public education).
Thanks, Sue.
One good thing about the bill is that it requires direct entry into the GIC.
I think a full control board may be necessary, but we will be doing much of the work of that board immediately with this bill.