Updated at 7:55 p.m.
Unable to find common ground with Gov. Phil Scott, Vermont legislative leaders announced Friday evening that they have postponed session adjournment until next Thursday.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) emerged from the Republican governor’s ceremonial office around 6 p.m., having made a last-ditch attempt to come to an agreement on the budget.
The sticking point: How to recoup up to $26 million in savings from teacher health insurance plans. The Scott administration wants to negotiate a statewide teacher’s contract for health insurance. Ashe and Johnson, meanwhile, have said they won’t meddle with the collective bargaining process, preferring to let local school districts negotiate on their own.
Ashe told senators that they will resume business Wednesday at 10 a.m. and hope to conclude the session the next day.
Up until Friday evening, Johnson and Ashe had maintained that the legislature was on track for adjournment Saturday.
“The governor’s position has been very fixed,” Ashe told reporters afterward. “We haven’t really seen any counterproposals… We keep asking for them to engage and it hasn’t happened yet, so at this point it just seemed the best thing to do was to put the brakes on for a bit.”
During a separate interview with Seven Days after the announcement, Scott suggested his hardline stance was, in fact, flexible. “It doesn’t have to be a statewide teacher contract but we have to be able to accomplish the savings.” And, he said, “Their mechanism for recovering that [$26 million], I don’t think is workable.”
It also appears the House isn’t in lockstep with the Senate. Johnson suggested to reporters that Ashe had initiated the postponement. “The Senate effectively instructed their budget conferees to wait,” she said. “Without the negotiating partners with the Senate on the budget and a very hard line from the governor on some issues, we needed a little more time.”
Asked whether the razor-thin vote in the House on the governor’s proposal had undermined the legislature’s hand in negotiations, Ashe said, “It definitely does change the shape of the discussion when it comes to working with the House.”
Terri Hallenbeck contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. Find our conflict-of-interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.
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Governor Scott stick to your position. It’s the only way to assure the $26 million in healthcare savings are captured and property taxes are reduced. Our best chance in a long time.
Mitzi Johnson is a disgrace and a hack for the NEA and she is harming Governor Scott’s efforts to fight for Vermont taxpayers. The teacher’s union wants to keep negotiations local because they can easily steamroll over individual school boards, but they cannot as easily steamroll the entire state.
Vermont has the dubious distinction of paying more per student than any other state in the country. The NEA is very proud of this and legislators like Mitzi Johnson are enabling their monetary war against Vermont taxpayers. Thank you Governor Scott for taking up this issue, most politicians are much too cowardly and protective of their own seat to take on the VT NEA.
Seems your reporter left out some important facts, in this story. The Progressives , independents and democrats who voted along with the honest and fair republicans who voted in favor of saving the tax payers 26 million dollars not just this year but for the next 4 years. That the Speaker knew that 2 legislators had to leave who were in Favor of the law, and she knew that but still she voted against saving the tax papers, 26 million a year for over 4 years! WHY/ oh she said it needs to be studied more, ha, that is just the poorest excuse I have ever heard. You also neglected to mention that the school superintendents, and the school boards across Vermont all supported have one teachers contract for the state of Vermont! We have state wide funding of our schools it only makes incredible common sense to have a state wide teachers contract! You also failed to mention that the teachers would not have to pay more and might even save on health insurance. So if you can report all the facts to the Vermont voters and mislead them by leaving out facts, you do a disservice to fair and honest reporting. Governor Scott VETO the budget and send them back to take another vote with all present. Save the Vermont taxpayers 26 million a year for years to come.
All through small towns across Vermont, property owners are suffering because of the VT NEA. The only way to stop the constant education spending increases is to change the way we are funding schools. One big change would be to equalize negotiating power, the entire state would finally have enough power to stand up to VT NEA’s unreasonable demands. So their demands will become more reasonable, because finally they will have met their match.
South Hero voters need to remember their legislator Mitzi Johnson is working hard to increase their property taxes. Thank you Governor Scott for taking a brave and principled stand for property owners and against the VT NEA.
So the liberal Vermont Legislature Delays Adjournment..why so they can get more money for their summer vacation plans?? Because they didn’t get their own way?? Are they pouting in the corner because Gov Scott told them “NO”?? Oh poor little babies want us to get your pacifier?? Gov Scott is looking out for the taxpayers, that’s a lot more then we can say about you guys..We already know you don’t care about us..just your egotistical selves..
We get it, Penelope. You hate teachers. You’d rather spend your money on legal pot and smoke it in one of your many homes. Meanwhile, you seem to be overlooking that wages in Vermont need to go up all around. Teacher pay is mediocre at best as are the rest of the salaries in Vermont.
We all should be striving for excellent health care, not trying to take it away from those that have it. Ditto on wages.
Stay strong Governor Scott- we are counting on you!
“We all should be striving for excellent health care, not trying to take it away from those that have it. Ditto on wages.”
This is a false narrative.
Absolutely no one is talking about taking “excellent health care” away from the teachers. That’s propaganda. We’re merely talking about the way we negotiate over health benefits with the statewide union. You can’t say that the resulting benefits will be worse.
I agree with you that we should all have “excellent health care” (whatever that means). So exactly what are YOU proposing so that ALL of us can have excellent health care? Please provide the DETAILS of your healthcare proposal. How much it will cost? Who’s covered? What’s covered and what’s not? Does it cover lung transplants for lifelong smokers? Who will pay for it? And how will they pay for it? How will it be administered?
I oppose the repeal of Obamacare. It should be improved, not gutted. And we should eventually transition to universal, single payer healthcare. We have to do so thoughtfully, and it may take time to get it right. Sorry to BOTH Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump, but healthcare will not be solved by simpleminded slogans on bumper stickers and simplistic platitudes at rallies. Many countries have some form of universal health coverage but many of them do it differently. What’s the best system for us? This issue won’t be solved by issuing beautiful promises using cheap math, as Vermont’s former Used-Car-Salesman-In-Chief found out.
But in the meantime I do not support a powerful, statewide union with professional negotiators, and the threat of crippling strikes, picking off towns and steamrolling local volunteer schoolboards into giving them benefits that those of us who are paying for it, do not get.
Thanks.