Wednesday, April 8, 2015
But the vote was so close, proponents of the ban said afterward that they might employ a parliamentary procedure to revisit the question Thursday — so long as they can muster sufficient support to overturn Wednesday's result.
Introduced by Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington), the original version of the bill would have forced teachers unions and school boards to resolve their differences by banning the former from striking and the latter from imposing contracts. Doing so, Wright argued Wednesday, "basically disarms both sides of the nuclear options." To encourage resolution, teachers locked in long-term labor disputes would receive no raises, while school districts would face a 1-cent tax increase.
Wright's bill took a circuitous route through the Statehouse. The House Education Committee backed it by an 8 to 3 vote, while the House General, Housing and Military Affairs opposed it, 3 to 5. House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), meanwhile, promised Wright a vote on the floor.
On Wednesday, Wright and his allies rallied around an amendment proposed by freshman Rep. Martin Lalonde (D-South Burlington) which would delay the strike and contract imposition bans until July 2016. In the meantime, a seven-member task force would be charged with working out the details of what would happen absent agreement.
Tags: teacher strike ban , Vermont-National Education Association , Vermont School Boards Association , Kurt Wright , Patti Komline , Willem Jewett , Martin Lalonde , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
But on the eve of a House vote to do just that, Shumlin is staying mostly mum.
“The governor has long supported the idea of prohibiting teacher strikes and board-imposed contracts, while requiring both sides to resolve differences through third party decision-making when negotiation fails,” spokesman Scott Coriell said in a statement Tuesday. “The details of how you do that are incredibly important and the governor will closely review any legislation that reaches his desk.”
Whether a bill will ever reach his desk is unclear. The House appears divided as members head into a vote Wednesday to decide whether prohibit teachers from striking and school boards from imposing contracts as of July 2016. Some Democrats, seeking to defang the bill, intend to introduce an amendment turning it into a study.
“It’s going to be close,” said Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury), who opposes ending the right to strike, arguing that removing that right shifts the balance of power to school boards.
Tags: Vermont NEA , teacher strikes , Peter Shumlin , Kurt Wright , South Burlington , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 3, 2015
The House committee that oversees labor issues voted 5-3 along party lines Friday against proposed legislation that would prohibit teacher strikes in Vermont. Although a negative committee vote typically kills a bill, H.76 will nonetheless be considered next week by the full House. It previously passed the House Education Committee by a vote of 8 to 3.
Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) sponsored the bill that would ban teacher strikes and levy a 1-cent tax rate increase on districts that fail to reach a contract agreement after a year. This week he won assurance from House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) that the full House would consider the bill.
The floor debate promises to be a lively one.
“I think we should give the body a chance to debate this,” Rep. Job Tate (R-Mendon) said, just before voting to support the bill in the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee.
“I am really struggling with prohibiting the right to strike,” said Rep. Gabrielle Lucke (D-Hartford), who voted against it.
“I’m baffled by this 1-cent tax. Why punish the taxpayers?” said Rep. Tommy Walz (D-Barre). He also voted against H.76.
A full House vote next week will put legislators on the spot. Teacher strikes are unpopular with the public, but the teachers' union strongly opposes banning them. In a year when the House's Democratic majority has already ticked off the teachers' union with a school consolidation bill, members might be wary of piling on.
“I do understand that strikes can be very difficult on communities,” said House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee chair Helen Head (D-South Burlington). Vermont's most recent teacher strike last fall was in her school district.
But Head said she couldn’t support removing the strike option. Head said previously that she and others in South Burlington viewed it as an effective tool in reaching an agreement.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who last fall said teacher strikes should be banned, declined to say Friday whether he supports this bill, though it appears to strike the right balance as he's described it. "I support the right teachers' strike bill," Shumlin said. "If one side gives up the ability to strike, the other side should give up the ability to impose a contract." Wright's bill does not allow school boards to impose contracts.
The Vermont National Education Association union strongly opposes H.76. The Vermont School Boards Association supports it.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , teacher strikes , Vermont NEA , Image , Web Only
By a 119-1 vote, the House passed a resolution Friday asking the governor, legislature and judiciary to ban travel to 13 U.S. states that allow discrimination. It also calls on all states to pass laws protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“Financial embargoes do work,” Rep. Jim McCullough (D-Williston) declared as House members were about to vote.
The resolution, H.R.8, comes in response to recent laws passed in Indiana and other states to protect religious freedom, which were widely criticized for also permitting faith-based discrimination against gays.
Indiana took action Thursday to alter its law, but Rep. Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg) said it wasn’t enough. Only 20 states offer legal protection against job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, he said.
Rep. Warren Van Wyck (R-Ferrisburgh) cast the lone dissenting vote. He didn’t explain his vote on the floor but had a written statement handy. “Vermont has plenty of challenges within its border,” he wrote. “I am not interested in passing judgments on the actions of the legislatures of 49 other states unless they directly affect the substantive well being of the state of Vermont and its residents.”
Tags: Vermont legislature , religious freedom , Indiana , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 2, 2015
As the day wore on, those expressions grew more complicated. So complicated that discussion on the House floor was delayed until Friday. It seemed every statement condemning discrimination either went too far or not far enough for somebody.
Earlier this week, Gov. Peter Shumlin issued a ban on non-essential state travel to Indiana, which has drawn controversy for a religious freedom law many believe opens the door to discrimination against gays and lesbians. On Thursday, 26 House members sponsored a resolution asking Gov. Peter Shumlin, the legislature and judiciary to extend that ban to all states with similar religious freedom laws.
"This legislative body expresses its strong opposition to Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act as signed into law on March 26, 2015," the resolution read, "and expresses its support for, at a minimum, enactment of the proposed clarification and, preferably, for the law's repeal."
Indiana’s law was widely seen as a legal justification for private business owners to refuse, on religious grounds, to serve gays and lesbians. The law ignited outcry, prompting lawmakers in Indiana to vote Thursday to change the law to prohibit its use as a legal defense for refusing to offer services.
“We need to do this because I think it expresses the majority will of the people of Vermont,” said Rep. Paul Poirier (I-Barre), who was among the sponsors.
Tags: Indiana , religious freedom , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
As their colleagues debated a water quality bill on the House floor, committee members retreated to their room at 6 p.m. to sign off on a plan that would raise $18 million next year and $22 million the year after. It would do so primarily by creating a new, half-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
The vote was six to four, with one member absent. Committee members expect to approve the underlying bill, H. 481, on Thursday.
Rep. Carolyn Branagan (R-Georgia) summed up her frustration with the subject as the committee clerk called the roll: "I want to get rid of this thing," she said before casting her own vote. "Yes."
Wednesday's vote signaled a defeat for Gov. Peter Shumlin, who in his January budget address proposed raising $90 million for his own health care priorities by creating a 0.7 percent payroll tax. Like most legislators, members of the Ways and Means committee panned the plan and instead explored taxing everything from bottled water to candy to food sold in vending machines.
In the end, the committee opted for a package of taxes targeting sugary drinks, diet soda, dietary supplements, cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Tags: Vermont House , sugar-sweetened beverage tax , health care , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The bill would force many of Vermont's 277 school districts to consolidate into larger districts of at least 1,100 students by 2020. Plenty in the bill worried members as they considered how the legislation would be received back home. Some of those same worries had derailed a similar bill last year.
“There are divisions that pull us apart on this unlike any other issue,” said House Majority Leader Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford). “We knew this was going to be a hard issue on which to find consensus.”
A compromise version easily passed Wednesday by an 88-55 vote. Still, it generated criticism that lawmakers had backed off their promise to curb rising property taxes.
The compromise involved one particularly nagging concern — a temporary spending cap designed to bring immediate savings. With no guarantees that consolidating schools would save money in the near future, the cap was supposed to offer that hope to frustrated taxpayers.
Tags: Vermont legislature , education spending , David Sharpe , Oliver Olsen , Image , Web Only
Critics say the Hoosier state’s new religious freedom law opens the door to discrimination against gays. Shumlin joined several other states in banning official state travel to Indiana. He also invited a major labor union to relocate to Vermont the Indiana conference it had canceled in protest.
Tough talk, right? But in these tight budget times, just how much are state workers traveling to Indiana? The governor’s staff was unsure. It’s quite possible the answer is none.
And what about hosting the AFSCME Women’s Conference? Also unlikely. Several Vermont union officials said Tuesday that labor unions are pretty picky about holding their conferences in union-staffed hotels. Vermont doesn’t have any.
In a letter to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, Shumlin touted Vermont’s legacy for promoting equal rights. (Shumlin also sent the letter to the news media.) But while Shumlin was chumming with the AFSCME, he didn’t mention that he’s not at the moment in very good standing with some of their labor brethren. Shumlin is at loggerheads with the Vermont State Employees Association after asking the union to renegotiate a signed contract to find $10.8 million in personnel savings. He’s also irked the Vermont Education Association over proposals to consolidate schools.
Meanwhile, labor backers took another hit Tuesday when the Senate voted 14-12 against a bill, S.133, that would have barred employers from disciplining employees for using benefits such as sick days.
The Senate passed a similar bill last year and watched it die in the House. Sen. Philip Baruth (D-Chittenden) tried again this year, saying he’d heard from workers who were given demerits that could lead to firing for taking legitimate sick days. The bill would still have allowed employees to penalize workers for misuse of benefits, such as taking a sick day to go skiing, Baruth said. “It’s a sad day,” he said.
Business groups argued there was little evidence the bill was needed but that it could pose a burden on employers to prove they're firing workers for cause. “It would have had a chilling effect on employers,” said Bill Driscoll, vice president of Associated Industries of Vermont.
Tags: Indiana , religious freedom , Peter Shumlin , American Federation of State , County and Municipal Employees , AFL-CIO , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
The RGA and the Office of the Attorney General reached a settlement to resolve a four-year-old case. The state had alleged that when the RGA ran political ads in favor of Republican candidate Brian Dubie, the organization failed to register as a political action committee and to file campaign finance reports, and also accepted contributions that exceeded the $2,000 limit.
Dubie lost a close race to Democrat Peter Shumlin. Shumlin has twice since then won reelection.
The RGA also agreed to file amended campaign finance reports within 30 days, and will detail contributions from two people in particular – Skip Vallee and Rich Tarrant.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell said in a statement that the case sends a message about campaign finance law. “It is essential that PACs make the disclosures required under the law. The public should know who is funding the activities of the PACs that seek to influence Vermont voters,” he said.
This is the second settlement between his office and the RGA in the 2010 governor’s race. In 2013, the RGA agreed to pay $30,000 in a case in which Dubie also agreed to pay $20,000. They were accused of violating state campaign finance law by sharing RGA polling data without declaring it as a contribution to Dubie’s campaign.
Tags: Brian Dubie , Republican Governors Association , Peter Shumlin , Bill Sorrell , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 27, 2015
How much should the state spend to improve access to health care? And how should it raise the money to pay for it?
Two House committees have been paralyzed over those questions for more than a week, while the window for passage begins to close.
Tags: health care , cost sharing , Vermont legislature , Janet Ancel , Bill Lippert , Shap Smith , Image , Web Only