White River Junction
An amendment to do that — which was backed by the Vermont School Boards Association and Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who said it could save $26 million annually — failed late Wednesday night on a 74-74 vote, but only after House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, cast a final vote, creating a tie that prevented the proposal from moving forward.
Most Democrats, and the Vermont NEA, the state’s largest teachers union, opposed the measure, saying health care should continue to be bargained locally with individual school boards.
Because of a quirk created by the Affordable Care Act, teachers health care contracts across the state are being negotiated this year, and most remain unresolved.
“I think it’s pretty amazing … that it received that many votes is very telling,” Royalton School Board member Geo Honigford, the president of the Vermont School Boards Association, said of the close vote in the Democratic-controlled House. “When I talk to people, they want this to happen. Everyone wants this to happen except for the NEA.”
Tom Candon, chairman of the School Board in Norwich, where contract talks are in mediation, also said he had hoped the measure might pass.
“I do think that there is merit to negotiating the health insurance benefits at the state level, while continuing to negotiate locally on the many other matters within contracts. I believe there could be real potential for taxpayer savings … while still providing high quality healthcare for teachers,” Candon said.
Among Upper Valley lawmakers, only two Democrats voted for the measure — freshman Reps. Charlie Kimbell, of Woodstock, and Jay Hooper, of Brookfield — as did independent Ben Jickling, of Brookfield, and Republicans David Ainsworth, of Royalton, Bob Frenier, of Chelsea, Rodney Graham, of Williamstown, and Jim Harrison, of Chittenden.
Supporters also noted that two lawmakers who would have backed the measure were absent for the vote, meaning it would have passed if they had been there.
Opponents said it would detract from teachers’ collective bargaining rights, and also said Scott had proposed the measure too late in the legislative session.
State Rep. Kevin Christie, D-Hartford, who also is chairman of the Hartford School Board, said he opposed the measure in part because of the timing.
“In all fairness to everyone, I don’t think that everybody had a clear opportunity to participate in the process, and what I mean by that is that it was kind of fragmented,” Christie said. “I think in situations like this, when you are talking about changing a (benefit for) a major component of the workforce — you’re talking like 12,000 people, if not more — that’s a pretty big change.”
Scott’s office on Wednesday night said that while the vote by Johnson scuttled, at least temporarily, the amendment, the tally was “a clear indication that enough votes exist in the House to ensure that, one way or another, the governor’s proposal can still become law.”
On Thursday, House Republican Leader Don Turner said he had met with Scott asking him to threaten a veto, but when pressed by reporters, Scott said lawmakers should have flexibility to “do the right thing.”
Christie, the Hartford Democrat and a former public school teacher, principal and coach himself, said a Democratic alternative that was later approved, keeping contract talks local, could still realize savings for local school districts.
Hartford School Board member Lori Dickerson, who has conducted contract negotiations for the Hartford School Board over the last few years, referred questions on the issue to Christie.
Paul Keane, a former School Board member who also worked as an English teacher at Hartford High School, said he’s seen local negotiations as a good example of Vermont’s state identity.
“I thought local negotiations at Hartford High School were charming,” he said. “They had an element of nastiness in the last few years I didn’t like, but it was OK. People were making positions clear and trying to come to terms.”
But Honigford, the Royalton School Board member and an organic farmer who describes himself as a liberal, said he is “hopeful” that some move toward a statewide health contract for teachers may still advance. That’s the best way, he said, to ensure that teachers shoulder some portion of their health-care plans — the “skin in the game” concept embraced by the Affordable Care Act — while still enjoying high-quality coverage.
“When you look across the state and look at the average Vermonter, and you look at what teachers are getting for health care benefits, it far exceeds the average Vermonter’s,” Honigford said.
Material from the Associated Press and from Valley News staff writers Matt Hongoltz-Hetling and Rob Wolfe contributed to this report.