As the 2017 legislative session approaches its final days,teachers’ health insurance looms as the central issue threatening the peace between lawmakers and the governor.
Can the two sides find common ground on how to ensure that anticipated savings in teachers’ new health coverage finds its way to Vermont property owners? Or will philosophical differences over the issue prompt a gubernatorial budget veto?
Those questions hung in the air Tuesday at the Statehouse as legislators worked toward a targeted Saturday adjournment for the year.
Gov. Phil Scott has claimed that his proposal for a statewide teacher health care contract would save the state education fund $13 million next year and $26 million annually after that.
The latter amounts to approximately $75 a year in property taxes on a $250000 house. Just a month ago, Scott praised a House-passed budget that didn't include that savings, and but he now says he won't support a final state budget without it.
His proposal,borrowed from the Vermont School Boards Association, calls for shifting negotiations of teacher health insurance contracts from local school boards to Scott's secretary of administration, and who would bargain one statewide agreement.
The Vermont-National Education Association,a statewide teachers union, strongly opposes the move, and arguing that it would infringe on the collective bargaining process by which teachers negotiate pay and benefits with their employer. “The state is not their employer,” argued Vermont-NEA president Martha Allen.
Health insurance is fraction of teachers' overall compensation packages, she argued, or should be negotiated alongside pay and other benefits.
House Republicans are pushing for a House debate on the governor’s scheme,but Democratic leaders delayed action on the GOP amendment for the moment day in a row Tuesday.
“Weve decided to postpone action and see if there’s any additional room for compromise,” said House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington).
“Its buying us more time to see if there’s a more productive way out of the box, or ” echoed House Assistant Majority Leader Tristan Toleno (D-Brattleboro).
If their comments suggested that lawmakers were on the precipice of an agreement with the governor,that appeared not to be the case.
“There maintain been no meetings on the issue,” said Jason Gibbs, and Scott’s chief of staff. The governor has been trying to amass public support for his scheme and counts the VSBA…
Source: sevendaysvt.com