Swampscott unions vote down GIC

SWAMPSCOTT – The town will not be adopting the state Group Insurance Commission plan for the upcoming fiscal year.Town Administrator Andrew Maylor confirmed the Swampscott Education Association voted to reject the town’s GIC offer Thursday. Maylor said the Swampscott Firefighters Union, Town Hall Clerical Union and School Custodians also voted against adopting the GIC.In order for the town to join the GIC for the upcoming fiscal year it needed a signed Public Employee Committee agreement in place by Oct. 1 and the state requires a 70 percent vote in favor for the town to adopt the GIC. Once SEA voted it down, it was a moot point because Maylor said it is impossible for the GIC to pass without the support of the teachers union, which has approximately 58 weighted percent of the vote. The state gives retirees a 10 percent weighted vote and the other unions get a percentage of the vote based on membership. With the exception of the teachers union and retirees, each of the unions has less than 10 percent of the weighted voted.Maylor said because the unions voted not to accept the GIC proposal the town would not be able to meet the Oct. 1 deadline for Fiscal Year 2010.”Although this will ultimately significantly impact the Fiscal 2010 budget, it is important for the taxpayers of Swampscott to know that we will continue the work that began five years ago to reduce the impact that health insurance has on our ability to deliver critical services,” he said. “During that time, and with the support of Town Meeting, we accepted Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 32, Section 18 (the Medicare provision), successfully negotiated a change in employee paid co-pays and also negotiated the elimination of expensive underutilized plans. The beneficiary of these actions has not just been the taxpayer, but the town’s employees and retirees as well, whose premiums would have increased even more if these actions had not been taken. Today we turn the page, but we don’t close the book on working diligently to find ways to control the strangling increases in the cost of employee health insurance premiums.”Firefighters Union President William Hyde Jr. said the firefighters took an informal vote on the GIC.”It wasn’t even a contest,” he said. “Nobody wanted it at this split. Everyone was opposed to it. If the town is in such dire straits why is the School Committee giving the second in command (Business Manager Ed Cronin) a raise?”Calls to Swampscott Education Association President Paul Maguire were not immediately returned on Friday but in earlier interviews he said the GIC could save some employees money on premiums but he quickly added it would cost many town employees more in deductibles and co-pays and for prescriptions.Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Scibelli said adopting the GIC would have benefited everyone and saved the town approximately $800,000 in the first year.”I’m very disappointed that we won’t be able to participate in the GIC,” he said. “It’s a shame. The Board of Selectmen believes this was an opportunity that would have benefited everyone but it’s over and we have to move on.”School Committee Chairman David Whelan said he is very disappointed the GIC was voted down.”It will add to the level of cutting we have to do in the school budget next year,” he said. “It may even cause some interim cutting this year so we can set money aside for next year. Everything is on the table.”Town employees and retirees currently pay 40 percent of their own insurance premiums and the town picks up the remaining 60 percent. The offer from the town would have reduced the percentage of the premium paid by employees from 40 percent to 30 percent by the year 2014. The town can only adopt the GIC for three or six years at a time so the proposal floated by the town has an escape clause for 2015. Maguire said the PEC sent in a counter offer where the town would pick up 65 percent of the premium in the first year and 70 percent in subsequent years, but the tow