Scott had notified lawmakers that he planned to veto tax and budget bills that the House and Senate adopted at the end of last week, and called for a special session to work out differences between the Republican administration and the Democratic-majority legislature. Scott has insisted on no tax or fee increases; the legislature’s tax bill includes a 2.6 cent hike in the homestead property tax rate.
Scott said he will issue a formal declaration by late Friday, calling lawmakers into special session. But he didn’t offer any resistance to House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero), who asserted that the legislature would operate by its normal rules, and the tax and budget questions would be discussed only in open sessions.
The governor had hoped to hold a series of meetings with legislative leaders before the special session begins, to work out agreements on taxes and spending. But Johnson and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) stood firm that there would be no pre-session talks on the issues, just on process and logistics. (Ashe did not attend the meeting; he and his leadership team will sit down with the administration on Monday.)
That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Robin Chesnut-Tangerman (P-Middletown Springs), leader of the House Progressive caucus. “Last year, the negotiations felt very exclusive,” he said. “We want to be as transparent as possible, with committee discussions in open session.”
Next Wednesday’s session is likely to be a one-day affair, followed by adjournment for the Memorial Day weekend. Many lawmakers, Johnson observed, had already made plans for post-session getaways. The next day of the special session, she indicated, would likely be Wednesday, May 30. Relevant committees may meet earlier than that to begin their work.
That wasn’t what Scott’s team wanted, but they agreed to Johnson’s timetable without complaint.
There was some haggling over whether formal vetoes were desirable. “The tax and budget bills wouldn’t have to be vetoed,” Scott said. He suggested using them as the basis for final legislation, with negotiated changes inserted into the bills.
Johnson preferred the formal approach. “A veto and a veto message provide clarity,” she said.
They would also enter the historic record. Scott would become the only governor in Vermont history to veto tax and budget bills two separate times. And he would have accomplished that in a single biennium.
Attending the meeting were Johnson, Scott, Chesnut-Tangerman, House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), Johnson aide Katherine Levasseur, Administration Secretary Susanne Young, Scott chief of staff Jason Gibbs, House Minority Leader Don Turner (R-Milton), Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), Sen. Brian Collamore (R-Rutland) and Rep. Barbara Murphy (I-Fairfax), who represented independent House members.
Also Thursday afternoon, Ashe and Johnson issued a press release reporting that 37 bills had been delivered to the governor’s office on Wednesday, which started a countdown of five business days for Scott to sign the bills, veto them, or allow them to become law without his signature. The bills include several that may be in line for a veto: a minimum wage increase, paid family leave, waterways cleanup, a measure that would make polluters pay for medical monitoring of people exposed to toxins, and new regulations for companies that collect and sell personal information online.
The prompt delivery of those bills and Johnson’s schedule will provide the legislature an opportunity to take another crack at any of them that are vetoed, since the governor would have to act before next Wednesday.
The meeting concluded with handshakes and friendly words. How will the outcome be used in political messaging? That may be a whole different kettle of fish.
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Of course Scott didn’t want to have to veto the spending and tax bills for a second year in a row. He’s already facing pressure from the gun rights lobby and he’ll lose some of his patina as nice guy if he plays a bully two years in a row, sloughing off the more “liberal” side of his base. He’s now got his eyes on November and every move is political. He has to keep Jason Gibbs on a leash if he wants to come out of this with a hope of success in his re-election. If he has a credible opponent, he’s got work to do.
With a massive surplus it should not be hard to find a solution. While Governor Scott ran on a pledge not to raise taxes and fees, I do not recall any legislator running on a platform of raising property taxes in order to pay off obligations to the Teachers Retirement Fund in a quicker manner.
There are currently over 40 million dollars in unrelated to K-12 education costs now in the Education Fund that are not under control of local school boards. The first use of any surplus before raising already high property taxes would be to cover these legislative mandated costs. Any legislator who wishes to run on a platform of raising property taxes now for savings down the road should do so in the fall and see if voters respond with a mandate. Otherwise the job at hand is to balance spending with revenue for the 2019 budget year, allocate any remaining surpluses to reserve funds or paying down obligations and then go home.
No chance of keeping Gibbs on a leash – make no mistake about it, Gibbs is running the 5th floor with his hyper partisan my way or the highway mentality. Scott and his flying monkeys have not negotiated in good faith with anyone nor have they engaged in any meaningful discussions with the legislature until making half baked, really stupid proposals at the last minute, proposals based on faulty assumptions. Its time the Dems grow a spine, refuse to budge on their reasonable budget and tax legislation and let Scott shut down the government if he refuses meaningful compromise.
How in hell are people going to pay their property taxes?? They are outrageous as it is now…Sorry, we aren’t all millionaires, like our elected officials. The legislators are all well off, after all, they do get money to line their pockets. The liberal democrats out of staters want all the true Vermonters out of Vermont. They are taking over Vermont. They are trying to make this a non-drinking, non-gun state.Vermont was once a great state, people could afford to live here, make a decent living. Look at it now. One of the top most expensive state in the nation
Since when did the idiots in the legislator think they are the bosses of Vermont. Mitzi Johnson needs to go back to the state she came from, All this BS of “We want to be as transparent as possible” is crap. They all need to be taken out and put in people who care about Vermonters and Vermont. Not try to make Vt into other states.