Healthcare Costs: Invasion of the Budget Snatchers

Public and private employers that provide traditional insurance plans for their employees have been experiencing 15% annual costs increases for a couple of years now. Last year in 2006, Milton's citizens faced the impact of such an increase as it swept through the budgets of every department. It stands to reason that a large cost item growing at 6 times the revenue limit imposed by Prop 2 1/2 creates a recurring and unsustainable budget buster. Our town administrators, employees represented by their unions and citizens are all smart folks who can see that new approaches must be explored, experimented and implemented or we face an annual cycle of debates on Overrides versus Layoffs, which benefit no one.

Our national approach of employers providing subsidized health insurance to employees is an echo of wage and price controls imposed during World War II. Employers were restricted from raising employee wages and responded by providing non-wage benefits, like health insurance, to entice and retain employees. 65 years later, we have institutionalized an approach that insulates the health care consumer and provider from the market benefits that have reduced the cost of living so drastically over those same 65 years. Perhaps this realization is penetrating our collective thinking at last. Even the leadership of our Democratic dominated Commonwealth have recognized (in the case of auto insurance) that insulating consumers from market forces induces behavior that costs us all collectively more than we should have to bear.

Over the coming weeks and months, the members of the Milton Republican Town Committee will highlight on this page alternatives that are being explored in the private sector that could bring behavioral and cost changes that break this upward spiraling budget problem which will inevitably lead to drastic measures. Stay tuned. Here's to your (and our town budget's) health!

School Choice (part 1)

Metco Programs have, for a long time, given a legal opportunity for students to enter publicly funded school settings outside of their residential district. In each instance, the host community is paid an agreed amount for tuition based upon the rate of cost per student in the host school district. Why then, if a non resident student chooses to attend a Milton school as a non resident and the Milton school committee deems that there is available space and the candidate has an acceptable reason for wanting to do so, can’t this school committee make a similar tuition arrangement. The student would then be legal and the town would save much time, money and effort ferreting out illegal students. Further, it would be a bargain for the city of Boston. The rate per student in Boston is about $12,872 and the cost to attend a school in Milton is about $8,378 per student. Currently, each student attending a Milton school illegally is costing the Milton taxpayer $8,378 to say little of the labor cost in handling these situations...

There is an old adage that says, If you can’t (won’t) beat ‘em, join ‘em.

BLOG - Basic Logic Of Gop

Many internet surfers believe that the term "blog" derives from the truncated version of "weblog." We beg to differ. Or perhaps, we blog to differ. At the Milton Republican Town Committee, we believe blog is an acronym for Basic Logic Of the Gop. And so, let the word go forth, from this time and place, that we will dedicate this space to the proposition that all blogs are not created equal. That this blog will be of the people of Milton, by the people of Milton and for the people of Milton. So help me GOP. In other words, we are going to use this blog to address the national issues of the day and ground them in the events of our town. We have laid out a series of topics of interest to us and hopefully, to you, the citizens of Milton. We will present those topics and our opinions of them to you each week in the hope that we will peak your interest, generate discussion via comments, establish this site as the place you go for local political information and possibly, hopefully, win you over to our views. We will identify our writers in the same way that we would introduce ourselves on the street corner so that you know who is speaking. We will be polite in our presentation and request that your responses are submitted in the same manner. We will post any return comment that is presented with civility, regardless of its conformity with the views of the original author. With that long winded introduction filled with the mixed quotations of famous Presidents, we present our first submission. Enjoy!

Republican Town Committee Meetings

November 27, 2007
Now that Fall has sprung, so to speak, the Milton Ma Republican Town Committee has resumed its schedule of monthly meetings. Our next meeting is scheduled for 11/27/07 at its usual location in the basement of Town Hall at 7:30 PM. Meetings last until about 9:00, unless debate heats up and then who knows.

At our most recent meeting on October 16, the committee covered a range of topics including accepting nominations for the State Committee Man position for our senatorial district. BTW, all that is required are 50 valid signatures by November 9, 2007 for your nomination to be accepted. Voting occurs during the Presidential Primary election in March.

We also committed ourselves to regular postings on this blog. The committee has prepared an aggressive list of topics where we will express our opinions. Our goal is to link key topics at the international, federal and state level to the local interests of Milton's citizen's. Without giving away the store, our topics range from Healthcare reform of town employees to advocating customer focused schools to considering school choice within Milton. We hope that this blog will become a place for Milton citizen's to turn for local political information and specifically to learn what being a Republican means at the local level here in Milton.

See you in November.

Charity Bruins Event

Tim Jacobs, a loyal and dedicated Republican from Framingham, MA, passed away suddenly this year, leaving his wife, Mary, and their two young children without a father. Tim was a veteran of the United States Army. He was an alternate delegate to the 2004 GOP National Convention.

He was active in several campaigns including Gov. Romney's and Jim Coffey's run for the State Senate in 2004. He was active in the Framingham Republican Town Committee, serving as its Secretary at the time of his death.

Jim Coffey, the MassGOP's General Counsel and a partner with the law firm of Verrill Dana, LLP in Boston, has been assisting Tim's family during this difficult time, and created the "Timothy Jacobs Memorial Trust" to help the family with the financial challenges they now face.

The Timothy Jacobs Memorial Trust has set up a benefit hockey game to help the Jacobs Family. The game is between the Boston Bruins Alumni "Black and Gold Legends" team, and the Tim Jacobs All Stars. It will take place at 7pm on the 13th of April 2007 at the North Star Youth Forum. The ice rink is located at 15 Brindle Lane in Westboro, MA, which is right off Rte 9 West.

Tickets are $10. They can be purchased as follows:

1) Call Chris Currie at (508) 397-6703 and make arrangements.

2) Call Dan Murtagh at (617) 605-2669 and make arrangements.

3) At the ice rink the night of the event, if tickets are still available.

Cash and checks (made payable to the "Timothy Jacobs Memorial Trust") are the only way to purchase tickets for the game. If individuals want to make monetary donations directly to the Trust, they may make arrangements through the above contacts or send their checks made payable to the "Timothy Jacobs Memorial Trust" to:

The Timothy Jacobs Memorial Trust

c/o Citizens Bank

19 Temple Street

Framingham, MA 01702.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Peter Torkildsen

It Just Keeps Getting Earlier and Earlier

A Presidential Straw Poll in April, 18 months before the election? You've got to get up pretty early in the election to make it to the White House these days. The Norfolk County Republicans are holding their third annual dinner at the Quincy Marriott on Wed, April 18, 2007, 6:00 PM. It's an event you won't want to Mitt. Or perhaps you think it's a McCain in the neck. In either case, I think it's terrific to have people expressing an interest in elected offices whenever it occurs. The location is right next door to Milton and at $75 bucks, the price is right for a nice dinner. If you want to attend, you can contact me at rghiss@yahoo.com for details.
Bob Hiss.

Web 2.0 meets G.O.P.

Dateline March 20, 2007.
Who says you can't teach an old elephant new tricks? This past Tuesday, at our regularly scheduled Republican Town Committee meeting (RTC), we were paid a visit by Rob Willington, the political director of the MA Republican Party. Rob stopped by us first on his way to meeting all the RTCs in the Commonwealth. At the request of our new state chair, Peter Torkildsen, his purpose was to introduce himself (which he did), demonstrate to us some of the technology that is available to help local towns (which he demo'd) and to request that we adopt some of them, such as launching a blog (which we did). Of course you know that or you wouldn't be here.

We resolved (think of it as the Norfolk Resolves) to use this forum to explain to the citizens of Milton the work we will do on behalf of our town, our issues and our candidates. Let the word go forth from this time and place...sorry, wrong blog.