LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — With support from the last election, Finance Committee Chairman Ray Jones is now calling on the state Legislature to allow the town to increase the percentage retirees pay for health insurance.

 

Jones had requested a ballot question on the town election to "change the health insurance premium contribution rate for eligible town retirees from town's share 85 percent and retirees' share 15 percent to town's share 70 percent and retirees share 30 percent."

 

The non-binding questioned was approved by voters at the election by a 138-71 margin — which with 2,286 total registered voters translates to about 6 percent of townspeople voting in favor of the change.

 

The question faced challenges immediately. First of all, the state has a moratorium in place on such changes and that has been in place for a number of years. And secondly, the Board of Selectmen is the authorizing authority and because two members on the current board have conflicts of interest preventing them from voting on it.

 

"Now we, the town, has spoken. I'm trying to figure out what to do next, tell our representatives this is what the town would like to do, and other towns can start talking about it," Jones said.

 

In 2011, cities and towns were given the authority to increase retiree health insurance splits without collective bargaining. But soon after a moratorium was put in place on that section. Since then the moratorium has repeatedly been renewed.

 

Last year, Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the renewal of the moratorium, but the Legislature overrode that, preventing towns from being able to unilaterally make the shift on its own.

 

"A year ago, the governor vetoed it but they overrode that veto. They keep kicking the can down the road," Finance Committee member Stephen Wentworth said.

 

Locally, town officials had expressed on multiple occasions the desire to change the split but have been hamstrung. Jones has since taken the lead in trying to change the state law to make it happen. That started with the ballot question placed on the annual town election. 

 

"We are just following through with what the voters said," Jones said.

 

The next steps are twofold: ask the Legislature to both lift the moratorium and create a way to allow the local board to do it. Two members of the Board of Selectmen — Henry "Hank" Sayers and John Goerlach — have conflicts of interest in voting on it. Sayers has a family member employed by the town and Goerlach used to work for the town. Both of them have voiced in favor of making the move, which would be against their interests, but neither can vote on it.

 

"They are voting against their interest and they are not allowed to do that. You would think that would be an exemption but ethics is a very pure part of the MGL. They don't like to make exceptions," Sieloff said. 

 

Finance Committee member Ronald Tinkham suggested in contacting legislators, to ask for provisions such as allowing town meeting to approve such a change be included in the law.

 

"I would like to see, at a minimum, we draft a letter to state legislators identifying the problem the town has related to how it can be voted, that we are a small community and our Selectmen are in a conflict to meet the qualifications of the law. There should be an option in there for another way to vote it," Tinkham said.

 

The Finance Committee agreed to take the issue to the Board of Selectmen's next meeting and ask it to craft the letter to state Sen. Adam Hinds explaining the situation. 

 

Sieloff, however, doesn't feel the town will have much luck persuading the Legislature to make a change. The moratorium expires in July 2018 and he doesn't expect many in the State House will be looking to make such a change before then.

 

"These type of proposals are less popular on the eastern shore of Massachusetts. Out here, we always try to look for alternatives for things," Sieloff said. "With health insurance, there is a lot of resistance there and to some degree, we are a much smaller part of the state. I don't have an answer going forward, frankly."

 

He said his focus is on controlling the things he can. He said he's been trying to hire more part-time positions, and encouraging the schools to do the same, to lower health insurance costs overall.

 

Nearly all local towns have voiced concern with the rising cost of health insurance, though different communities suggest different ways to go about solving it. State lawmakers have been slowly implementing changes in hopes to bring those costs down, efforts that have been ongoing for years, but the premiums continue to be a struggle for cities and towns in Berkshire County.