Rep. Helen Head, D-South Burlington, received VBSR’s 2016 Legislator of the Year award for her work in helping pass paid leave and “ban the box” laws. The latter prevents employers from asking about criminal histories in the initial phase of the application process.
Those were key achievements for Democrats during the last session, and Head was instrumental in their passage through her role as chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs, where both pieces of legislation originated.
Dan Barlow, VBSR public policy manager, praised Head for having an open door and orchestrating a fair and transparent process in her committee.
Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, who addressed the gathering, appeared to suggest there was sexism at play in Head’s hard work flying under the radar.
“If Helen Head was a man, I tell you she would be considered for one of the top statewide jobs, because Helen is one of those people who quietly goes about actually trying to change the world from her perch” as a committee chair, Ashe said.
“Her accomplishments so far surpass so many other people who have received so much recognition that I just wanted to express that to you,” Ashe said.
Ashe said afterward that regardless of whether it’s a result of her gender or her bearing, Head is conspicuously absent from the ubiquitous political conversations about who’s next in line for what, despite her effectiveness as a lawmaker.
Head, who has served in the House since 2003, said passing “ban the box” and paid leave laws were major accomplishments but ones that “took a team.” She thanked her committee members and legislative colleagues, especially outgoing House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown.
After hearing testimony in February from a VBSR member with a criminal record on the importance of second chances and a CEO on his positive experience hiring people with criminal backgrounds, even skeptical business leaders “saw the moral imperative” and got behind the proposal, Head said.
As for paid leave, that was a “longer haul,” Head said, noting that a decade elapsed between its first introduction as legislation and the bill’s passage this year.
“There’s no question that bill was made possible by the business community coming together and finding a way forward,” Head said.
‘Freaked out’ over federal funding
Ashe is to become Senate president when the Legislature convenes. He told the assembled business and nonprofit leaders Thursday that he attended a recent national conference with the secretaries of many health and human service agencies from around the country.
In particular, proposals to pay for Medicaid using block grants, something Republicans in Congress have long favored, are viewed across the political spectrum at the state level, according to Ashe, as a harbinger of “massive reductions in federal support to provide care to the elderly, the disabled and the low-income.”
“In Vermont, if we were to lose $100 million or $200 million in federal support, all the conversations we’re having here today would be compromised,” Ashe said.
Every decision made by Vermont lawmakers in the coming session will have to take into account the question marks raised by a Trump administration, Ashe said. That uncertainty is compounded because the federal budgeting process doesn’t align with Vermont’s.
The federal fiscal year goes from October to September, while the state fiscal year goes from July to June. That means the Legislature will be operating under the last Obama administration budget even as it tries to tease out what to expect from the first Trump administration budget, Ashe said.
Regardless of that uncertainty, Ashe made clear Thursday that a priority for him will be reining in health care costs. That is underscored by his hiring of longtime affordable care advocate Peter Sterling as his Senate staffer.
“This is what I’d call my low-grade obsession,” said Ashe, who as Senate Finance Committee chair has reviewed taxes and fees with a fine-toothed comb for several years. “I believe the health care industry as a whole has been growing at a pace that puts all the other tax and fee discussions in the Vermont Legislature for years — makes them look rinky-dink.”
Health care spending in Vermont has grown from $2 billion in 2000 to $6 billion in 2016, Ashe said. That increase is not the fault of any single hospital, health care provider or insurance company, he said, but that growth is squeezing government spending in every other area.
“Frankly we need to engage the business community in helping us communicate to the administration that a dollar of health care spending in excess of what it needs to be is no different than a dollar of taxes in excess of what it needs to be,” Ashe said.
VBSR lays out its lobbying agenda
Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility is a statewide nonprofit trade organization focused on “people, profit and planet.” Its 760 members employ 14 percent of Vermont’s workforce, according to its website. The organization is a fixture in the Statehouse, bringing in members to testify and lobbying on a range of issues.
In the coming session VBSR will focus on legislation it says will make it easier to employ independent contractors and to work as one while maintaining safeguards for workers.
Heather Wright, of the employment law firm Wright Jones, said advocates hope to persuade lawmakers to adopt federal Department of Labor standards for defining independent contractors to provide greater clarity.
VBSR also will focus on state procurement practices to direct more contracts to companies that pay living wages and offer good benefits, so the state isn’t hiring firms whose employees still need public assistance.
Making child care more affordable and cleaning up Lake Champlain also will top the list for VBSR, members said.
