July 26, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director
617-523-5005 ext. 245
WOBURN -- Legislation filed by Beacon Hill Democrats seeks to add pension bonuses to public employees who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, including lawmakers themselves.
Rep. Zlotnik's legislation defines an "essential employee" as "a person employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; its political subdivisions, state and community colleges and universities under the board of higher education and the University of Massachusetts."
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons denounced the proposal on Monday, calling it a "slap in the face" to anyone who lost their job or their livelihood due to COVID-19 emergency regulations.
"You have small businesses that got shut down, and now you have legislators self-identifying as 'essential workers' who work remotely 99.9 percent of the time scheming to pad their already generous pensions," Lyons said. "They consider themselves frontline workers. How tone-deaf can they possibly be?"
Lyons referenced the Legislature's apparent indifference to the $7 billion in pandemic-driven unemployment claims and refusal to use the billions of dollars received in federal aid and tax revenue to plug the gap in the state's unemployment fund.
Businesses, meanwhile, have seen their unemployment insurance tax rates soar by more than twice the pre-pandemic figure.
"Democrats like Rep. Zlotnik, who have never held a private sector job in their lives, could not be more out of touch if they tried," Lyons said. "We saw this before with their personal pay raise package, and now once again the Democratic leadership is trying to fool the public by self-identifying as 'essential workers.'"
