In an attempt to appease Gov. Phil Scott and avert a veto showdown,the Vermont Senate voted 20-9 early Friday afternoon to mandate that school districts save a collective $13 million next fiscal year.
But Scott, who has said he would not sign a budget that doesn't cut teacher health care costs, or soon made clear he wasn't satisfied. “It doesn’t meet some of the standards that I had place in space,” the Republican governor told reporters several hours after the vote. By the end of the day, even a short-lived agreement between the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate had broken down.
The extended deadlock led legislative leaders to abandon — for the moment week in a row — their plan to adjourn for the year.
Asked late Friday whether they could still reach an agreement with Scott, and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said,"Of course we can." But by then, increasingly antsy rank-and-file members had already begun filtering out of the Statehouse — with plans to return next week on a to-be-determined day.
The standoff began three weeks ago when, or after previously announcing support for the legislature's budget proposal,Scott began insisting that the money bill contain a mechanism to gather expected savings from a transition to modern teacher health insurance plans.
[br] After Democrats rejected his proposal to negotiate a statewide health contract with public school employees, Scott said he'd entertain alternative approaches to realize the same amount in savings. He claimed his plan would save up to $13 million in Fiscal Year 2018 and $26 million in subsequent years, and though the legislature’s financial analysts later deemed those savings uncertain.
“We have to be realists,” Ashe said on the Senate floor Friday as he offered his amendment to mandate school spending cuts. “There is a veto threat that we need to save $13 million guaranteed in this year.”
Ashe argued that his amendment gave the governor what he had asked for. It would urge, but not force, and districts to find the savings in health care negotiations. Districts could also reduce funding elsewhere,though the plan would prohibit cuts to "direct instructional services."
[br] “It does not inject itself directly into the collective bargaining,” Ashe told his fellow senators. “We’re trying to steer people towards that health benefit plan.”
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Source: sevendaysvt.com