“We have reached an impasse,” Johnson said at a Statehouse press conference. “We’ve really worked to bring as many ideas and compromises to the table as possible, and we don’t have much of a negotiating partner, and that’s unfortunate.”
The announcement came less than two hours after Scott, Johnson and Ashe met privately in the speaker’s office.
After saying he was open to any proposal that would lead to health insurance savings, Scott has rejected several legislative plans that met that goal but didn’t do so through a statewide contract, as he originally proposed.
“I think this wasn’t ever, at its heart, about saving the taxpayers money. It was about really undermining those local conversations and working Vermonters,” Johnson said, referring to the collective bargaining that currently occurs at the school-district level.
So what now? The Senate and House will hash out an agreement between both chambers, pass a budget and see if Scott follows through on his veto threat. If he does, the legislature will likely reconvene in June to once again try to pass something palatable to the governor.
Not for the first time, Ashe criticized Scott for introducing a significant proposal just two weeks before the legislature was supposed to adjourn. “The reason we’re here now still struggling to find resolution is that this very dramatic proposal was dropped with literally days left in the session,” he said.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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You’re a joke Johnson. YOU have no solutions. YOU have no compromise. Go ahead, continue padding your pockets and lying to the public. The citizens of this state can see right through you. You area classic New York carpetbagger. Nothing more.
My sense is that if Speaker Johnson were to go along with a proposal entailing a statewide contract, she would experience backlash from unions in general (although most severely from the VT-NEA) and would have to cope with the loss of their support — and potentially their attacks — when she came up for re-election in two years. I imagine that the unions would paint her as complicit in leaving “working Vermonters” with less protection of their benefits.
On another point — I view the VT-NEA’s current objections as simply self-preserving. I presume that they believe that if the health insurance contract for teachers were a statewide one, they would lose substantial bargaining power. They are probably afraid that over time, the state will seek to increase teachers’ cost-share and that they will not be able to rebut this increase, given that a statewide teachers’ strike has horrendous optics. Personally — I think the resolution to this impasse should come down to what would benefit the majority of citizens, and I am not sure that preserving the VT-NEA’s bargaining power (by leaving contract negotiations at the district level) would do this, as over time the VT-NEA will likely push for contracts that will increase the tax burden on many Vermonters.
We dare not speak against raising teacher’s salaries and benefits, meanwhile a majority of hardworking Vermont taxpayers suffer under the weight of VT NEA’s demands. Really disappointed in Tim Ashe, and of course Mitzi Johnson created this mess. We would have a budget as half the house voted for it but she cast the tie-breaker “no” vote.
Thank you Governor Scott for standing up for taxpayers and local school boards. We do not agree with the NEA that local control is best for contract bargaining. Local bargaining only benefits the NEA. The Governor is showing great political courage. I’d rather shut down the state then give in to the VT NEA’s benefactors, Tim Ashe and Mitzi Johnson. Please call your legislator and ask them to support Governor Scott’s plan to hobble VT NEA and put a brake on education spending increases.
The governor is being a dick. We don’t need this kind of politics in Vermont. He’s just trying to impress his asshole friends in Washington to advance his own career even if he leaves us divided and fighting among ourselves
Take up the cause, Penelope. Get wages in Vermont increased across the board instead of trying to strip the wages of a few to make yourself feel better.
Scott doesn’t care about tax payers. This is about taking away local control and bargaining power.
Teachers unions have a death grip on VT politics. While VT schools are good – outcomes are only average for the US – our state-wide spending per student is outrageous, one of the highest in the country. When are the dems of VT going to tackle this problem? Our roads are are a mess, social programs are suffering, homeowners are suffering, the business climate is horrible, the working population is shrinking and VT retirees cannot afford to stay in their homes. All this while teachers get raises every year, schools are overstaffed and the student numbers have been declining for years. It should come as no surprise that when act 46 was promulgated, the teachers unions were not even mentioned, or impacted. It’s way past time for the State to take a long hard look at public service unions and their excessive political power. It is not good for the State, its budget or the long suffering taxpayers of Vermont.
“Take up the cause, Penelope. Get wages in Vermont increased across the board instead of trying to strip the wages of a few to make yourself feel better.”
First, this debate is about negotiating teachers’ healthcare benefits on a statewide basis. It is not about wages or how they are negotiated.
Second, no one is talking about “stripping” anybody’s wages. Penelope only mentioned not raising them further. Your talk of “stripping” teachers wages is a propaganda job.
Third, so your answer to the property tax crisis that’s hurting Vermont taxpayers, and to the uneven bargaining power between the statewide teachers union and the local school boards, is to say, “Don’t touch my Cadillac wages and benefits. Instead, ask your employer for a Cadillac for yourself!” Really? That’s you answer to this issue?
Fourth, if magically all Vermonters suddenly got a raise to match the teachers’ wages and benefits, the teachers union would instantly want another raise so they’d be better off again than the lowly taxpayers who support them. After all, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Lastly, there is no rational case to be made against bargaining over healthcare benefits with the teachers union on a statewide basis in the tiny state of Vermont. Democratic Governor Dean and Democratic House Speaker Ralph Wright — himself a teacher — both supported a statewide teachers contract years ago. And the fact is that public school education is largely a statewide business now anyway. The only reason to keep the current system is so that the union can continue to overpower local school boards on a divide and conquer basis and get disproportionate wage and benefit increases, year after year, at taxpayer expense.