Arciero's Reform Bill Unanimously Passes The House

In a move that could have an impact on the Commonwealth's fiscal health, legislation filed by State Representative James Arciero (D-Westford) unanimously passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives earlier this week.

House Bill 2923, an act aimed at abolishing "superannuation retirement allowances", would remove specific public employee pension benefits known as "termination pensions."

Created in 1945, termination pensions originally were created to preserve the pensions of public employees replaced by political supporters of new administrations after elections, but since then the concept has been abused by public employees young enough to take new private sector jobs while collecting public pensions.

“It has been estimated that so-called termination pensions have cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts anywhere between 115 and 235 million over the last five years, a critical amount that could be better spent on public safety and education,” said Arciero.  

The bill follows a measure passed by the House in Arciero's last term that eliminated such pensions for elected officials, and this latest step has seen praise from government watchdogs, such as Michael J. Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

"Special pensions are very costly and should be eliminated," said Widmer. "They are just another example of sweetheart deals."

Under the previous law, any public employee could be eligible for a pension after 20 years of service, which would be changed not allow any public pensions to be awarded before an employee reaches 57 years old in the House version of the bill and 60 in the Senate version of the bill.

Additionally, the bill would require any employee to wait one year before running for elected office and would establish a commission to study future pension cost savings.

The pension reform bill will now go to a joint conference committee comprised of House and Senate members to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill before being advanced to Governor Deval Patrick for his consideration.      

UPDATE: 12:10 p.m. - According to sources in the legislature, the bill has reached the Governor's desk.