Copyright 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
By DAVID HENCH
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Starting next year, the state will pay a portion of the health insurance costs of retired firefighters and police officers until they turn 65.
The bill, signed by the governor last week, was one of the last laws passed in the recent legislative session.
Supporters say the benefit will reduce the need for older public-safety workers to remain in what can be a stressful and physically demanding profession solely to maintain health insurance benefits.
Opponents argue that the state is obligating itself to a potentially major expense in the future, and that municipal workers ought to pursue pay and benefits during contract negotiations with their employer.
The program, covering 45 percent of health care expenses, is projected to cost about $5 million per year, with roughly $3.1 million paid by the state. Current and retired public-safety workers would contribute the balance, about $1.9 million.
Supporters of the benefit concede that the price of health insurance is likely to rise, but say public safety workers also will pay more to support the plan. Workers who enroll will contribute 1.5 percent of their pay until they retire.
“We felt it important not to go to the state and ask for a handout,” said Paul Gaspar, executive director of the Maine Association of Police and a former Cape Elizabeth officer. “We’re fully willing to put in our fair share.”
Professional associations representing police and firefighters said the plan would give them parity with other retired public-sector workers, such as state employees and teachers, whose health insurance premiums are routinely subsidized by the state.
However, public safety workers are municipal employees and have the option of retiring after 25 years of service, much sooner than most public- and private-sector jobs. The shorter period recognizes that the work they do can be physically demanding and have life-or-death consequences.
“This is really a young person’s occupation,” Gaspar said. “A 65-year-old police officer probably is not going to be able to do the job a 25-year-old police officer is able to do, and there’s a higher propensity for illness and stress. It takes a toll over time.”
Still, some officers and firefighters hang on even when it is not in the best interest of their department or their own health, said Bob Reynolds, president of the Portland firefighters union.
“There are those guys who stay on because 60 to 70 percent of their retirement annuity can be eaten up by health care,” said Reynolds, who helped coordinate the extensive lobbying effort by off-duty police and firefighters to get the bill passed.
About 2,000 active public-safety workers and 2,400 retirees are eligible for the benefit.
“We view this as a huge victory for everybody,” Reynolds said. “The concept for health care benefits and retirement for firefighters and police officers has been something we’ve pined for for a number of years.”
The bill barely passed in the House, 72-71, but won by a wider margin in the Senate.
Among the opponents was state Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, who is challenging state Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington, and Republican David Emery for the chance to run against Gov. John Baldacci in the fall. Mills said he expects the program’s cost to climb rapidly in future years.
He said not a single municipality has included the benefit in its union contracts, and he faults the state for doing so.
The Maine Municipal Association also lobbied against the plan.
“These are issues to be decided in local union contract negotiations,” said Geoff Herman, director of state and federal relations for MMA. He said the new state benefit resembled the increase in minimum teachers’ pay passed earlier this year.
“When you get a third party coming in and establishing a new benefit, that interferes with the local bargaining process,” Herman said. “Which employment classification is next in line for an employment benefit?”
The association also is concerned that the program’s future cost is by no means certain, and that the state has created another long-term obligation for itself.
“You start adding those up and a larger share of the state’s overall budget becomes dedicated to these entitlement programs, further reducing its ability to provide other services,” Herman said.
The law, sponsored by state Rep. Bob Duplessie, a Westbrook Democrat and retired firefighter, will begin paying benefits in July 2007. Baldacci held a ceremony with public safety workers Tuesday afternoon at the State House in Augusta to celebrate the bill’s signing.