Viewpoint
The cost of state services is spiraling out of control. According to Dr. Paul Bluestone of Northeastern University's Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, with the rising cost of debt service, public employee pensions and Medicaid, the commonwealth is facing a massive long-term "structural deficit" that will continue to devour more of the state budget if steps are not taken to implement change.
These services currently account for 46% of the budget and are predicted to increase to nearly 65% within the next ten years. Additionally, Treasurer Timothy Cahill reports that the state payroll has increased by 15 million dollars per pay period in the past two years. As a community, we can sit back and hope that revenues improve and that our legislature will continue to institute reforms that will not result in additional cuts to local aid and school funding or we can begin to evaluate new options and initiatives that provide greater efficiencies in the way we provide services to our community. As a City Councilor, Chair of Budget and Finance and mayoral candidate, I opt for the latter. Regionalization is one option that continues to be studied and encouraged by many reputable organizations including the Pioneer Institute, Boston University School of Public Health, Collins Center, Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Merrimack Planning Commission.
The City Council is currently evaluating a plan for the regionalization of health services with Salisbury and Amesbury; both of these communities have approved participation in this plan. This shared-services agreement has been carefully developed over many months with representatives from each municipality and thoroughly reviewed by each community's legal services. Our health director will be responsible for management of overall services within three communities and expects to devote 60 or more hours to complete the responsibilities with additional compensation from Amesbury and Salisbury, including health insurance costs. Per diem inspection services will be provided by each community, with reporting overseen by our director. Newburyport expects to see additional revenues of $37,000. One of the greatest advantages is we will finally have greater coverage for animal control services than we have had in many years. I can personally attest to this as this morning a neighbor called stating a rabid skunk just entered my backyard and he had called the police. Although we never saw the skunk, within ten minutes, I had received a call from the Newburyport Police Department and the on call animal control officer in Salisbury. The ACO gave me his cell phone in case we had problems later in the day. In all the years we have lived in the city, we never received such a prompt response.
Ms. Anderson's letter to editor of July 15 would lead you to believe that we will be unable to deal with any potential health emergency or mandated supports. Our city did not receive the level of services we desired under a health contract with a VNA, which was recently terminated in favor of hiring our own RN. This results in the ability to provide greater services and meet the routine needs required of the shared agreement in all communities. There is no reason why an elder requiring a flu vaccine within their home cannot receive this care. In the event of a serious outbreak of a disease, our Mutual Aid Agreement with 13 neighboring communities would be activated. For the record, Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports that in 2008, 261 cases of tuberculosis (case rate of 4.11 per 100,000) were confirmed across the state, and for the past five years Amesbury, Salisbury and Newburyport were not considered high risk communities for TB.
Additionally, I have been assured that residents dealing with the prolonged and horrific problems of the landfill closure will see no reduction in services from the health director; daily visits to the site will continue and allocation of the hours needed to devote to the closure and monitoring will continue.
Finally, in the event we find the shared services agreement does not satisfactorily meet our residents' needs, we are able to withdraw within a 60-day period. I believe this is an important step forward in providing less costly, more effective and efficient services with minimal risk; I urge my fellow city councilors to vote in favor of this regional agreement.
¢¢¢
Donna D. Holaday is a Newburyport Councilor-at-Large.
