With the economy still lagging behind, state tax receipts remain significantly under the desired level needed to adequately fund many government programs. As a result, Legislative leaders have been reluctant to pass new initiatives that would add a cost to the state budget.

As a further result, the House and Senate agreed to extend this year's public hearing schedule in an attempt to give the economy time to recover. Instead of completing the public hearing process on all pending bills by the end of June, as had previously been required, each committee may now hold hearings through November.

Under the Massachusetts Constitution, a public hearing must be held on each individual bill filed during the session. Of course, for public retirees the key legislative committee is the Joint Committee on Public Service, where all retirement and health insurance bills originate.

Since February, the Association's legislative team has appeared before the Public Service Committee when they meet each Thursday. Unlike past years when the Committee would hear scores of bills on various subjects during marathon hearings lasting for hours, a different approach has been taken during the current session.

Committee Chairmen Rep. Robert Koczera (D-New Bedford) and Senator David Magnani (D-Framingham) have decided to target specific subject matters each week. This allows the Committee the time to focus in on the details of a particular bill and learn the issues.

"The tough economic situation has certainly slowed things down considerably. However, it is better for the Committee to take the time to fully understand the ins and outs of each bill," said Association Legislative Liaison Shawn Duhamel. "We fully expect that a number of bills are going to move forward once the state's economic condition improves."

Members will recall that the Association has filed 18 separate bills for the current session. Each of the bills was assigned to the Public Service Committee and are currently under review.