VSEA video legislative update from VSEA Legislative Coordinator, Tom Abdelnour, and VSEA Strategic Analyst, Adam Norton. Watch on YouTube
Medicare (Dis)Advantage State House Day
On Wednesday, dozens of members of VSEA Retirees’ Chapter members participated in an-all day event at the State House to send a loud and clear message that they will not accept being forced into a Medicare Advantage plan. Retirees testified in front of the House and Senate Committees on Government Operations to express their opposition to the Governor’s proposal, and to ask that legislative leaders pass additional language to ensure the Governor cannot make such a change. In an informal straw poll last week, the members of the Senate Government Operations committee unanimously agreed that they would support language of this type.
Retirees also held a press conference where they spoke about their concerns about Medicare Advantage and were joined by recent retiree and former Secretary of State Jim Condos and Dr. Marvin Malek, who both expressed their opposition and pointed out the many flaws of Medicare Advantage. Afterward, retirees delivered a letter to the Governor’s Ceremonial Office, calling on him to rescind his proposal.
That evening, dozens of legislators and members participated in a lively legislative dinner where legislative allies detailed their efforts to stop the proposal, and retirees spoke to the impact that Medicare Advantage would have on them and their families.
You can read a VTDigger story on the day’s events here.
Fighting Back on Corrections Staffing
Both this week and last week, Executive Director Steve Howard delivered compelling, powerful testimony in the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions where he shared the human toll of the staffing crisis on our members both in Vermont’s correctional facilities and in the field, and pushed back on the Department’s previous claims that their attempts to address the crisis had achieved great success, sharing member stories of their experiences.
You can view Steve’s testimony at this link.
108 Cherry Street
VSEA will be in conversation with its members who work at 108 Cherry St. to discuss the Administration’s proposal to sell that building, move most employees of the Department of Health in that space to Waterbury, and other relocate public-facing staff in that building to leased spaces in Chittenden County. VSEA will testify in front of the House Corrections and Institutions Committee on this topic after those conversations.
Budget
This week, the House Appropriations Committee heard testimony on from Agency of Human Services (Secretary’s Office), Department of Health, Department of Corrections, Department of Vermont Health Access, Department of Public Service, Department of Human Resources, Department of Disability, Aging and Independent Living, Department for Children and Families, Department of Mental Health, and the Agency of Digital Services. Statewide, the state workforce is experiencing significant vacancies in state positions. In fact, the vacancy rate has more than doubled in the past five years, from 6% to over 12% on average. In some departments, this requires state government to mandate inhumane amounts of overtime, which further exacerbates problems with employee retention. In other areas, like VVH and DMH, the lack of state employees has required the state to employee contract staff such as traveling nurses to supplement the state workforce at a significant cost. The Appropriations Committee has expressed concern about how the number of vacancies is impacting the public services Vermonters rely on, and to question whether Vermont’s compensation and classification systems are keeping up with the current labor market. The unprecedented number of requests DHR has received for hiring into range, class-action reclassifications and market factor adjustments suggests that the compensation is inadequate, and the classification system is outdated.
DCF’s budget required several hours of testimony just to review the basics between all the policy initiatives and moving parts. New initiatives include increasing funding for adult daycare, nearly doubling state funding for childcare subsidies, reverting to pre-pandemic rules for emergency housing, and the state’s new Reach Ahead pilot program. The Governor’s proposal to nearly double state funding for childcare subsidies is, however, many legislators and advocates contend it’s insufficient to address the scope of them problem, affordability, and capacity of childcare in Vermont. There will be significant debate over the emergency housing programs and how they will look in the future with far more individuals and families experiencing homelessness, relative to prior to the pandemic, and the ending of federal funding to support programs aimed at addressing homelessness. DCF has also proposed hiring contract staff to assist family service workers in caring for justice-involved youth prior to their placement in an appropriate facility (this problem was the consequence of closing Woodside with no plan for replacement in the short-term).
DCF also proposed converting Centralized Intake and Emergency Services temporary employees into full-time classified jobs (due to the inefficiency of repeatedly training new temps to perform a continuing and ongoing function of state government). Legislators also expressed concern about the expiration of the federally mandated “maximum allotments” for 3-Squares recipients in March, at a time where food inflation is still very high.
See Also:
FY24 State Budget: Largest In The History of Vermont
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