Governor-elect Peter Shumlin named his transition team Thursday: former Gov. Howard Dean, former administration official Liz Bankowski, Democratic strategist Bill Lofy, personal friend and professional mediator Larry Cassidy, and Sen. Susan Bartlett, former chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Dean and Bankowski will co-chair the committee.
“(They) all bring experience, good judgment and the ability to ensure we have a cabinet that can hit the ground running,” Shumlin told the media and others. “We all know this is a tough assignment … the next governor will have to be able to juggle 100 balls in the air at the same time and land them, or at least many of them, in order to accomplish this dual task of fiscal responsibility and infrastructure to grow jobs.”
Gov. Jim Douglas told reporters an hour later that he would do everything he could to help Shumlin adjust in his new role as governor. Douglas, who campaigned for Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, said, “I would have preferred a different outcome, but I respect the will of the voters, and it’s my responsibility … to ease this transition as successfully as possible.”
Douglas has taken the unprecedented initiative of creating a “briefing book” for Shumlin that includes a list of all exempt employees appointed by the governor and information about their responsibilities, along with administrative details. The bulk of the book, however, is dedicated to a series of briefings from agency and department heads on key issues they are confronting, decisions that will need to be made and an overview of projects in various agencies and departments, according to Douglas.
During his own transition in 2002, Douglas said he was somewhat overwhelmed by the volume of correspondence he and the transition team received. He says looking back he would have given them more administrative support. Managing the flood of resumes, letters and requests is probably a bigger task than any governor anticipates, Douglas said.
Douglas said most of his administration was sworn in shortly after the inauguration. Shumlin said his transition team would also shoot for an inaugural deadline, but he wouldn’t rush the process of finding dozens of agency secretaries and department commissioners. He said he will look for administrators who can manage well and “can rebuild morale among the state workforce.”
“We think we have an eight-week deadline, and we’re going to meet it,” Shumlin said. “Hasty judgments don’t lead to good judgments, so we’re going to take our time. We’re not going to set an artificially quick pace.”
Shumlin told members of the press and a small group of interested parties that the team would help him to decide how to resolve the state’s projected budget gap of $112 million for 2012. Bartlett, long-time head of Senate Appropriations, will be sorting out budget details with Douglas administration officials during the transition period. “It’s a challenging budget, and there’s no one more qualified than Susan Bartlett to help lead that team,” Shumlin said.
Some things haven’t changed in the transition from candidate to governor-elect, however. Shumlin remained tight-lipped about how he plans to address the budget tasks ahead.
Shumlin has said he would balance the fiscal 2012 budget by reducing corrections spending and changing the health care delivery system (though no dollar figures were floated for the first year of program changes) and by cutting performance contracts by 10 percent, or $25 million.
Shumlin said he would not raise taxes. “I am not one of those Democrats who feels that Vermont’s biggest challenge is that taxes are not high enough. I think they’re too high. I do think they discourage economic growth. I don’t want to raise taxes.”
The Douglas administration is working to close a gap in the fiscal year 2011 budget, as well. The Challenges for Change budget restructuring law passed in the 2010 legislative session reduced the budget by $38 million. About $28 million of the savings was identified in the summer.
“I’ve asked my team to proceed as if I were presenting the budget,” Douglas said.
State revenues have crept up slightly, but have not rebounded since 2008 when income tax collections began to plummet because of the recession. In the intervening years, legislative and administrative leaders have reduced the state workforce by 660 positions, negotiated a 3 percent cut in pay for state workers over the next three years and asked the state’s teachers to contribute $15.3 million toward the state retirement fund.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been a race for governor where the issue has been more clear,” Shumlin said. “We understand we have a dual task to put the state on a responsible spending path, a fiscally responsible budget, so we’re not continually having this challenge of missing projections and having to cut budgets. We’ve got to live within our means.”
The second major challenge is to make infrastructure changes, Shumlin said, in the tax code and in way health care, broadband, education services are delivered.
The transition team will set up shop at 128 State Street. The cost of the eight-week team effort will be about $75,000, Shumlin said. In 2002, Gov. Jim Douglas spent $30,000 on his transition after the end of Gov. Howard Dean’s 10-year tenure in office.
There were a number of lobbyists and hangers-on at both press conferences, including: Jason Gibbs, who lost his bid for secretary of state; Patricia Moulton Powden from the Vermont Chamber of Commerce; Paul Burns, executive director of VPIRG; Nick Sherman and Todd Bailey from Kimbell Sherman and Ellis; and Tuck Rainwater.
Powden had glowing remarks for the first steps in the transition: “We’re here because we think Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin is right on. We’ve got to continue to stabilize our economy and create some jobs. The Vermont Chamber is the voice for Vermont business, and businesses create jobs. We want to work with this administration as we would want to work with the Dubie administration or work with the Douglas administration. It’s all about what’s good for Vermont.”
“They’re going to take the time to find the right team regardless of party, that there’s a strong emphasis on job creation, and there has to be,” Powden said.
“Susan Bartlett” she said, “is an experienced budget writer. She’s worked well with Jim Reardon and Neale Lunderville (in the Douglas administration), and that’s heartfelt. They’ve brought back Liz Bankowski and folks who are experienced. That’s good. That’s all good news.”
