By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

On one hand, I'm glad to see news organizations putting pressure on Beacon Hill to help out cities and towns. Somerville is being asked to get by with the lowest amount of state aid it has received since 1985. And not only is the funding well below where we need it, Beacon Hill has not given municipalities the tools they need to rein in out-of-control health care costs. So we definitely need to see bold leadership coming from the Legislature, which unfortunately has too many members who do not understand what it takes to run a city or town.

On the other hand, our Statehouse delegation has been involved with us at the local level and it has delivered important gains for our community. The Green Line is coming to Somerville in no small part thanks to our delegation. It has played a key role in the land swap needed to enable the redevelopment of Assembly Square and the new Orange Line station slated for that area of the city. Somerville has received a Shannon Grant for gang intervention and Chapter 90 money for much-needed street renovations, and our state delegation helped secure those funds as well.

I meet regularly with Rep. Denise Provost, Rep. Carl Sciortino, Rep. Timothy Toomey and Sen. Patricia Jehlen. Newly-elected Sen. Sal DiDomenico will become part of those meetings as well. A lot of other municipalities do not have the ear of their delegations the way we do in Somerville. Yet, and I've said this directly to our delegation, cities and town urgently need Beacon Hill to take action to provide some relief from our current fiscal woes.

In this city our health care costs have tripled during the past decade. We pay as much for health care as we do for public safety. Our health care costs are double what we pay for public works and triple what we pay for general government. Worst of all, there is no end in sight to the rising costs. The Legislature did give municipalities the right to bargain with unions to move to the Commonwealth's Group Insurance Commission (GIC) – that is the insurance package provided to state employees – but it can take up to 16 months to negotiate the switch and 70 percent of each of the city's 17 union memberships plus the city's retirees must approve the change in order for the city to make the switch.

The savings from a move to the GIC roughly could equal up to our current projected budget gap of $8.1 million. Unfortunately, we aren't likely to see all of those savings if we have to negotiate the switch. Had the Legislature given us unilateral authority to move to the GIC, we would find ourselves in a much more manageable budgetary position. Would it be politically easy for politicians on Beacon Hill to make that vote? No, but that's the sort of substantive reform municipalities need from the state.

We're making lots of hard choices. Just today I've addressed city employees about our budget situation and warned them that some positions will be cut. I'm fully aware that there's a real person behind every one of these cuts. I wish we had other choices, but we don't. This isn't easy for anyone involved and that is the message I'm trying to send to Beacon Hill, directly and via our delegation.

As for our delegation, I fully appreciate how difficult it is to get the Legislature to consider, let alone pass, dramatic reforms. No one should deceive themselves into thinking a state representative or senator has an easy job.