State offers early retirement to thousands; layoffs possible
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — Thousands of state employees could receive incentives to retire early under a proposal Gov. Charlie Baker hopes will help plug a sizeable deficit in the next state budget, the administration confirmed Monday.
The governor's office is hoping about 4,500 workers will opt for early retirement, saving the state about $178 million, according to Kristen Lepore, secretary of Administration and Finance. Those eligible for the program would be required to sign up between April 6 and May 29.
"We need to get to this number quickly," Lepore said, adding the alternative to a successful early retirement program would be layoffs.
Baker planned to file a bill on Wednesday, the same day the Republican submits his proposed budget to the Democratic-controlled Legislature for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a budget watchdog group, has said that a gap of about $1.5 billion likely exists between anticipated revenues and the spending that would be required to maintain current program levels in the budget.
Baker was scheduled to meet privately Monday with House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg.
Paul working for you.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Some Meetings the Week of 3/2/15
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Some
Meetings the Week of 3/2/15
Monday 3/2/15
Sewer Reservoir St 4:30 pm
BOS
E. Temp. 7:00 pm
Tuesday 3/3/15
NRSD
Budget KIVA 6:30 pm
Snow & Ice and a suggestion!
As stated in a prior post, from the Telegram & Gazette on Feb 14, 2015, "snow running municipal budgets into the red" Southbridge acting DPW director, Heather Blakely said with the shortage of salt, the town had to resort to adding sand to the salt to stretch it. Salt is more effective without sand. Sand is also messier and more costly to clean up. "You can't reuse it, it has to be disposed of in landfills' She also said "you're paying for it, putting it down, taking it back up, which is all labor intensive, and then paying for disposal" Now I know Templeton has a sand bank to obtain sand from but it has to be screened and then hauled to the yard so it can be used, all of which is labor intensive and expensive, as in fuel costs along with wear n tear on roads already in bad condition. I do know some years sand was bought from Graves. So my question is how and where does Templeton dispose of it's sand it sweeps from the roads in the spring? How much does it cost, as in total cost? I would assume a DPW director would not lie in a newspaper article. It is believed that in the past, Templeton highway dept. got in a little hot water about where it disposed of sand sweepings. It is believed it was dumped as fill on private property.
Now on another subject, the policing of property at the Templeton developmental center, since this is state land, has anyone considered looking at this from another angle, since this would involve costs to a community, suggest to our state reps. that perhaps this should be put out to bid to some surrounding towns so the state will pay for this service since they don't seem to want to take care of it. Of course if the Town takes over portions of this land then I would venture to guess the Town inherits the policing. I would hope the question would at least get asked as this could possibly result into some cash flow into the Town rather than out. Of course the selectmen may ignore this as they did not seem willing to ask questions and further explore moving to a regional dispatch which was projected to save Templeton $90,000.00 per year. Some chose to use it as a political tool for reelection, as in "save dispatch" (don't worry about the possible $90,000.00 savings) Just a thought from.......
Jeff Bennett
As stated in a prior post, from the Telegram & Gazette on Feb 14, 2015, "snow running municipal budgets into the red" Southbridge acting DPW director, Heather Blakely said with the shortage of salt, the town had to resort to adding sand to the salt to stretch it. Salt is more effective without sand. Sand is also messier and more costly to clean up. "You can't reuse it, it has to be disposed of in landfills' She also said "you're paying for it, putting it down, taking it back up, which is all labor intensive, and then paying for disposal" Now I know Templeton has a sand bank to obtain sand from but it has to be screened and then hauled to the yard so it can be used, all of which is labor intensive and expensive, as in fuel costs along with wear n tear on roads already in bad condition. I do know some years sand was bought from Graves. So my question is how and where does Templeton dispose of it's sand it sweeps from the roads in the spring? How much does it cost, as in total cost? I would assume a DPW director would not lie in a newspaper article. It is believed that in the past, Templeton highway dept. got in a little hot water about where it disposed of sand sweepings. It is believed it was dumped as fill on private property.
Now on another subject, the policing of property at the Templeton developmental center, since this is state land, has anyone considered looking at this from another angle, since this would involve costs to a community, suggest to our state reps. that perhaps this should be put out to bid to some surrounding towns so the state will pay for this service since they don't seem to want to take care of it. Of course if the Town takes over portions of this land then I would venture to guess the Town inherits the policing. I would hope the question would at least get asked as this could possibly result into some cash flow into the Town rather than out. Of course the selectmen may ignore this as they did not seem willing to ask questions and further explore moving to a regional dispatch which was projected to save Templeton $90,000.00 per year. Some chose to use it as a political tool for reelection, as in "save dispatch" (don't worry about the possible $90,000.00 savings) Just a thought from.......
Jeff Bennett
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