Addison Central teachers protest proposed pension changes

MIDDLEBURY | The opinion of Vermont teachers is resounding: they feel sandbagged by state legislators as well as by state Treasurer Beth Pearce. A proposed bill in the Vermont House places a multi-billion dollar shortfall in the pension system squarely on the shoulders of teachers and state employees. The Vermont Initial Pension Proposal draft is designed to address the structural challenges facing Vermont's state employee and teacher retirement systems by reducing future liabilities, increasing the pension system assets, and relieving budgetary pressures to improve the state's long-term fiscal health. Unfunded liabilities in Vermont's pension system have finally set off the nuclear-core meltdown klaxons in Montpelier. And the news isn't good: it's set to explode over $600 million next year. According to many, including John Pelletier, director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College in Burlington, policy options are limited. Pelletier was a key voice in proposing the reforms; he is a member of the Vermont Business Roundtable's Pension Reform Task Force. "I strongly agree with Treasurer Pearce that something must be done this year to address the issues created by the large and growing unfunded liabilities of these systems and to put these plans on a clear path toward long-term sustainability and affordability," he told the House Government Operations Committee March 17. Teachers and other state workers may understand the extent of the crisis but they appear unwilling to be the public sector's Judas goat. As soon as classes ended March 30, teachers of the Addison Central School District grabbed their pre-printed and handmade protest posters to line the sidewalks along Court Street (U.S. Route 7) outside Middlebury Union High School. Amid the honking automobile and truck horns of passersby hurrying home during the local rush hour, the message of the protest was clear: Don't mess with our pension plan. Bjarki Sears, a social studies teacher at MUHS, led the Middlebury protest rally against Montpelier's Initial Pension Proposal. "We teachers feel we've paid every penny that's ever been asked of us from Montpelier. But what the legislators are asking from us now is unreasonable," he told The Sun-Vermont Eagle edition. "They want us to work longer, pay more in, and make less income. They are demanding this in the middle of a pandemic. We feel hurt and scared about our future." Sears' opinion echoed the voices of other teachers standing on the sidewalk. "We feel betrayed," a teacher said, wishing to remain anonymous. "We didn't create this problem." Rob Roper, president of the Ethan Allen Institute, a free-market think tank in Montpelier, wrote a recent online commentary about the issue; it neatly sums up the dilemma facing House leaders. "Vermont now has a $4.5 billion unfunded public pension liability for teachers and municipal workers. The politicians who created this problem are slow (stationary, actually) to take up the task of fixing this because the numbers are huge, and telling someone they're going to have to suck it up and pay does not promise to be a politically popular activity. But who should take the hit? Taxpayers or union members? Actually, morally speaking, neither...," he stated March 5. "The reason we're in this mess is that the politicians charged with building and maintaining the pension system chronically underfunded it on the one hand, and on the other engaged in some book-cooking by making blatantly unrealistic estimates on investment returns, which led to further underfunding." The local teachers' protest, along with others held across the state last week, had a clear effect on lawmakers in Montpelier. On April 2, House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) made the decision to put the unfunded liability proposal on hold for the time being. However, the massive pension shortfall problem is not going away and the funding gap will continue to increase as time goes on. Vermont Treasurer Beth Pearce, who supports reforms, responded to Krowinski's tabled discussion April 2. "I am disappointed that state leadership was unable to reach consensus on a plan to address the unfunded pension and retiree health care benefit liabilities," she noted. "That being said, I want to acknowledge the difficult conversations that have been held to date by all parties. While I recognize that any required benefit changes will be painful, we cannot afford to delay action."

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Addison Central teachers protest proposed pension changes

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