VSEA All-Member Appreciation Day Event Is July 29!

VSEA’s Membership Recruitment Committee is inviting VSEA members from across the state to attend a special “All-Member Appreciation Day” event on Saturday, July 29, at Elmore State Park off Route 12 in Elmore.

VSEA will fire up the barbeque at noon, and members are welcome to spend the day enjoying the lake, hiking trails or any of the park’s other outdoor activities.

To ensure VSEA has enough food on hand for the event, please RSVP to this event by Friday, July 14. Learn more about this event or RSVP online here. You can also email your RSVP, including the number of people in your party, to VSEA Administrative Assistant Sue Devoid at sdevoid@vsea.org.

Note: WIA was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Lamoille Valley’s Chapter Annual Meeting at Lake Elmore in 2016, and the setting is gorgeous and there are a lot of activities for people of all ages. Nice place to spend a day.

Submit Your 2017 VSEA Annual Meeting Award Nominations Online Today!

It’s time again to submit your nominations for a 2017 VSEA Outstanding Performance Award in the following categories:

1. VSEA Chapter of the Year;
2. VSEA Steward of the Year;
3. The Frank A. Mazza Memorial Award — For Outstanding Service to VSEA;
4. The Terence D. Macaig Award — For Outstanding Public Service; and
5. The Linda Coan Memorial Award — Outstanding VSEA Staff Member

Submit your nominations online here. The deadline to submit nominations is Tuesday, August 8, by close of business.

VSEA’s Special Events Committee is urging members to give some thought to each of these awards and if you know of a deserving state employee—or a deserving Chapter—then please don’t hesitate to submit your nomination(s).

Winners will be announced at VSEA’s Annual Meeting banquet on
September 9 in Stowe.

Did You Receive Your Electronic Ballot To Vote In Upcoming VSEA Trustee Election?

All eligible VSEA members (except those who requested a paper ballot) should have received an email this week from vote@simplyvoting.com containing your electronic ballot to vote in the VSEA Trustees’ election. “Eligible” member refers to whether or not the member belongs to one of the Units where a seat is being contested or belongs to a Chapter in a region where a vote is being conducted (i.e. District 4 seat represents Chittenden, Addison and the Franklin/Grand Isle region, so VSEA members belonging to the Chittenden, Addison and Franklin/Grand Isle Chapters should have received a ballot).

Very important! Your electronic ballot was sent to both the home and work email address that VSEA currently has on file for you. If you do not recall receiving an email from vote@simplyvoting.com on June 20, please look in your “Other” or “Spam” folders before contacting headquarters to request that your ballot be reissued.

Reminder: VSEA is sending ballots to members’ home and work email address, provided the union has your correct home and work email address. This is a big reason why WIA is constantly soliciting members to contact VSEA with your updated email address. You can update your contact information here anytime.

Vermont Teachers Blast Secrecy & Result Of This Week’s “Deal” Between The State & Lawmakers To Force Contractual Savings

The Vermont National Education Association (VTNEA) wasted little time issuing a statement on June 21 that was not kind to a “deal” reached this week (in secret) between the State and legislative leaders that will adversely impact teachers’ bargaining for years to come. This is because this “deal,” according to the VTNEA, “will make it harder for local school boards and local educators to reach contract settlements.

“The compromise made…between legislative leaders and [the State] is what you’d expect in a backroom deal that comes about when the [State] threatens a DC-style government shutdown,” VTNEA President Martha Allen says in the release. “The deal is bad for local school boards, is bad for local educators and alters decades of successful negotiations between locally accountable school board members and the women and men who work for them.”

The VTNEA release continues:

“The deal sets ‘benchmarks’ for health insurance cost-sharing that affects state aid to local schools; it has the potential to further delay negotiations that have been in the works for months; it reopens all health insurance agreements again in 2019; and it erodes local control. The deal, however, will not affect school boards who have already ratified contracts or reached tentative agreements with local educators.

For 50 years, locally elected boards and local educators have worked together to build a public-school system that is among the very best in the nation,” Allen said. “Sadly, that 50-year – and 5,000-contract – history of success is threatened today by this backroom agreement between the governor and legislative leaders.”

Read full VTNEA press release

How The “Deal” Will Work

From the Rutland Herald:

“The [teachers’] benchmark plan will be the gold-level Consumer Driven Health Plan offered by the Vermont Education Health Initiative, with teachers covering 20 percent of premiums and school districts covering 80 percent. The Agency of Education will determine what districts spent on health care for teachers and support staff in fiscal year 2017 and speculate on what should be spent in fiscal 2018 based on teachers and staff utilizing the benchmark plan, plus an additional 5 percent cost cushion.

The State will then withhold 65 percent of the projected savings from schools in fiscal 2018 and 35 percent of the savings in fiscal 2019. The total savings for property taxpayers is expected to be $8.5 million in 2018 and $4.5 million in 2019. Districts that do not negotiate health care contracts with teachers that achieve the savings identified by the Agency of Education will be force to cut their budgets elsewhere to account for the reduced payments from the state.”

And We’re Back… Reminder Of What’s In The Budget Of Importance To VSEA Members

It’s been a while since lawmakers nearly unanimously passed a budget that was vetoed by the State over teachers’ health care, so WIA wants to remind VSEA members about what’s in the budget for you (first reported in mid-May).

In the budget are:

• Pay Act – The FY18 Pay Act is fully funded, ensuring departments will NOT be expected to “eat” a portion of the Pay Act by absorbing the cost of the contractual 2.25% cost-of-living-adjustment scheduled for July and step increases throughout the fiscal year. Additionally, $1.9 million has been allocated for Executive Branch reclassifications;

• Docket Clerks – The Judiciary reclassification for Docket Clerks, Court Officers and Court Room Operators is fully funded, including $324,000 for retroactive pay increases to December 15, 2016;

• Vermont State Colleges –
  A substantial 12.5%, $3 million, increase in base funding for the Vermont State Colleges. While the increase is not the $4 million the Colleges had requested, the appropriation will assist to shore up the institutions’ troubled finances and help correct decades of underfunding. Furthermore, the budget includes $880,000 in one-time money to assist in the merger of Lyndon and Johnson State Colleges into Northern Vermont University. The fight for increased funding for the Vermont State Colleges will continue next year; this is a significant step in the right direction.

• New Authorized Positions –
  The budget authorizes one classified Microbiologist in the Agency of Agriculture, two classified Tax Examiners in the Department of Taxes, and three limited-service Security Guards in the Department of Military. The budget also extends the position-pilot program, which allows cost-neutral conversions of contractors, temporary employees and overtime into classified positions without approval by the General Assembly, to the Department of Public Safety. The Department of Corrections budget includes the conversion of twenty-nine (29) temporary correctional officers into full-time classified correctional officers;

• Liquor Control Privatization – Language to preclude the State from enacting its proposed privatization of the state’s Liquor Warehouse for the duration of FY18. Legislation was adopted to create a plan for the eventual merger of liquor and lottery, but this plan would still need to be approved by the Legislature;

• Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center – The FY18 Budget assumes that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will restore funding to Woodside half way through the fiscal year. If funding is not restored, language in the budget directs the Department for Children and Families to produce a report on the fiscal impact and a plan to suspend operations at Woodside after accommodations have been found for the delinquent youth currently housed there;

• Southeast State Correctional Facility (A.K.A. Windsor
  Work Camp) – The budget does NOT include the State’s proposal to permanently close Southeast State Correctional Facility. However, the SESCF will close for six months for renovations, after which the facility will be repurposed as a re-entry facility for inmates who are soon to be released into the community. The Department of Corrections will present a plan on the repurposing of Windsor by November 1, 2017. The proposal includes language for employees who work at SESCF on or after November 1, 2017, which extends the Reduction in Force reemployment rights period beyond the contractual 2 years for these employees who have not found state employment during that period, and extends the geographic area allowing these employees to RIF solely into vacant positions at any State correctional facility that management intends to fill. The budget also provides a one-time mandatory offer of re-employment to these same employees at the re-purposed facility in Windsor when it reopens;

• Department of Labor/ Agency of Commerce Merger – Includes language to prohibit the State from merging the Department of Labor with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, by precluding the transfer of positions and their underlying appropriations. Legislation outside of the budget creates a study committee, composed of 7 members of the Workforce Investment Board and one member of the Labor community, that is charged with coming up with a variety of options, including the possibility of all programs staying within the DOL.

• Vermont Life Magazine – The budget includes language instructing the Agency of Commerce and Community Development to issue an RFP for the sale of Vermont Life magazine, with the goal of recouping the mounting $3.2 million of debt the magazine owes the State’s General Fund. This language was improved during the budget process to not preclude the Agency from bidding on the continued operation of Vermont Life, so long as the magazine operations are funded by the Agency of Commerce by FY19. It is our understanding that the State prefers the latter option;

• Electronic Monitoring –
  The budget includes authorization for the Commissioner of Corrections to establish a more robust electronic monitoring program for home detainees and offenders on home confinement. The language allows DOC to consult with the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs to enter into an agreement to electronically monitor offender positioning. DOC will continue to provide enforcement for home confinement and may now also provide that enforcement for detainees in conjunction with sheriffs in some capacity; and the
• Vermont Veteran’s Home –
  VVH received a $300,000 reduction in funding. $260,000.00 of this cut was a result of erroneous and outdated information provided by the management. The other $40,000.00 is anticipated savings from purchasing medications through the VA.

With A New Mandate To Cut Budgets, VT Public Assets Institute Says There’s A
Better Way

Public Assets Institute (PAI) Policy Analyst Jack Hoffman penned a commentary in today’s Rutland Herald, titled “Weighing Budget Options.” It reads, in part:

“Do people really want reduced public services? That’s the question Montpelier should be asking Vermonters if the economists conclude that revenue will drop off next year. Vermonters need to hear what services or programs the state will curtail. And they deserve to hear the options for increasing revenues if they decide they want to maintain current services.

Ideally, the state would have this kind of discussion each fall, when the [State] is beginning to draw up its budget plans. We would have a current services budget, which the [State] published in greater detail this year than previous administrations had. It is an estimate of the cost of delivering all of the services the State is obligated or committed to provide. We would get the [State]’s budget, which is the amount the administration proposes to spend. And where the [State]’s budget falls short of what’s needed to meet [its] commitments, we’d get an accounting of how the reduced budget will affect specific programs and services.”

Note: PAI has consistently (and rightfully) opposed the State and lawmakers’ repeatedly asking for cuts to public services and jobs.

New Audit, New Findings Of Gross Negligence On The State’s Part When It
Comes To Accountability

And Still They Ask For
More Cuts…

For years, the Auditor’s Office has been uncovering cases where there is almost zero accountability for how taxpayer dollars are being spent and what outcomes are resulting from these investments. VTDigger reports this week on a new audit that finds the State paid nearly $25 million to cover overrun costs associated with State building projects–and, surprise, there is very little accountability for why those dollars were spent. Building projects are administered by Buildings and General Services (BGS).

Because of BGS’s inconsistent tracking system,” [Auditor Doug Hoffer] tells Digger, it was difficult for members of his team doing the audit even to find the full cost of the projects.

‘The practical effect is, no accountability,’ Hoffer emphasizes."

Note: VSEA believes that it’s past time for lawmakers to demand that the State get its own house in order before allowing even one new 2% to 4% budget cut to be adopted. The Auditor’s Office has identified too many areas where taxpayer money is being wasted (sometimes millions) or there is no accounting for the funds being expended.

Lawmakers Voice Intention To Put New Agency Of Digital Services Under A Microscope

Seven Days published a story this week about lawmakers’ decision this session to green light a State proposal to abolish the Department of Information and Innovation (DII) and replace it with the Agency of Digital Services (ADS). According to the story, a big reason lawmakers adopted the proposal was their frustration with DII’s ability to produce the kind of data that legislators wanted to see; things like number of employees or how much money is being spent.

“I’m hoping this is not an exercise in rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” Rep. Maida Townsend (D-South Burlington) tells the paper. The State is promising that the change will instead result in “a more coordinated and accountable approach to managing the state’s IT infrastructure.” A state-employed software developer tells 7Days that his colleagues are approaching the transition with "cautious ambivalence."

Lawmakers are mandating the ADS to deliver a detailed implementation plan, updated information about the transition affects employees and state finances, and regular progress reports.

ADS’ new commissioner says he believes the workforce is split down the middle on whether or not the new agency will live up to the hype.

Note: Given the millions of taxpayer dollars that several agencies and departments have wasted on failed IT projects, VSEA hopes that whatever ADS reorganization is occurring includes enhanced contract oversight and accountability
for dollars spent.

Waterbury Chapter Meeting On June 26!

The VSEA Waterbury Chapter is holding its next meeting on Monday, June 26, from 12:00 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Mountain Ash Room inside the Waterbury State Office Complex.

Mark this date also! The Waterbury Chapter is hosting an Employee Appreciation Day event on Friday, July 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Fox CC Atrium inside the Waterbury State Office Complex. Stop by during your lunch break for treats and VSEA giveaway items.

Springfield Chapter Meeting June 28!

Please RSVP to this meeting here!

Join Us Again For… VSEA NASCAR
DAY 2017!

Sunday, September 24, 2017

New England 300 – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, NH

Low $80 price gets you:

• A Premium Ticket; and
• Transportation by Lamoille Valley Transportation*

Full payment must be submitted to VSEA by Friday, August 25.

To make your reservation, please submit this online form here!

A VSEA chartered-bus pickup schedule will be announced soon!

Questions?
Please feel free to contact VSEA Union Representative Bob South by email at bsouth@vsea.org

Visit the New Hampshire Motor Speedway Website here

Vermont Workers Make Top 10 In Nation For NOT Using Vacation Time

In the past few years, several news outlets have reported that Americans are notoriously bad at taking the vacation time they have accrued. Statistics show that nearly 54% of Americans do not use all their vacation time, and Vermonters are actually in the nation’s top 10 in terms of workers not taking their vacation.

A new study from Project Time Off determined this about New England states:

#10 Vermont

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 64%
• Vacation Days Left Unused: $1.3 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $777 million

#2 New Hampshire

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 77%
• Vacation Days Left Unused: $2.7 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $552 million

#22 Connecticut

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 55%
• Vacation Days Left Unused: $6.5 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $854 million

#24 Massachusetts

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 55%
• Vacation Days Left Unused:
  $15.6 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $3.0 billion

#25 New York

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 54%
• Vacation Days Left Unused:
  $38.1 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $10.1 billion

#50 Maine

• Percent Leaving Vacation
  Time Unused: 38%
• Vacation Days Left Unused: $2.6 million
• Direct Spending Potential of Unused Days: $700 million

VSEA Insurance Benefits Enrollment
In South Burlington and Colchester
In July

Learn More Or Schedule An Appointment Today!

R.K. Tongue Announces Insurance Carrier Change

The letter reads, in part: “All insured members currently participating in the United States Life Group Long Term Disability Income program and not receiving Disability benefits on August 31, 2017, will transfer to MetLife with no change to rates, (unless you are scheduled for an age change increase that will move you to the next 5-year band of rates) and if under these plans you attain an age that benefits are scheduled to reduce (as indicated in the United States Life certificate of insurance). There may be minor differences or variations between the plans from the different insurance companies.”

Read R.K. Tongue Letter Here

To help VSEA more effectively reach active members—and really all those members who want to know what’s going on in their union—VSEA will be working hard in the coming months to collect members’ emails on its own and begin to build contact lists that cannot be altered by a State download.

You can help us get started by clicking here and signing up for the VSEA communications you are interested in receiving.

Thank you in advance for subscribing. Please urge your colleagues to do the same.