In the second episode of the TNR video series “Travels with Charlie – Vermont Politics in Real Life,” host Charlie Papillo visits Chef’s Corner Cafe and Bakery in Williston to discuss raising the minimum wage and paid family leave with Chef Jozef Harrewyn and Democratic state Rep. Dylan Giambatista.
House lawmakers on Friday voted to adjourn the 2019 legislative session and to reconvene in 2020 as they ended the year by failing to pass the top agenda items of the majority party: paid family leave and a $15 minimum wage.
The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs spent Thursday morning going over the two paid leave programs competing for approval in Vermont, and expressing a preference for the one that requires new taxes.
The Senate Development, Housing, and General Affairs Committee on Thursday heard from three more witnesses regarding paid family leave, and two of them urged lawmakers not to make the program mandatory.
Paid leave advocates are faced with two options that would harm Vermonters in different ways. But there is a third option: reject paid family leave.
House lawmakers last week passed the universal paid family leave bill by a 92-52 vote, shunning amendments that would have eased the impact on taxpayers and allowed Vermonters who can’t afford the program to opt out.
Several RFIs have been returned by major national insurance companies, and so far the estimates for cost and service are within range of what was originally anticipated.
The responding companies were Standard Insurance Co., Hartford Financial Services, Total Administrative Services Corp., ReedGroup, Anthem, MetLife and Sun Life Financial.
The planned program contrasts sharply with Sununu’s proposed Twin States Voluntary Leave Plan, which seeks to create a pool of state workers in New Hampshire and Vermont large enough to appeal to private insurers.
This seems like an odd policy priority for a state that already boasts one of the heaviest tax burdens in the United States, and for a liberal state that is ostensibly looking out for the poor.
The total estimated annual price tag is $106 million. This number does not include start-up costs, and is potentially underestimating the ongoing administrative costs, perhaps significantly.
Vermont Democrats’ and Progressives’ first priority is to pass a mandatory, government-run paid family leave program that will require a new payroll tax. This proposal demonstrates exactly why Vermont is an unaffordable, unfriendly place to live and do business.