Municipal Relief Bill enacted

Earlier this week, Gov. Deval Patrick signed with an Energency Preamble the new Municipal Relief law . The preamble allows the provisions of the law to take immediate effect.

Highlights of the law, formally titled An Act Relative to Municipal Relief, include:

-- Allowing cities and towns to extend their pension funding schedules out to 2040, rather than meeting the previous deadline of 2030 which seemed all but impossible given unprecedented asset losses from the stock market decline of 2008;

-- Giving communities more flexibility in their borrowing by allowing the financing of projects over a term matching the asset's useful life up to 30 years;

-- Permits communities to adopt a limited early retirement program;

-- As noted in City and Town article of July 22, "Certification Year Reshuffle," restructures the schedule for triennial property tax recertifications.

 There is much more in the new law, including changes in bidding, intermunicipal agreements, and provisions to stimulate regionalization and shared services. 

Comments

[Robert Bliss]

Shirley: PERAC (Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission) has published guidance on this. The deadline for action is September 28. Go to the PERAC web site www.mass.gov/perac and in the search field type in "municipal early retirement" which will bring you to several memos on the subject.

[Shirley A. Sprague]

Where do we find the rules for Towns to follow the "early retirement incentive program"?

[Robert Bliss]

Debra, we're working on developing such a summary of the provisions of the Municipal Relief law for publication in City and Town.

[Debra Roussel]

Is there a summary of all the changes in the new law available for review and distribution?