Reforms

Synopsis of the Comprehensive Reform Packages
Recently Passed by the Massachusetts Legislature

Since the beginning of the current legislative session in January 2009, my colleagues in the legislature and I have been working diligently to address the urgent demand for widespread reform to our state government. As lawmakers, we collectively recognized the call from the public to challenge the status quo and change the way we do business. As a result, over the past several months, we have been aggressively working towards reforms of our pension and transportation systems and ethics and lobbying laws.

I am proud to tell you that we have passed a series of landmark legislation that will:

• End abuses of our pension system
• Streamline and modernize our state transportation system
• Toughen ethics, lobbying and campaign finance laws

END ABUSES OF OUR PENSION SYSTEM

Unfortunately a small few try to take advantage of the pension system for those in civic duty and public service. This exploitation must end.

We have taken concrete steps to end these abuses:

• Put an end to the "one day, one year" provision that allows elected officials to claim an entire year of credible service for working one day in a calendar year
• Terminate "king for a day" loophole which allows someone to collect a disability pension based on a temporary higher paid job title
• End 'double dipping' of pensions so that an individual cannot combine the compensation from two positions to artificially increase one's pension
• Redefine "regular compensation" to specifically exclude certain exorbitant monetary benefits like housing, lodging, travel, automobile usage or annuities for the purposes of a pension benefit calculation.
• Removes "termination allowance" for elected officials which allowed them to claim their pension based on the failure to be nominated or re-elected
• Strikes current provisions that allow certain officials to establish pension credit for service in positions that have no compensation
• Extends the "vesting" requirement of elected officials from 6 years to 10 years.
• Eliminates a loophole that allows individuals receiving pension benefits to the same position as a consultant, collecting both their retainer fee and pension

This is just our first step in meaningful pension reform. A Special Commission created by the Legislature continues to meet to further recommend additional reforms. The Commission is examining broader issues such as capping large annual pension payments, eliminating termination allowances for all state employees, imposing criminal penalties for pension fraud, and restructuring qualifications for creditable service.

STREAMLINE AND MODERNIZE OUR STATE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

The Transportation Reform Law will put an end to the outdated and inefficient Transportation Bureaucracy which has plagued the Commonwealth for far too long. We are beginning a new era of fairness and equity for commuters in MetroWest and across the Commonwealth.

The Transportation Reform law helps drivers and toll payers:

• Streamline and consolidate our state transportation system under one roof, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), which will lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in savings from consolidation, removing duplication and redundancy of services and positions
• Eliminate the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority
• Put an end to the "23 years and out" provision for MBTA employees
• Transfer MBTA and Turnpike employees and retirees into state health insurance Plans through the GIC saving approximately $25 million a year
• Transfer Turnpike employees into the state retirement system
• Create a toll-payer and ridership advocate who will attend all Board of Director meetings for the new agency

The Transportation Reform Law includes several measures that specifically aid MetroWest drivers and toll payers:

• Ensures toll equity through the inclusion of a measure that I co-sponsored which specifies that toll revenue may only be spent for the debt, maintenance, and operation of the road on which it is collected -- ending the inequitable practice of diverting toll revenues for use of paying down the Big Dig debt
• Makes permanent the existing FastLane discount program
• Directs additional transportation funding towards those districts that have a higher percentage of registered FastLane users such as MetroWest

TOUGHEN ETHICS, LOBBYING AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS

Landmark legislation will strengthen current ethics, lobbying and campaign finance laws, enhance the integrity of the political process and help to restore public trust.

• Bans gifts to public officials
• Increases the authority of the Ethics Commission to investigate and prosecute alleged ethics violations
• Increases the penalties and criminal charges for violation of the ethics and lobbying laws
• Gives the Ethics Commission enhanced investigatory power, enhanced subpoena power, expanded regulatory authority
• Redefines lobbyist classification and clarifies lobbying activitiesto captures actions that seek to wrongly influence official government activity
• Eliminates the "success fees" loophole that awards lobbyists for a specific goal
• Requires the disclosure of expenditures and funding for "electioneering communications"
• Strengthens the revolving door restrictions on lobbying
• Increases criminal penalties for lobbyist registration violations
• Increases penalties for late-filed campaign finance reports for candidates
• Enhances transparency by increasing the number of campaign reports filed by political candidates

This ethics reform law will begin to restore the public's confidence in government and sends a very clear message to everyone: we are accountable. As we face a worldwide economic crisis; confidence and trust in government is critical. The steps we have taken to address concerns related to transportation, pension and now ethics show that we are serious about regaining public trust and putting into place important reforms which will strengthen the Commonwealth.