House and Senate Pass FY2010 Budget

June 22, 2009

On Friday evening the State Legislature voted to pass the FY2010 budget that was reported out of Conference Committee last Thursday.   This budget increases the state employee share of health insurance by 5%; those now paying 15% will pay 20%, and those paying 20% (hired after June 30, 2003) will pay 25%.  Thanks to the calls from all our members to their legislators, we have prevented proposals that went as high as 70-30%. 

The Governor now has ten days to sign the budget into law.
We are currently analyzing the budget to see how it affects our agencies and our members.  Please pay attention to the web site for further details.  

Thank you again for your calls!
 

BUDGET UPDATE
 

State Employee Health Insurance
MOSES members are again asked to contact their legislators about health insurance.

Thanks to your many calls and emails, the Senate reversed its Ways and Means proposal for a 70/30 health insurance split for all state employees and adopted a 75/25 split.  However, our work is not done! The budget process now moves to a Conference Committee, where a panel of legislators will resolve the many differences contained in the House and Senate budgets. Please call and email the Budget Conferees (see list below) as well as your State Representative and Senator and urge them to adopt the 80/20 (75/25 for new hires) split for state employee health insurance approved in the House Budget.  Once again, your participation in the budget process can make a big impact on the final budget proposal. MOSES members must lobby, call and email their state legislators NOW !

Changes to the Pacheco Law
The threshold for the Pacheco Law, which prevents the privatization of state services, was increased from $200,000 to $2 Million.  Raising the ceiling will only make it easier to privatize state jobs, at absolutely no cost savings to the taxpayer.  MOSES feels the Pacheco Law should be STRENGHTENED NOT WEAKENED and that the Pacheco Law should be expanded to include engineering services. After extensive research, MOSES has found many examples of transportation work performed by consultants that if performed by MOSES engineers would have been HALF THE COST to the taxpayer.  This language must be defeated in Conference Committee. Please call and email the Budget Conferees (see list below) as well as your State Representative and Senator and urge them to defeat the language.

Sales Tax Increased from 5% to 6.25%
MOSES members should look at this as good news. - $275 million in revenues generated from the sales tax increase will go directly to funding transportation projects and our failing infrastructure.  The House adopted the 6.25% increase in its budget as well. 

Wage and Hiring Freeze
The Senate held off attempts to adopt an amendment that would have frozen wages and prevented hiring for two years!   The final vote:  28 opposed, 9 in favor and 2 present.

Conference committee members are:

Sen. Steven Panagiotakos
617-722-1630 or Steven.Panagiotakos@state.ma.us

Sen. Stephen Brewer
617-722-1540 or Stephen.Brewer@state.ma.us

Sen. Michael Knapik
617-722-1415 or Michael.Knapik@state.ma.us

Rep. Charles Murphy
617-722-2990 or Rep.CharlesMurphy@hwm.state.ma.us

Rep. Barbara L’Italien
617-722-2380 or Rep.BarbaraL’Italien@hou.state.ma.us

Rep. Viriato deMacedo
617-722-2100 or Rep.VinnyDemacedo@hou.state.ma.us

The main number for the State House is (617) 722-2000

To find your state senator, go to:
http://www.wheredoivotema.com
 

STATE EMPLOYEE
HEALTH INSURANCE ALERT!
 

CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATOR TODAY!

Please urge your state senator to reject a 70/30 health insurance split proposed for state employees.  

The Senate Ways and Means budget proposal was released days after news emerged that the state budget deficit is now approximately $5 billion - $1.5 billion larger than the estimated gap faced by both the state House of Representatives and the Governor when they released their FY'10 budget proposals.

The Senate budget debate began Monday, May 18. It is urgent that state senators hear from all MOSES members in opposition to this proposal, which amounts to a 100% increase in health insurance premiums for the majority of state employees.  We must do all that we can to prevent the 70/30 premium split proposal from moving forward.  

Recently, the House of Representatives voted to raise the amount that current state employees pay to 20 percent for their health insurance premiums; new employees hired after July 1, would pay 25 percent. The splits outlined in the House budget are not optimal, but they are significantly better than the initial House proposal, which called for all state employees to pay 30 percent of their health insurance premiums.

Senator Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) is heading up the fight to stave off any additional increases in health insurance premium costs for state employees beyond the plan approved by the House of Representatives.

Please call, AND e-mail your state senator RIGHT AWAY on this important issue. Tell your senator that it is unfair and unacceptable to burden state employees with significantly higher health insurance premium costs during these difficult economic times.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATOR AND URGE HIM OR HER TO SUPPORT SENATOR MORRISSEY'S AMENDMENT! 

The main number for the State House is 617-722-2000.

 To find your state senator, go to: http://www.wheredoivotema.com
 

MOSES Votes to Ratify Contract
Through 2012
 

Joe Dorant
MOSES President 
 

Proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement (State)
 

The wait is over!!  For the last eighteen months, the MOSES Collective Bargaining Committee has been meeting with the Office of Employee Relations to negotiate a successor collective bargaining agreement.  I am pleased to inform you that an agreement has been reached.  After several months of negotiation, the Collective Bargaining Committee agreed to what it believes are the best gains possible given the economic climate.  We also managed to obtain what we believe are significant language changes that will open the door to greater improvements in future negotiations.
 
The agreement will cover the periods from the date of execution to June 30, 2012.  The agreement will be presented to the Unit 9 membership for ratification vote.  A summary of the changes is as follows:
                                                           

• Effective July 2009-Across the board (ATB) increase of 1 % with the possibility of greater ATB increases if tax revenue benchmarks are met.
• Effective July 2010-3 % ATB increase.
• Effective July 2011-2.5% ATB increase for all members.  Additionally, members at Step 11 will receive an additional 0.68% increase, while members at Step 12 will receive an additional 0.86% increase.  Steps 11 and 12 will remain at those increased values thereafter.
• Increase the State’s contribution to the dental and optical trust
• Improved Article 17A language to address salary disparities in comparable titles, including those outside of state government.
• A one-time increase of FMLA leave to 52 weeks in the event of a catastrophic illness.  The agreement also allows agencies to extend FMLA for shorter periods for FMLA qualifying situations where appropriate.
• Expands the use of "family sick" time from 30 to 60 days.
• Vacation "buyback" provision for up to 7 days of accrued vacation leave.
• Bereavement leave days no longer required to be used consecutively.  Additionally, 7 days now available in the case of a deceased child or spouse.
• "Mutual respect" provision to foster a respectful work environment and prevent "bullying" behavior.
• Increased air quality testing.
• A Labor-Management Committee to discuss telecommuting, four day work weeks and additional energy saving endeavors.