The Lower House on Beacon Hill

From The Boston Globe we have this article " Officials give up on cutting health perks".  The sub-headline is "Public employee unions defeat legislative effort".

The state’s public employee unions won a major victory this week when the Legislature abandoned efforts to allow cities and towns to trim generous health care benefits enjoyed by thousands of municipal employees, retirees, and elected officials.

What is it about our Commonwealth that our State Government has to "allow" our cities and towns to manage their own affairs?

Here is an Editorial from The Lowell Sun on the failure of the Great and General Court to include authority for local governments to get control of medical costs for local government employees.

City and town managers have long been requesting that the Legislature give them the same right the state has regarding employee health insurance.  If lawmakers would simply vote to take health insurance out of the negotiation process, many municipalities would be able to resolve their budgets problems without reducing services, school programs or jobs. And public-sector employees would still have excellent health-insurance options.

Now we have Blue Mass Group unhappy with the Great and General Court for the same reason.

Regards  —  Cliff