By Patrick Anderson
Cape Ann communities are picking up the tab for hundreds of thousands of dollars in mandated salary bonuses for police officers with college degrees, money that was slashed from the state budget signed by Gov. Deval Patrick Monday.
In Gloucester, the 80 percent cut to state funding of the Quinn Bill will cost the city $201,000, Chief Administrative Officer Jim Duggan said yesterday.
Because the $45 million Quinn Bill cut was expected, Gloucester had accounted for it in the recently approved city budget, and will not have to make any additional local service reductions.
While some communities had considered ending the payments to police — either because they weren't required in labor contracts or their was no money to cover them — that hasn't happened on Cape Ann.
"The city recognizes its contractual obligations — they decided to do the right thing," Gloucester Interim Police Chief Michael Lane said yesterday. "For this year, the guys will be paid and are thankful for that."
Enacted in 1970, the Quinn Bill rewards police officers for going to school by boosting their base pay 10 percent if they have an associate's degree, 20 percent for a bachelor's degree and 25 percent for a master's degree. All degrees must be in criminal justice.
Until now, the state has paid for half of those benefits and cities and towns picked up the other half. But the new cut has reduced the state contribution to 10 percent with local government picking up the other 90.
In Manchester, the town is losing around $39,000 with the state cut, Town Administrator Wayne Melville said, contributing to a temporary $13,000 revenue gap to be filled during the year.
Of the 14 permanent police officers in Manchester, including Chief Glenn McKiel, 12 of them receive some level of Quinn Bill benefit, with a total $125,000 boost to their combined base salaries. The incentives also raise the pay rate when officers are called in for overtime.
The Quinn Bill cut is the latest hit to local aid for cities and towns this year resulting from crashing state revenues, including a 9.7 percent midyear cut to fiscal 2009 direct aid and a 28 percent cut to aid for fiscal 2010, which began Tuesday.
Melville said that, with the economy still languishing and state tax collections for the coming months uncertain, Manchester was bracing for cuts in the coming years more significant than the Quinn Bill.
In Rockport, Town Administrator Michael Racicot said he believed the town would lose around $24,000 because of the Quinn cuts.
He said the town had not accounted for the cut in this year's budget and he did not know how the Board of Selectmen intended to account for it.
Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki and Police Chief Peter Silva could not be reached yesterday for an estimate of the impact on that town.
Quinn Bill incentives are paid to police officers in biannual installments by the city, Lane said, and the state's contribution comes as a reimbursement the following year.
Lane said more than 80 percent of his department's 52 officers receive Quinn Bill benefits, and his own bachelor's degree from Northeastern University bumps his pay 20 percent.
"I think it gives you a more well-rounded officer," Lane said. "If someone can go through four years of school, it shows they have a certain amount of discipline. As society becomes more complex, it requires a more sophisticated officer and the Quinn Bill handles that."
Along with the $45 million Quinn Bill budget cut, state lawmakers also closed the program to future officers.
When he signed the budget, Patrick called for a study of the Quinn Bill, to help decide the program's future.
During debate about the Quinn Bill, police have been quick to point out that other segments of the public sector workforce — including teaches and firefighters — receive higher pay for having degrees. But neither of those groups are compensated outside of their normal paychecks in bonus payments like the Quinn Bill arrangement.
State Rep. Ann Margaret Ferrante, who voted for the budget, called reducing Quinn Bill funding a "difficult cut" in a difficult budget.
"The difficulty is the budget gap that we had to close was so great that everyone had to feel the pain across the spectrum," Ferrante said.
Sen. Bruce Tarr filed an amendment that would have phased out state spending on the Quinn Bill over the next five years, in an attempt to give cities and towns more time to adjust to the loss of aid.
Duggan said depriving the police their Quinn pay was never an option for the city.
"There was never a question of whether we were going to fund it," Duggan said. "It is a contractual obligation of ours and we understood what out responsibilities were with that contract and made sure that expense was covered."
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
