In the final week of the legislature
bills move at a fairly rapid pace between the House and Senate as
differences are resolved and agreement is reached. Some legislation,
however, deals with highly controversial issues such as marijuana
legalization, paid family leave, and education issues. These bills
often generate much floor debate and take hours, if not days, to
bring to completion. On two different days of the expected final
week, legislators remained on the floor until nearly midnight before
completing business.
One of the most contentious bills was
the education financing bill, H.509. This bill was being amended to
include the Governor's proposal that would create a statewide health
insurance contract for teachers. While the proposal sounds like a
good idea, it was offered so late in the session the legislature was
not able to properly investigate the assumptions, tax implications
and labor policy implications in the way the legislature
conscientiously approaches all legislation. Issues like this are not
black and white and require getting input from many sources and
affected parties..
With that in mind, the House Ways &
Means Committee did examine the proposal and determined that there
may be up to $26M of savings to be realized, but only half of that in
FY18. It is important to note also that the $26M figure is a
“guesstimate” based on a presumed decreased use of health care
services by teachers under the new plans. Furthermore, the Governor's
proposal would direct much of the savings to be used for other
purposes than reducing the property tax. Rep. Kate Webb of Shelburne
offered an alternative proposal as an amendment that would use the
same expected savings from the lower premiums of the new teachers'
health insurance plans to go to the Education Fund and be funneled
back to the individual districts according to the savings realized by
the district.
The right of employees to unionize and
bargain collectively with their employer is a fundamental right of
American workers that was hard fought for and won over the last
century and a half. Without unions we would not have a 40-hour work
week, overtime pay, safety standards, workers' compensation, a
minimum wage, and other employee rights we take for granted. The
Governor's proposal would take the negotiation of health care
contracts out of the hands of local bargaining units and districts
and give it to a statewide union and the Department of Education.
Since teachers are employees of individual districts and not of the
state, the proposed arrangement takes both the employees and the
districts out of the process. And if negotiations broke down and
teachers went on strike, it would affect the entire state instead of
being localized to a single district. This would not be good for
Vermonters.
The Webb amendment keeps the
negotiations local and guarantees that the savings will come back to
the local districts. As a practical matter, since about 25% of
teachers’ compensation comes in the form of health insurance,
removing that huge piece from the local negotiation of teachers’
contracts takes a big piece off the table as the negotiators balance
pay increases against health insurance benefits.
As you probably have heard, the vote
ended in a tie, 74 - 74, on the Beck amendment, and the Webb
amendment was subsequently passed. The bill went to the Senate, which
will have its own say. Our hope is that the Governor and the
legislature will come to some compromise agreement that will
accomplish the savings in a mutually satisfactory manner and avoid a
potential veto session. The expected May 6th adjournment
has been postponed as those negotiations take place and will resume
the following Wednesday.
I encourage you to let me know your
concerns and opinions. I can be reached by phone (802-233-5238) or by
email (myantachka.dfa@gmail.com).
