Over the last few meetings, the Vermont Apportionment Board has concentrated its efforts on meting out new district lines for the House of Representatives. On Thursday, the board turned to the second jigsaw puzzle it needs to assemble: the senate districts.
Though there are many fewer districts in the Senate — a total of 14, based on the state’s county lines — because of population changes in certain areas of the state, the board must reconfigure the number of senators who will represent each district. There are 30 senators in all.
Of all the districts, Chittenden is the largest and most problematic. Burlington and the surrounding adjacent cities have the largest population with roughly 140,000 residents, and, hence, the largest number of senators — six altogether. Each senator is supposed to represent about 20,858 people.
On Thursday, the board explored ways to break up the Chittenden County juggernaut along with proposals to create more single-member senate districts in other areas of the state.
Megan Brook, a Progressive member of the board, presented a draft senate plan consisting of five 2-member districts, four 3-member districts and two 4-member districts. Brook’s plan is closely aligned with current county lines, but she would like to see the board adopt either all one or two-member districts throughout the state.
Republican board member Neale Lunderville also pressed for a single- or two-member district map. In his proposal to the board, Lunderville broke the Senate lines into 30 single-member districts in the interest, he said, of keeping the Senate plan consistent with the House map proposal that also lays out a significantly higher number of single-representative districts.
Lunderville agreed that it’s important to shift to one and two-member districts.
“These (district lines) are a lot more compact and they will allow each senator to know its district from corner to corner and know the people in that district really well,” Lunderville said.
The board turned its attention to Chittenden County’s six-member district for much of the discussion. Tom Little, chairman of the board, said Chittenden County can be an expensive and daunting place for candidates to campaign because there are often so many pols competing for so many slots. The large district is also confusing for voters who are expected to decide on six candidates out of 16 to 19 names on the ballot.
Little proposed that Burlington and South Burlington be combined to create a three-member district. Under his plan, Colchester would be moved in with Milton, Westford, Winooski and Grand Isle County to create a two-member district while Essex, Williston, Jericho, Underhill, Bolton and St. George would be combined into another two-member district. Finally Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg, Huntington, Buel’s Gore and Richmond could become a single-member district, under this scenario.
None of the deviations from Little’s proposed districts would exceed 9.3 percent from the required 20,860 Vermonters per state senator.
With the July 1 deadline rapidly approaching, the board is gearing up to vote on both a House and a Senate plan so that the next part of the process can begin. The House proposal will be sent to the boards of civil authority in each town so that municipal officials can weigh in on a proposed map.
The senate plan, however, is not sent to the boards of civil authority. Once the Apportionment Board votes on the final proposal it will go directly to the General Assembly at the beginning of next session.
The board has its final session next week, though the board discussed the possibility of an additional meeting if needed. The board is expected to take a final vote on both the Senate and the House proposals by Thursday.
“If the four board members who voted for the single-member house plane are prepared to vote the same way, the single-member senate plan will most likely be put forward,” Little said. Some members of the board who had supported the single-member House plan, however, still seemed to be on the fence about the single-member senate plan.
