Massachusetts mayors are warning state lawmakers that without dramatic changes to the way municipalities provide health care to their public workers, cities and towns will face dire fiscal straits for the foreseeable future, threatening core local services from police to road repairs. The mayors issued their warning during a Statehouse hearing on a series of proposals on ways to overhaul insurance coverage for municipal employees.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said the state's largest city is already grappling with the effects of skyrocketing health care costs. He said in the past decade those costs have soared by 142 percent while all other spending grew by 27 percent. For every dollar the city spends on health insurance, Menino said, it spends just a nickel on snow removal and community centers. "The status quo is a stampede of increasing costs that will break cities and towns," he said. "If we do nothing ... Boston will continue to spend more on health care than on the entire police department."
Menino wasn't alone. New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang said his city is also looking at ongoing cuts to services unless mayors and town administrators are given more control over health care plans for their workers.
Lang said a proposal unveiled on Monday by a coalition of unions representing public workers was a start, but didn't "scratch the surface" of the kind of overhaul needed to get spending under control. Union officials said their plan would save an estimated $120 million in the first year, while preserving collective bargaining rights. Lang, who supports a proposal by the Massachusetts Municipal Association that would strengthen the hands of city and town leaders over health care plans for workers, said the goal should be to develop a way to provide quality health care plans that are also affordable. "Otherwise, in order to pay for the health care plans you are going to be laying off the very employees that the unions represent," Lang said.
The president stressed his displeasure with several aspects of the agreement, especially the extended tax cuts for the highest earners and the 35 percent rate for the estate tax.
I guess it would be fair to add that if Obama hadn't agreed to the tax cuts for the wealthy, the middle class would have paid the price by losing theirs
Why is it that one party always takes the side of the wealthy and the corporations over the middle-class, the ones that make corporations and wealthy people wealthy.
You go ahead and run with this
He is doing what he was elected to do...you know...
and who makes the actual products?
Your world - a world where you attempt to intellectually justify the absence of workers - is a nightmare and an abomination.
Exactly....and Walker is losing the war in the public arena. I would expect that Republicans are trying to figure out how to save face while finding a way out of the mess. Every day that this goes on, it is a victory for the people of the state of Wisconsin against a corrupt government that is seeking to silence the voice of the people.
Call it whatever you want, it is a fact that Republicans have done whatever it takes to derail legislation they are not in favor of.
care to make a li'l wager on who wins this fight? I'll bet you a weeks' sig line that union collective bargaining contracts get restricted.
just over at CNN.COM reading about the situation...seems that walker is starting to soften his stance a bit...the pressure is on him from republican senators who are the target of a recall....yeah, like i've been saying, he is out to union bust...your right though, i didnt think to mention that one....hopefully they get something worked out shortly....the whole 're-certify' thing walker is going to have to drop, that is really none of his business.I'm surprised no one's arguments on behalf of the unions centered on one key piece of this proposed legislation. I personally missed it; perhaps others on the pro-union side did as well.
Walker's legislation included recertification of the unions every year with a majority of the membership having to vote for the union in order for it to continue. (That as compared to a majority of votes cast.) I knew that it included that recertification, but didn't understand until this morning the implications of requiring a majority of the membership to recertify. Whole new ballgame. I caught it only after reading that some are suggesting that emails going back and forth have compromised on this point (among others).
After learning of this one leg of the bill, I have to now agree that Walker's final intent was to have the opportunity to abolish teachers' unions. I am very surprised that I didn't see that argument posted here on DP. I don't think I could have defended that bit of legislation had I known about it.
As for restricting some of their bargaining rights, I still support that wholeheartedly....but I have to agree with what others have said -- that Walker is going to compromise even on those.
Really? I guess that's why the majority of people in Wisconsin are siding with the unions, right, because they are rejecting the unions! :lol:
New Polls show Wisconsin Voters support Protestors
Most Americans Side With Unions
Rasmussen's Unfair Method to Influence Pollsters against Unions
just over at CNN.COM reading about the situation...seems that walker is starting to soften his stance a bit...the pressure is on him from republican senators who are the target of a recall....yeah, like i've been saying, he is out to union bust...your right though, i didnt think to mention that one....hopefully they get something worked out shortly....the whole 're-certify' thing walker is going to have to drop, that is really none of his business.
speaking of children...mornin' j :mrgreen::2razz:None of his business? GAWD, do you union leaches ever step back and listen to yourselves? This thing could be solved by the 6 pm news today, if the childish union, and their demo minion would get their ass back to Madison and join reality.
j-mac
speaking of children...mornin' j :mrgreen::2razz:
i consider myself to be no better than anyone else j...i get up, i put my pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else.Ha! good one....Morning. BTW, I asked yesterday, didn't catch an answer from you Randel Maybe you could give one today?
Do you consider yourself an above average worker?
j-mac
Return or workers will be axed, Wis. Dems told - Politics - More politics - msnbc.com
No good choices here for the unions or the politicians who work for them.
i consider myself to be no better than anyone else j...i get up, i put my pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else.
Recall election.
Nah, nah, nah... hey, hey, hey.... Good-bye, Corporate puppet tool.
indeed you did, and i told you, i'm no better than anyone else...Here we go....I didn't ask if you thought YOU were better than everyone else, I asked if you considered yourself an above average worker?
j-mac
indeed you did, and i told you, i'm no better than anyone else...
i work with alot of good people j, and we put in an honest days work for an honest days pay....whether you believe that or not, i really don't care....i'm union, and proud of it. at times j, i have to say, you sound jealous....sorry about your luck.Ok, so you are just average....I accept that...Maybe you do need a union then, but for those of us who are out here going over and above to make our companies better, our products better, our country better, we don't see that just average people should make the same as us, and demand that I don't have to adhere to some collective settlement that caps my potential....But I am glad that you are protected for your particular apathy, and level of competence, or incompetence which ever it may be Randel.
j-mac
Recall election.
Nah, nah, nah... hey, hey, hey.... Good-bye, Corporate puppet tool.
i work with alot of good people j, and we put in an honest days work for an honest days pay....whether you believe that or not, i really don't care....i'm union, and proud of it. at times j, i have to say, you sound jealous....sorry about your luck.
Jealous? :lamo Hardly. All I am saying is that part of the problem is that, and I am positive that you can look around your shop and find these, people that slack, people that don't "put in an honest days work, for an honest days pay" but yet they are protected just like you. They make the same as you, and sponge off of your work ethic. Doesn't it bother you in the slightest that they and you are the same in the eyes of your employer?
j-mac
he already said he is better then nobody. so he isn't average, he is far below average. average people are better then some, worse then others.Jealous? :lamo Hardly. All I am saying is that part of the problem is that, and I am positive that you can look around your shop and find these, people that slack, people that don't "put in an honest days work, for an honest days pay" but yet they are protected just like you. They make the same as you, and sponge off of your work ethic. Doesn't it bother you in the slightest that they and you are the same in the eyes of your employer?
j-mac
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