Utah senators avoided two days of debate and quickly signed off on House Bill 213 Friday, voting along party lines to effectively end a 20-year program that allows state workers to trade accumulated sick leave for medical benefits at retirement.
The measure already has passed the House and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is expected to sign it.
Wayne Bulkley, a corrections worker, said part-time lawmakers are out of touch with the needs of their employees.
"The money for [medical benefits] was a factor more than anything else," he said. Some estimates show about 300 Corrections employees could be forced to retire this year rather than lose years of medical benefits. "When you have a part-time Legislature that only lives it for a few months, they're a little bit distant from the impact the laws create."
Right now, retiring state workers can trade eight hours of sick leave for one month of medical benefits. But at the beginning of next year, about 25,000 employees will be required to deposit 25 percent of the value of their "banked" sick leave in a 401(k) account. The rest could be traded for medical benefits, but at a reduced rate. The program will end entirely in 2014.
Republican lawmakers insist they have to start phasing the program out this year. New government accounting rules will force the state to list the cost of the sick leave benefit - estimated at $240 million - on state books. Supporters of the change claim the liability could endanger the state's triple-A bond rating.
"None of us like to do what we have to do," said Logan GOP Sen. Lyle Hillyard. "We are simply protecting ourselves."
Democrats have protested the bill throughout the 2005 Legislature. And Friday, they argued for more time to try to soften the impact on state workers.
"How would you all feel if you had been promised something and suddenly, the rug was pulled out from under you?" asked Murray Democratic Sen. Patrice Arent.
West Valley City Sen. Ed Mayne, called the benefit a "covenant" with state workers and tried to delay the implementation date to allow lawmakers to consider the change during one more legislative session. The amendment failed.
