Police bonus limits sought
Travaglini proposes cutting system's costs
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003
Senate President Robert E. Travaglini is pushing for a major overhaul of the Quinn Bill police bonus system, sharply limiting the amount of extra pay officers would be able to earn under the oft-criticized program.
The proposal would begin to phase out the current system, where officers receive annual bonuses of between 10 percent and 25 percent of their salaries for college degrees, bringing significantly more than $10,000 annually to many officers. The Senate plan would have officers who earn degrees after the end of this year receive fixed annual bonuses of between $6,000 and $8,500, depending on their education levels, instead of the percentage incentive.
Travaglini said the move would contain the program's costs over time, though officers who already are receiving extra pay through the Quinn Bill or who qualify before Jan. 1 would not be affected. The state's savings in the next fiscal year would be negligible, while the savings would grow in future years, as officers who receive bonuses on a percentage basis retire.
''This is a program that's escalating significantly in cost,'' Travaglini, an East Boston Democrat, said in an interview to be broadcast today on the WBZ-TV (Channel 4) program ''News Conference.'' ''Just like anything else, we've got to bring it under control.''
The proposal, which will be included in the Senate Ways and Means Committee budget being released on Wednesday, ties Travaglini and his leadership team to reform in an area that Governor Mitt Romney and House members have been unwilling to touch. It sets up a certain clash with the state's police chiefs and labor unions, who have been fiercely protective of Quinn Bill benefits and have fought off previous attempts at curbing the education bonuses.
The move by the Senate could also bring a confrontation with Romney, who has said he believes the state is getting its ''money's worth'' from the Quinn Bill, and supported full funding for the program in his proposed budget - despite backing deep cuts elsewhere in state government. In his campaign for governor last year, Romney was endorsed by the Massachusetts State Police Association and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
The Quinn Bill, enacted in 1970, allows cities and towns to offer education incentives to their officers and have half the costs picked up by the state. About 12,000 local and state police officers qualify for additional pay in Massachusetts, with the total cost to taxpayers statewide exceeding $100 million annually.
The law has come under fire over the years, with cases detailed where officers earned bonuses for classes at police stations and union halls, or even accruing credits simply for ''life experience.'' Government watchdog groups have questioned its effectiveness as a law enforcement tool, noting that the program remains unique to Massachusetts more than three decades after being established.
Still, proposed limits to Quinn Bill funding have been turned back in the Legislature in recent years. Two years ago, the House Ways and Means Committee proposed changes similar to those the Senate is now discussing, but rank-and-file members reversed the committee's recommendation. The same thing happened earlier this month, when members restored a $2.7 million trim in Quinn Bill state funding that the committee had called for.
George J. DiBlasi, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said any proposal to rein in the current police bonus system would force cities and towns to increase their base pay for officers, or risk being unable to attract qualified candidates to the profession. He said that replacing percentage incentives with flat pay would save the state a relatively small sum while harming the morale of officers and the quality of police work.
''If this is taken away or limited, the cities and towns are going to have to go back and raise salaries by 20 percent,'' said DiBlasi, a retired Norwood police chief. ''We wouldn't want to see a percentage replaced by a flat rate.''
Backers of the Senate initiative acknowledge the political difficulties in steering their proposal toward law. But they expressed confidence that the full Senate would go along when the budget is debated later this month, since lawmakers are discussing deep budget cuts in so many areas of state spending. In fiscal 2004, the state is facing a gap of $3 billion between revenues and the amount of spending that would be needed to maintain current services.
''I don't think anything is sacred,'' said state Senator Robert A. O'Leary, a Barnstable Democrat. ''There is a sense that, given the budget gap this year - the fact that we're shutting people off from Medicaid, we're cutting services, we're going after higher education - that it's not unreasonable to begin to say, `This is a program that costs a lot of money. We can't sustain its growth.'''
O'Leary filed a bill last month that would entirely eliminate police-education salary incentives going forward, and make higher-education degrees a prerequisite for being hired as an officer in Massachusetts. The Senate budget proposal does not include those aspects of his proposal, though O'Leary said he hopes it will be just the first in a series of moves aimed at controlling Quinn Bill costs and improving the quality of policing in the state.
In those communities that offer Quinn Bill benefits, the Senate proposal would authorize $6,000 annual bonuses to officers who earn associate's degrees, $7,500 to those attaining bachelor's degrees, and $8,500 for graduate degrees, such as master's or law degrees. The current bonus system increases base pay by 10 percent for associate degrees in criminal justice, 20 percent for bachelor's degrees, and 25 percent for graduate degrees. The Senate would also prevent additional communities from receiving Quinn Bill reimbursements until 2005.
Senate leaders also want to codify recent regulations set forth by the Board of Higher Education, designed to tighten up standards and ensure that officers only receive extra pay for degrees earned at reputable institutions. The House budget includes a similar legal change and Romney supports such a move as well, to prevent what he has called ''diploma mills'' from being used by officers just so they can earn more cash.
The entire interview with Senate President Robert E. Travaglini will be shown on The Boston Globe/WBZ ''News Conference'' at 11 a.m. today on Channel 4.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 5/18/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
Travaglini proposes cutting system's costs
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003
Senate President Robert E. Travaglini is pushing for a major overhaul of the Quinn Bill police bonus system, sharply limiting the amount of extra pay officers would be able to earn under the oft-criticized program.
The proposal would begin to phase out the current system, where officers receive annual bonuses of between 10 percent and 25 percent of their salaries for college degrees, bringing significantly more than $10,000 annually to many officers. The Senate plan would have officers who earn degrees after the end of this year receive fixed annual bonuses of between $6,000 and $8,500, depending on their education levels, instead of the percentage incentive.
Travaglini said the move would contain the program's costs over time, though officers who already are receiving extra pay through the Quinn Bill or who qualify before Jan. 1 would not be affected. The state's savings in the next fiscal year would be negligible, while the savings would grow in future years, as officers who receive bonuses on a percentage basis retire.
''This is a program that's escalating significantly in cost,'' Travaglini, an East Boston Democrat, said in an interview to be broadcast today on the WBZ-TV (Channel 4) program ''News Conference.'' ''Just like anything else, we've got to bring it under control.''
The proposal, which will be included in the Senate Ways and Means Committee budget being released on Wednesday, ties Travaglini and his leadership team to reform in an area that Governor Mitt Romney and House members have been unwilling to touch. It sets up a certain clash with the state's police chiefs and labor unions, who have been fiercely protective of Quinn Bill benefits and have fought off previous attempts at curbing the education bonuses.
The move by the Senate could also bring a confrontation with Romney, who has said he believes the state is getting its ''money's worth'' from the Quinn Bill, and supported full funding for the program in his proposed budget - despite backing deep cuts elsewhere in state government. In his campaign for governor last year, Romney was endorsed by the Massachusetts State Police Association and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
The Quinn Bill, enacted in 1970, allows cities and towns to offer education incentives to their officers and have half the costs picked up by the state. About 12,000 local and state police officers qualify for additional pay in Massachusetts, with the total cost to taxpayers statewide exceeding $100 million annually.
The law has come under fire over the years, with cases detailed where officers earned bonuses for classes at police stations and union halls, or even accruing credits simply for ''life experience.'' Government watchdog groups have questioned its effectiveness as a law enforcement tool, noting that the program remains unique to Massachusetts more than three decades after being established.
Still, proposed limits to Quinn Bill funding have been turned back in the Legislature in recent years. Two years ago, the House Ways and Means Committee proposed changes similar to those the Senate is now discussing, but rank-and-file members reversed the committee's recommendation. The same thing happened earlier this month, when members restored a $2.7 million trim in Quinn Bill state funding that the committee had called for.
George J. DiBlasi, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said any proposal to rein in the current police bonus system would force cities and towns to increase their base pay for officers, or risk being unable to attract qualified candidates to the profession. He said that replacing percentage incentives with flat pay would save the state a relatively small sum while harming the morale of officers and the quality of police work.
''If this is taken away or limited, the cities and towns are going to have to go back and raise salaries by 20 percent,'' said DiBlasi, a retired Norwood police chief. ''We wouldn't want to see a percentage replaced by a flat rate.''
Backers of the Senate initiative acknowledge the political difficulties in steering their proposal toward law. But they expressed confidence that the full Senate would go along when the budget is debated later this month, since lawmakers are discussing deep budget cuts in so many areas of state spending. In fiscal 2004, the state is facing a gap of $3 billion between revenues and the amount of spending that would be needed to maintain current services.
''I don't think anything is sacred,'' said state Senator Robert A. O'Leary, a Barnstable Democrat. ''There is a sense that, given the budget gap this year - the fact that we're shutting people off from Medicaid, we're cutting services, we're going after higher education - that it's not unreasonable to begin to say, `This is a program that costs a lot of money. We can't sustain its growth.'''
O'Leary filed a bill last month that would entirely eliminate police-education salary incentives going forward, and make higher-education degrees a prerequisite for being hired as an officer in Massachusetts. The Senate budget proposal does not include those aspects of his proposal, though O'Leary said he hopes it will be just the first in a series of moves aimed at controlling Quinn Bill costs and improving the quality of policing in the state.
In those communities that offer Quinn Bill benefits, the Senate proposal would authorize $6,000 annual bonuses to officers who earn associate's degrees, $7,500 to those attaining bachelor's degrees, and $8,500 for graduate degrees, such as master's or law degrees. The current bonus system increases base pay by 10 percent for associate degrees in criminal justice, 20 percent for bachelor's degrees, and 25 percent for graduate degrees. The Senate would also prevent additional communities from receiving Quinn Bill reimbursements until 2005.
Senate leaders also want to codify recent regulations set forth by the Board of Higher Education, designed to tighten up standards and ensure that officers only receive extra pay for degrees earned at reputable institutions. The House budget includes a similar legal change and Romney supports such a move as well, to prevent what he has called ''diploma mills'' from being used by officers just so they can earn more cash.
The entire interview with Senate President Robert E. Travaglini will be shown on The Boston Globe/WBZ ''News Conference'' at 11 a.m. today on Channel 4.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 5/18/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
If you read the last post, you would have scene that in my opinion, if you currently receive the bill, you should be able to keep your bonus. In order to ensure that this incentive does what it's suppose to do it needs to be revamped. If everybody can get a degree from Joe Blow U, and obtain the %, the well will run dry. Keep it, but make it more challenging to get.
