From: Pmarkunas@aol.com
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003
Subject: MTA Update #3

Update #3: Contract funding wins overwhelming approval in Legislature
Issued at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13

The House and Senate, in separate votes this afternoon and evening, overwhelmingly approved more than $34 million in funding for higher education contracts that affect 13,000 faculty and staff around the state. The bill passed the House on a voice vote, with none of the 157 members present dissenting. The Senate vote was 34 to 0.

Because each branch passed a separate supplemental budget containing the funding, the bills must still be reconciled before a measure is sent to the desk of Governor Mitt Romney. That is expected to happen on Monday. "We applaud the Legislature's action in voting to fund the higher education contracts," said MTA President Catherine A. Boudreau. In doing so, the Legislature has honored the state's promise to 13,000 public higher education employees who have been waiting nearly three years for their negotiated pay raises. "Equally important, the Legislature has kept faith with the people of Massachusetts, who need and deserve a system of public higher education that offers excellence, access and affordability," Boudreau continued. "The legislative leadership and rank-and-file members have made right a long-standing wrong, and for this they deserve our thanks and gratitude."

According to legislative language and verbal commitments by the State House leadership:

Further details of the contract funding bills will follow as they become available.

The action today followed a one-hour meeting Wednesday between union and legislative leaders, including Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran.

MTA leaders present at the meeting included President Boudreau, Vice President Anne Wass and Executive Director-Treasurer Edward P. Sullivan; Jenny Spencer, president, Massachusetts Society of Professors, UMass/Amherst; Robert Parkin, president, Massachusetts Society of Professors, UMass/Lowell; Elizabeth Mock, president, Faculty Staff Union, UMass/Boston; Donna Johnson, president, University Staff Association, UMass/Amherst; and David Morwick, president, Association of Professional Administrators.

Among the legislative leaders present were Sen. Therese Murray, chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee; Rep. John H. Rogers, chair, House Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Salvatore F. DiMasi, House majority leader; Rep. Lida E. Harkins, assistant House majority leader; Rep. Thomas M. Petrolati, second assistant House majority leader; and Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos, vice chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The votes in the Legislature bring the campaign for contract funding "MTA's top priority" another key step closer to a successful conclusion.

After next week's final votes, Governor Romney will have 10 days either to sign the supplemental budget or veto it. If he vetoes it, the Legislature will have a chance to override that veto.