The Boston Globe wrote a lead editorial today that accurately depicted the Governor’s municipal healthcare proposal as not at all helpful to municipalities. From the Globe:

GOVERNOR Patrick is asking mayors, selectmen, and town managers to make cheesecake out of dust. And then, if he doesn’t like the way it tastes, he is going to punish them.

The situation we are in cries out for bold actions, but the Globe rightly characterizes this proposal as “half baked”.

Most local officials accept that the state budget crisis will require belt-tightening, including a $128 million local aid cut this year. And the threat of losing some local aid may make cities and towns more amenable to reform. But Patrick’s proposal holds them to standards that the governor himself can’t meet.

City and town administrators are now required to win 70 percent approval from each municipal union before they can make significant changes in their workers’ health insurance plans. Yet the Patrick administration can unilaterally redesign the state medical insurance plan, including raising co-payments and deductibles, to keep costs under control. Town managers need the same tools.

Amid a fiscal crisis, the governor is offering a half-baked solution: lower the 70 percent union vote requirement to 50 percent. He argues that such a measure balances collective bargaining rights with the need for towns to contain costs. But it just prolongs the ability of unions to veto health insurance reform. Patrick’s political balancing act does nothing more than push cities and towns closer to the edge.

In response to a question from the dean of our delegation Mayor Barrett of North Adams Governor Patrick said that giving municipalities the right to implement plan design changes outside of collective bargaining would have been the “easy” solution. I was in the hall when the Governor answered the question and I think I frowned when I heard that. Good thing the Governor did not see me. Giving municipalities plan design would have been the difficult and bold decision, designed to help us reduce costs in one of the areas that has been a real budget buster. The Governor’s proposal is the easy political solution, trying to sell nothing as something. I hope the Governor rethinks his proposal. I would have to agree with the Governor on one thing. That Mayor Barrett sure is cantankerous! Read the Globe editorial here.