Teachers take Chun, state to task

PUHI – Some teachers Wednesday night called a proposed change to their health benefits plan part of “a continued assault on teachers.”

A lively exchange between teachers, state Sen. Jonathan Chun, and state and contract health-plan administrators, brought forth comments from teachers critical of both the timing and intent of legislation passed just as teachers came off of strike around a year ago.

Passing legislation which will lump all state and county employees under one worker-benefit package without working out many of the details is like building a house without blueprints, said Annette Oda, a teacher at Wilcox Elementary School.

How dare the state government tell teachers that it has a huge budget shortfall and propose to raid Hawai’i State Teacher Association voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA) trust funds to help balance the budget? she asked.

Neal Miyahira, director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, said combining state and county employees under one benefit plan would save the state money, give it more clout when negotiating with insurance companies for rates and benefits, and ensure people working at, say, a public school, who are members of three different employee unions, get the same benefit opportunities.

But the teachers, who pointed out that no Kaua’i public hearing had been held on what is now Act 88, a law that created the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, largely agreed that they are being serviced very well by their existing benefits plan and negotiators.

“I want to keep my plan,” said Pat Hunter-Williams, a teacher at Kapa’a Elementary School.

Act 88 ended 17 years of allowing unions to set up their own plans, and came after the legislative auditor warned the state’s health plan would soar to a cost of $1 billion annually by 2013.

Another teacher said under the combined state proposal he will have to pay $300 more a month for health insurance. At a time when the state should be trying its best to recruit and retain teachers, a proposal like the combined trust fund could be detrimental to efforts to hire and keep teachers, he said.

” ‘Negotiation’ is a dirty word right now,” said a Waimea High School teacher, adding that HSTA members are still battling to be given wages and benefits negotiated with the state before, during and after last school year’s strike.

Another teacher said that her children in college currently get medical coverage, but there is a chance those benefits will either be unavailable or more expensive to her under the combined proposal.

The same teacher also said the combined fund must have money to adequately cover retiree benefits, as the retirees are the ones who need the benefits and over the years paid their dues.

“I’m still waiting for my contract,” she said.

Around 65 people, mostly teachers, attended the briefing on the public employee trust fund law, held in the cafeteria of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School in Puhi.

Miyahira said health funds as they exist now were going to single-handedly bust the state budget, so fixes had to be sought.

But Oda and others argued that cutting government waste would help to balance the budget. She also asked why after several years of state budget surpluses state government suddenly finds itself scrambling to cover a projected $300 million budget shortfall.

Miyahira said Sept. 11 came and brought budget woes with it.

“You can’t just blame everything on 9-11,” said Oda, adding that the state economy was already slowing down before the terrorist events.

Miyahira countered that the state is paying much more for benefits than it needs to, while asking in nearly the same breath that the HSTA join the combined health-benefits program he called “dysfunctional.”

“We still want the choice” of having a separate VEBA, the current benefits plan or the combined trust proposal, said another teacher.

“Just leave us alone, please,” said teacher Kevin Nunn.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).