Thank you! Because of your messages H.81 passed the House General and House Appropriations Committee this week, without the major re-write pushed by Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) and Gov. Scott on "cost-containment". Next Tuesday we expect H.81 to come up for a vote of the full House of Representatives.  

Please contact you legislator in the coming days and ask them to vote YES on H.81 as passed by House General!  VSBA is asking legislators to oppose H.81 since they were unsuccessful in their attempt to tip the statewide healthcare bargaining process in their favor.

H.81, introduced by Rep. Maida Townsend, is technical, simple, but important.

• If the legislature does not act on this quickly it will guarantee that the lowest paid school workers will see a significant increase in their premium and out of pocket costs in the next round of statewide healthcare bargaining and will force them to pay the same as a 30 year teacher, a principal, or a superintendent.
• It is important to remember that making this small technical change would not cost anything; it merely allows school support staff to have a fair and equal seat at the negotiating table when their health insurance is being bargained.
• H.81 is a collective bargaining bill, not a health care policy bill. Health care costs are unsustainable for all Vermonters. If the legislature wants to deal with out of control health care costs they should do that for everyone. H.81, and statewide health care bargaining for school employees, is simply not the place to do this.
• The statewide healthcare bargaining law, as passed in 2018, already requires the arbitrator to consider the "the financial ability of the Education Fund and school districts across the State to pay for the costs of health care benefits and coverage". Any additional language is not only unnecessary but would do nothing to moderate the out of control increases in health care costs for all Vermonters.

Please email your State Representative TODAY and ask them to vote YES on H.81 as passed by the House General Committee!