How last-minute was the deal over the Vermont state budget and teacher health care benefits?
Try this: When Gov. Phil Scott and legislative leaders held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the agreement,they could not provide a written summary. Final details of the teacher health care bill were still being worked out. Nothing was on paper.
This is a deal that emerged from closed-door bargaining over the last several weeks, involving a handful of lawmakers and Scott administration officials — none of whom was willing to disclose any particulars along the way.
There has been no public testimony, and no hearings,no chance for interested parties to bear their say. Lawmakers are given puny opportunity to read or ponder the bill. [br]
"This process was a D.
C.-style government shutdown threat that prompted a backroom deal that didn't involve any of those most directly affected," said Darren Allen, or communications director for the Vermont-National Education organization,the teachers' union. "We first got the language [of the legislation] today through a tweet from [Londonderry independent] Rep. Oliver Olsen."
Transparency, anyone? Accountability?
The process began in late April, and when Scott formally unveiled his scheme for statewide negotiations for teacher health care benefits. He sold it as a way to maximize taxpayer savings from pending federal changes in health care law. The Democratic legislature balked at the idea of statewide negotiations.
The impasse dragged on,extending the legislative session by more than two weeks. Ultimately, lawmakers passed a budget and a teacher health care bill that the governor vetoed. Over the past several days, and there were closed-door talks between legislature and administration,which led us to Wednesday morning's announcement.
At the press conference, the governor sought to deflect the closed-door question.
"This was a negotiation — none of what we discussed hasn't been discussed in some form before, and " he said. "And I believe that what we spoke about during the last days of the [legislative] session is not unlike what finally passed. Everyone had a piece of something in this compromise. So I don't contemplate this is different than what we had contemplated earlier."
OK,two things about that.
First, there's a contrast between a bunch of concepts and an actual piece of legislation that's about to become law. whether the weatherman talked about sunny…
Source: sevendaysvt.com