Officers sue for Quinn Bill money

Governor Deval Patrick and the state Legislature over the past year have dramatically scaled back funding for the program, which compensates police officers who seek higher education degrees.

In most cases, the state pays half of the bonuses and the city or town pays the other half. As the state has reduced its portion of the funding, questions have been raised about whether cities and towns are obligated to make up the difference.

The Scituate legal case - along with at least two others, in Mashpee and Wrentham - argues that the officers should be paid the full amount, regardless of any reductions in state funding. The cases could have implications for communities throughout Massachusetts.

“I think everybody is interested in the case,’’ said Bryan Decker, who has filed lawsuits for Mashpee and Wrentham police. “The idea is somebody’s got to go first.’’

The Quinn Bill, which was passed in 1970 and named after former House speaker and attorney general Robert H. Quinn, supplies salary boosts to police officers who earn a law enforcement, criminal justice, or law degree. The officer, who must attend a college approved by the state, gets a 10 percent boost in his base pay for an associate’s degree; 20 percent for a bachelor’s degree; and 25 percent for a master’s or law degree.

The program has typically cost taxpayers about $100 million a year, split equally between the state and the communities where the officers work. The law states that communities that adopt the incentive program will be reimbursed by the state for half of the cost.

But, partly in response to budget woes, the state has drastically cut back on its commitment. The funding from the state was $50.2 million for fiscal 2009, but that was cut to $10 million for fiscal 2010, which began July 1.

In the governor’s budget proposal for next fiscal year, he wants to reduce the funding again, to $5 million.

The impact of reducing state funding has often depended on what individual union contracts have stipulated. In some cases, local taxpayers have had to pick up the state’s share and pay the full amount of the bonuses.

In others, it has meant that police officers have taken a pay cut, which has triggered the lawsuits in Mashpee, Scituate, and Wrentham. If judges rule in the police officers’ favor, it will likely trigger more lawsuits and changes in other communities.

The Scituate officers are arguing that the town should be forced to pay the full amount, even as the state has reduced the reimbursements. Because their labor contract says that the town doesn’t have to pay if the state doesn’t reimburse, the officers are making a rare argument that state law - which establishes a specific salary increase for their degrees - should trump the provisions of their local contract.

“The officers are entitled to be paid, irrespective of whether the town gets reimbursed,’’ said the lawyer for the officers, Michael J. Sacchitella. “Pay the guys. Pay them. If the governor decides to reduce the reimbursements to the town, it is my opinion that is an issue between the town and the Commonwealth, and the officers shouldn’t be thrown in the middle of it.’’

The town has about a week left to respond to the suit. The town administrator, Patricia A. Vinchesi, did not respond yesterday to requests for comment.

Opponents of the lawsuit argue that police unions are using a desperate tactic to retain a long-held benefit.

“This is a Hail Mary pass by the unions trying to get out of language they regret adopting,’’ said Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, referring to local contract provisions that exempt communities from picking up the state’s share of the costs. “It’s totally disingenuous. They agreed to this language and now that they have to live by that language they’re going to court to try and strike it down.’’

Many communities that adopted that language would not have approved the Quinn Bill without it, Beckwith said, since they would be paying twice as much.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association has been calling on the Legislature to pass a law that ensures that cities and towns are not responsible for the state’s share of the funding. The governor filed legislation to that effect, but it hasn’t yet been taken up by the Legislature.

“We still need legislative clarity to avoid a mess of litigation,’’ Beckwith said.

In Scituate, the town distributed its share of the Quinn Bill payments to officers in July. The next payment was due Jan. 15 and meant to cover the state’s share.

The lawsuit was triggered when the town did not make the payment, about $140,000 total, according to Sacchitella.

“The Quinn Bill provides that the officers get paid by the town, irrespective of what the state reimbursement is,’’ Sacchitella said. “Any language in a collective bargaining agreement that in any ways tries to limit the effect of the Quinn Bill is illegal, it’s not binding.’’

Decker is making the same argument in the cases in Mashpee and Wrentham.

“The stipend is the stipend,’’ he said. “Whether or not the town gets the [state] reimbursement is irrelevant.’’

But in doing so, they are also arguing that the contracts that the police unions signed were not valid - essentially suggesting that the collective bargaining agreements should be trumped by state law.

“That’s sort of the tricky thing,’’ Decker said. “My union clients would very much argue that collective bargaining should be sacrosanct.’’

On the Mashpee case, which was filed in July, there is a hearing scheduled next month in Barnstable Superior Court.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.