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Association Gears Up For 2000 Session PDF Print E-mail
JANUARY 2000 - Legislative Package Poised For Action - With the passage of the FY 2000 State Budget now finalized, the focus on Beacon Hill will now turn towards the several thousand individual bills pending before the Legislature. As we reported in the November Voice, the extended battle over the budget had caused action on most other matters to be put on hold.

While work continued at the committee level throughout the Summer and Fall, the staffs of the two key Ways and Means Committees were primarily focused on completing their work on the budget. Since a majority of the Association's legislative package has made it to the Ways and Means level, it has been impacted as a result of the budget impasse.

In fact, seven of the bills currently being tracked by Association lobbyists are before the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Another five are pending action before the House Ways and Means Committee. The Joint Committee On Public Service is studying another five bills of particular interest to the Association.

"As we have said before, Public Service did a good job moving a number of our bills through the committee earlier this year. The next step in that process is usually Ways and Means, so there has been a bit of a slowdown," explained Association Legislative Liaison Shawn Duhamel. "In looking at the big picture, we are in great shape heading into the new year. All of our key bills are in a position where they can be acted on very quickly once formal sessions begin again."

Key Bills Remain

Now that revisions to the state's COLA law have been achieved, the Association plans to focus its efforts towards the passage of the remaining legislation. With six months remaining in the formal legislative process, Association lobbyists will be working toward the passage of twelve separate bills. A brief description and status of the bills follows:

H-305: Amends Disability Law. The text of the bill has been incorporated into H-4889 (see article pg. 4). House Ways and Means.

H-306: Disability Indemnification. Requires indemnified municipalities to pay disability retirees medical costs in a timely manner. Public Service.

H-319: Correction of Pension Errors. Allows retirement boards to waive repayment of funds owed to the board by an active or retired member if the error was made by the retirement system. House Committee on Bills in 3rd Reading.

H-350: Minimum Pension. Creates, by local option, a minimum pension of $10,000 for retirees with at least 25 years of creditable service. Public Service.

H-351: $10,000 Basic Life Insurance. Increases the basic life insurance plan for state retirees and employees. House Ways and Means.

H-352: Right To Remarry. Allows non-option C survivors to remarry without the loss of their survivors pension benefit. House Ways and Means.

S-1281: Non-Contributory Option C Pop-Up. Grants the option C pop-up provision to veterans who have creditable service prior to 1939 and opted for non-contributory pensions before January 1988. Senate Ways and Means.

S-1283: Health Insurance Reinstatement. Places Massachusetts in compliance with federal law, by allowing retirees reinstatement in the state or municipal health plans without restriction on preexisting conditions. Senate Ways and Means.

S-1284: State Dental Insurance Study.

S-1285: Municipal Dental Insurance.

S-1286: Survivors Minimum Pension. Creates a minimum pension of $6,000 for survivors of active employees who died, while still employed of a non-work related cause. Senate Ways and Means.

S-1588: Non-Contributory Tax Exemption. Exempts non-contributory veterans from paying state income taxes on their public pension. Senate Ways and Means.

Keeping A Watchful Eye

As our politically savvy members are well aware, part of the Association's mission on Beacon Hill is to play defense to groups or proposals that would do harm to their rights as public retirees. Moreover, despite the good intentions of the sponsors, legislation is sometimes filed that inadvertently would do more harm than good to retirees if passed.

One such proposal that has that potential, if not properly monitored, is the bill making further changes to the disability retirement system, H-4889 (see article pg. 4). A companion bill, H-4587, changes the disability and return to work system as it applies to the State Police.

Under this bill, the ability of State Police officers to return to work, after retiring on a disability pension, will be greatly reduced. The colonel of the State Police must certify each returning trooper as being able to perform the job. In addition, returning troopers would be held to the same hiring standards as new recruits and would be forced to repeat the full academy.

The focus of the Association has been to protect the rights of our members who have retired on disability. Members should have the right to remain on their pension if their reinstatement fails. Also members who have already been found fit to return to work by the retirement board, but have not yet been reappointed by the State Police, should be held harmless from H-4587.

Another bill Association lobbyists are carefully monitoring is H-1620, the Mass. Municipal Association's Pension Obligation Bond (POB) bill. The MMA, along with the Town of Brookline, have been promoting several bills that allow municipalities to sell POBs to satisfy their debt to the pensions systems - a seemingly meritorious goal.

However, unlike the City of Worcester that sold POBs in 1998, the MMA proposal would allow the municipalities to withdraw surplus moneys from the retirement system once the system is fully funded. The Association is strongly opposed to this proposal and continues to hold the position that pension funds should be held sacrosanct from raids.

"We are constantly in defense of the rights and benefits that our members already enjoy," says Association Legislative Chairman Bill Hill. "At any given time there are a number of bills in the pipeline that would do harm to the pension system and/or retirees. A big part of our job is to keep a watchful eye on these threats and educate the legislature as to the downside of the proposal."
 
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