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A Vision for Boston: | |
Day 2: City Personnel Spending
As a candidate for Mayor what do you think is the best way to control the growth in employee compensation and ensure a sustainable workforce? Response from Mayor Menino:My administration focuses on improving schools, strengthening neighborhoods and developing our economy. Having an efficient and effective City workforce is essential for this task. We’ve made the tough management decisions in good times and bad. Consequently, we’ve been able to continue investing in constituents’ priorities, while reducing our headcount by over 1,000 positions since FY 02, cutting residential property taxes for two straight years and earning the highest bond rating in the City’s history. We will continue to: 1) Pursue Smart Reforms Every year, we review all operations for opportunities to streamline and improve government. This year we expanded single stream recycling citywide, restructured the Fire Department, modernized printing services and reduced overtime spending. 2) Negotiate Prudent Contracts We have a strong record of negotiating both union contracts and health insurance plans. The current union contracts, for example, contain provisions that lowered the City’s contribution to health insurance premiums, saving taxpayers millions. 3) Focus on Long-Term Fiscal Health The City focuses on managing its current head count and long-term obligations. We will continue to balance our priorities in the near term and work at the state level on reforms that control long-term costs.
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