The Senate General Affairs Committee voted 5-1 to recommend allowing all Vermonters, regardless of their employer's benefit plan, to take the 12 weeks to which they are entitled when they have a new child. Many do not take advantage of the leave, advocates argue, because they simply cannot afford to take the time without pay. But opponents say the proposal is too potentially expensive and they fear that majority Democrats are aiming to pay for the program through the unemployment insurance fund. Debate in the State House hallways and backrooms has been intense over the issue and it now is expected to intensify as the bill moves through the Finance and Appropriations committees and eventually goes before the full Senate.
Proponents frame the debate as an attempt to help families.
We have heard truly compelling testimony from young parents about how difficult it is to have a new member of the family and only have a couple of weeks before both parents have to be back at work. The plan calls for both a mother and a father to be given up to 12 weeks each of paid leave, which would be funneled through the unemployment system. Similar to that system, they would get paid about half their normal salary. Democrats initially wanted to use the unemployment fund, an insurance plan into which companies pay to cover the pay of workers when they have to be laid off. But that failed in the General Affairs Committee and senators decided to tap the general fund, which covers the basic spending for state government.