A special session for state workers and teachers healthcare?
Governor Fletcher seems to be passing the buck. For the first time ever, a special session has been called to deal with an issue that is exclusively the responsibility of the governor. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. How much of the insurance rate increases have been finalized? Is there really any room to negotiate left or does the legislative session indicate that the Governor heads a sinking ship and wants to take others down with him?
Now that he has called the session, will Governor Fletcher give the legislature the information they need to assist him in the difficult task ahead? Let us hope that the administration has not finalized the various contracts and that the legislature can work together in a bi-partisan way. With the well being of thousands of public employees hanging in the balance we will be praying for more cooperation that we witnessed during the general session. But teachers and other state workers shouldn't hold their breath. It might damage their health...and, well...we know how cooperative the governor has been with the legislature this year and how eager the parties have been to work together on a budget.
Now that he has called the session, will Governor Fletcher give the legislature the information they need to assist him in the difficult task ahead? Let us hope that the administration has not finalized the various contracts and that the legislature can work together in a bi-partisan way. With the well being of thousands of public employees hanging in the balance we will be praying for more cooperation that we witnessed during the general session. But teachers and other state workers shouldn't hold their breath. It might damage their health...and, well...we know how cooperative the governor has been with the legislature this year and how eager the parties have been to work together on a budget.
posted by Gwen Mayo | 11:30 AM
2 Comments:
My vote is on the sinking ship. To be fair, he did inherit some of his problems from GWB, who has run our economy into the ground. But Fletcher should have reined his own party in during the 04 legislative session and forced the KY Gen @ss to work on the damned budget instead of ways to get re-elected. He should have called the special session long before the current problem to work on our state's finances.
I agree on the part about the health insurance the teachers/city workers get: I worked for the city of Lexington for about 8 years and got great health care. The pay, however, was lousy (so were the retirement benefits, come to think of it). Removing one of the few advantages the job has left is going to lead to fewer teachers, especially ones who have their OWN children to consider.
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