House Speaker Shap Smith. VTD/Josh Larkin
MONTPELIER — The big democratic majority in the Vermont House met Saturday at the Statehouse to map out its agenda for the upcoming session.
In a few words, it was all Irene, all the time. And also, not Irene.
That paradox lay at the heart of a daylong brainstorming session that brought more than 50 House members and leadership to discuss what standing committees were up to, hold “breakout sessions” with smaller groups, and then reconvene to see what priorities emerged.
Just as tropical storm Irene affected almost every part of Vermont — from homes and businesses, roads and rivers, state offices, properties and budgets, insurance and commerce, the state hospital and mental health system and state employees — it was clear from Saturday’s discussion that Irene’s impact will touch almost every aspect of what the Legislature does this year, both in dollars, programs and legislative initiatives.
At the same time, there was widespread recognition and concern among Democrats that after Irene’s literal swamping of Vermont, the storm’s fallout shouldn’t also swamp a host of core Democratic legislative priorities in its soggy wake, such as health care reform and implementing policies that help to increase the number of good paying jobs in Vermont.
As Rep. Kate Webb, D-Chittenden, who was appointed as deputy assistant majority leader Saturday, said, the session needs to “find an appropriate balance between the response to Irene and all the other issues going on in the state.”
Rep. Tom Stevens, whose district in Waterbury took a ferocious hit from Irene, pithily described the planning session as a way to put some direction on the “16-week express train” — that is the upcoming session that begins the first week of January.
Since Democrats have a broad majority in the 150-seat Vermont House, with 95 members to 48 for the GOP, (along with three independents and five progressives), the day’s caucus, which was both jocular and serious with a lot of bonhomie, carries some weight. Vermont’s Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, will have his own more-than-two cents to pitch in, and the House and Vermont Senate, also dominated by Democrats, don’t always see eye to eye, either.
Irene’s broad impacts were linked Saturday to a wide range of needs that landed front and center since the storm hit Aug. 28. Among those most frequently mentioned at the caucus:
– There was strong agreement that Irene laid bare the state’s lack of affordable housing and how much work needs to be done to change that situation. Rep. Helen Head, D-S. Burlington, cited the extensive damage to mobile homes from Irene and the added housing crunch from relocating more than 1,000 displaced Vermonters.
– There was a widespread recognition that Irene revealed how state agencies can work more efficiently for Vermonters and that those lessons should be studied, institutionalized and enacted. “Keep the good things we learned quickly from Irene,” summed up Rep. Charles Bohi, D-White River Junction, and “shed the bureacracatic crap.”
– Dealing with the closing of the state hospital and dislocation of some 1,500 state workers in Waterbury by the flooding will be a key issue, along with finding efficient 21st century office space and finding a replacement for the state hospital, whose 54 beds were a key part of the mental health system.
– A continuing focus on the state’s technological challenges and boosting its technology profile, whether it’s expanding broadband, improving technology education for the workforce, or a strong impetus for energy efficiency for all Vermont buildings and expanding green power sources, such as solar. “We need to be on top of that, kicking that ball further down the road,” said Jim McCullough, D-Williston.
Underlying much of the agenda setting is enormous uncertainty over what Irene’s budget impacts will be. While some costs are estimated, such as $250 million for road repairs and $65 million to $85 million for replacing state offices, how much reimbursement will come for damaged buildings and roads from FEMA and insurance settlements is still unknown, said Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield.
“This is a long haul process,” she said. “This is not going to be resolved in the near future.” Reimbursement figures may not be known until spring, she said.
Emmons touched on another underlying theme that circulated around the committee rooms Saturday, a strong feeling that the disaster is also an opportunity to re-examine the state’s approach to addressing future infrastructure reconstruction, whether it’s rebuilding state offices in a high-tech, forward-looking fashion or revamping rules for culvert sizing around the state.
“Let’s use Irene as an opportunity to get it right,” said Richmond Rep. Anne O’Brien.
Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, noted how the result of throwing together Agency of Natural Resource employees who were flooded out from Waterbury with VTrans staff enabled the two agencies to respond in a coordinated and effective manner to Irene’s road and river devastation.
“How do we capture that and keep it going?” she said.
Never far from the discussion was also how any legislative response to Irene should be looked at in the framework of boosting Vermont’s economy, and maintaining Vermont’s sound fiscal footing in light of what House Appropriations Committee vice chairwoman Mitzi Johnson said was expected to be a budget $74.5 million shortfall as budget writers look at the next fiscal year. Surprisingly little discussion touched on taxes, though some lawmakers did raise concerns about Gov. Shumlin’s recommendation that the statewide education property tax remain the same as last year.
Several Democrats said communication with constituents about what the Legislature is doing will be critical because of the many questions Irene has raised about budgets, rebuilding and reimbursements.
“We have to get out accurate information to all Vermonters because we know information can be twisted and turned,” said . Rep. Kitty Toll of Danville.
House Speaker Shap Smith, who listened all day and dropped in on breakout sessions, ended the day with a stemwinder that was part pep talk and part encomium to the Vermont way of doing things.
“I think that Irene has been a defining moment in the state of Vermont but it has also been a defining moment in the government of the state of Vermont,” he said.
When so many people in Vermont and other states are distrustful of government, the response to Irene “helped restore faith that government does serve a purpose, and doing the job well reminds us of our common obligations to society and to each other,” he said.
Smith urged his caucus to always keep the people of Vermont in the forefront of their minds, saying lawmakers aren’t beholden to their parties or to their leaders, but to the citizens of Vermont.
“The only way that our national government, our state government works is that people believe they have a voice,” he said.
He predicted it would a “difficult” session but told fellow democrats he felt it would be manageable.
“We always figure it out,” Smith said.
