The
state law, known as Section 18, would shift much of the health care
funding for the city's retired employees to the federal government, a
measure that would help the city's tight budget.

According to a report issued by the city, an estimated $1,373,557 would be shaved annually.

The
city says that of the 443 plans that would be affected, 334 members
would pay less per month for their premiums than they are currently,
should they adopt plans like Harvard First Seniority or Tufts Medicare
Preferred, as opposed to the more comprehensive, and expensive, Medex
3.

Currently, there are 145 people who are already paying for
Medicare Parts A and B alongside the city plan, which officials say is
more costly to both them and the city.

The potential change
comes on the heels of an increase earlier this year in the percentage
retirees are forced to pay for their premiums-from 10 percent to 25
percent. The city is hoping Section 18 will be to their financial
benefit. If approved, the changes would go into effect in July 2010,
though enrollment in Medicare Part B could start as soon as January.

On Dec. 1, city officials shared several sets of surveys on drug use, risk behaviors, and exercise rates.

Corey
Mashburn, Director of Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP),
presented data on Somerville youth. The latest findings were from a
health survey of 818 Somerville middle school students conducted last
April. The survey, which is conducted every two years, was voluntary
and viewed by parents before administration. It measured topics such as
substance abuse, violence, mental and physical health amongst
Somerville teens.

Overall, substance abuse amongst Somerville
teens is down. One number that officials highlighted was alcohol use
among teens, which according to the survey dropped from 18 percent in
2007 to 9 percent in 2009.

Another finding from the data was
that youth warning other youth had a much stronger impact as opposed to
adults lecturing youth. Adult lectures were thought to be boring by
teens yet when presented with the same information by their peers,
teens seemed to respond more positively.

The next SCAP survey is scheduled for Somerville High School on February 4, 2010.

Paulette
Renault-Caragianes, director of the Somerville Health Department,
presented the results of the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Survey for
Somerville. The survey gathered data on health risks and problems of
city residents. The survey was conducted between January and May 2008
amongst 644 participants.

The results show a drop in the number
of unhealthy behaviors by Somerville residents. According to the
survey, the number of smokers has gone down as well as the number of
binge drinkers.

The survey also found that the majority of
Somerville residents (69.1 percent) feel it's important to build and
maintain places where people can exercise.

This
year's tree-lighting at City Hall was a big success – and Santa's
arrival on a Somerville fire engine "drawn" by police motorcycle
"reindeer" was truly spectacular. Even with the unseasonably warm
weather, the whole scene – the happy kids (including mine), the
colorful light displays, the music and merriment – helped all of us get
into the holiday spirit.

But there's still plenty of work to be
done before the end of the year, and the lights on the trees outside
aren't the only ones burning into the night at City Hall. (We are
succeeding, by the way, in reducing the City's energy consumption and
carbon footprint, but we're not doing it with shorter hours and less
activity. In fact, we're busier than ever.)

One of the most
crucial elements in our end-of-the-year fiscal planning is the setting
of residential and commercial tax rates for the next calendar year.
Somerville is proud to offer the highest residential property tax
exemption allowed under state law (30 %), but the dramatic cuts we
suffered in last year's budget once again require us to seek the full
amount of property tax revenue growth allowed under Proposition 2¬Ω.
With the value of Somerville real estate continuing to decline as a
consequence of the national economic downturn, we have presented the
Board of Aldermen with an increase in the residential tax rate (subject
to state approval) from $11.71 to $12.30 per $1,000 of assessed value.
That's an increase of $0.59 or 5.1 percent – significantly lower than
last year's $0.76, or 7 percent, increase. And, since the actual dollar
amount residents pay in property taxes is based on assessed property
values, which have gone down slightly, the net additional tax paid in
2010 by the owner of an average two-family home will be only 3.5
percent, or about $36 per quarter. For owners of single-family homes,
the average increase is only 4.4 percent, or about $34 per quarter.

Believe
me when I say that nobody wants to see property taxes go up even a
penny in hard times, but the state has left us little alternative.
Still, the overall news in Somerville remains relatively good – the
median sales price for single family homes may have declined by 7.9
percent between Calendar 2008 and Calendar 2009 to date, but that's
well below the decline in prices for similar properties in such
neighboring communities as Cambridge, Chelsea and Everett (with an
average decline in these cities of over 11 percent) – and much lower
than the statewide average as well. We're holding our own on real
estate value, and Somerville remains an excellent place to buy a home.
(In fact, average condominium prices actually went up last year by 3.6
percent.)

This has been the first year since 1988 in which our
tax rate determination process hasn't been guided by the wise and
capable Dick Brescia, but the superb quality of the work done by Acting
Chief Assessor Marc Levye and his entire team serves as a reminder of
how thoroughly Dick trained and prepared his department. Dick passed
away in July – and we still miss him terribly – but his spirit lives on
in the skill and integrity of the former colleagues he led so well.

In
fact, Dick's commitment to careful management of taxpayer dollars (and
all other public resources) continues to set the standard for fiscal
policy across the face of Somerville's city government.

Another
example of productive year-end number crunching is our proposal to the
Board of Aldermen to have all Medicare-eligible Somerville retirees
take full advantage of their federal benefits by enrolling in the
Medicare program and then purchasing supplemental health care offered
through the City. The result of this change (available under Section 18
of Mass General Laws Chapter 32B) will be to lower the cost of health
insurance not only for the city but also for many retirees – all
without reducing access to, or quality of, health care services. Of
course, not all city retirees are eligible for Medicare, since they
haven't accrued 40 quarters of Social Security payments. (Municipal
employees on Massachusetts pay into a separate public retirement system
that, depending on their career history, may limit their access to
federal programs like Social Security and Medicare.) But many
Somerville retirees who are eligible for Medicare are still receiving
all of their health insurance benefits through the City.

Making
this shift would save the Somerville taxpayers at least $1.4 million
per year – a significant sum at a time when we just had to shave $5
million out of our annual budget due to state aid cuts (with the real
potential for more cuts to come).

To be absolutely honest, I
wish we didn't have to spend so much time crunching the numbers during
the holidays – we'd all rather focus on decorations and shopping and,
above all, on spending time with family and friends. But in the time
I've been in office, Somerville has been able to spend fewer tax
dollars per capita than any city in Massachusetts with a population of
50,000 or more – and we plan to do everything we can to keep it that
way.

This is a season for generosity of spirit – but in city
government it's also a time to stay firmly focused on the bottom line.
It may be dry and boring to crunch numbers for the holidays, but the
net effect is to bring a little more joy to the season for our
hard-pressed property taxpayers.

"I want to be there to
make her the next Senator," Capuano told the boisterous crowd gathered
at the Fairmont-Copley Plaza Hotel. "When she gets elected, we're going
to work hard to make sure she's successful."

Capuano finished
second in Tuesday's Democratic primary for the special election to fill
the Senate seat left vacant by the late Edward Kennedy. Coakley won 47
percent of the vote to Capuano's 28 percent, while Alan Khazei and
Steve Pagliuca received 12 and 13 percent, respectively.

"In the
final analysis, name recognition matters," Capuano said of the
campaign, which many believed Coakley went into with a strong advantage
as a statewide office holder. "The attorney general was a pretty good
candidate. She didn't make any slip ups, and we just couldn't narrow
the gap."

Capuano's campaign staff said Tuesday they hoped for
a strong turnout in Somerville, where he showed up early to vote at the
Department of Public Works. With a voter turnout estimated at 28
percent, Capuano earned 8,006 votes – 67 percent of the unofficial
total.

"Somerville came out to support its native son," Mayor
Joe Curtatone said after Capuano's concession speech. "I'm proud of
what he did."

Capuano's speech, aside from congratulating
Coakley, focused on thanking his family, supporters and campaign
workers, many of whom he said were young people.

"You're now in a new family that you can never get out of," he said.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry joined Capuano on stage briefly before joining Coakley's victory party at the Boston Sheraton.

Coakley will face Republican State Sen. Scott Brown in the Jan. 16 special election.

Capuano said he may be back in Washington as soon as tomorrow, joking that he wanted to get his voting record on track.

He
added that he would continue the push on healthcare legislation and
attempt to "correct some errors we're about to make in Afghanistan,"
referencing President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more
troops there.

"We'll be there to fight for you next week, the next year and the next decade," Capuano said.