With hours left before the end of the legislative session, lawmakers’ nerves are frayed from lack of sleep, and the formal cadences of the House and Senate floor sometimes give way to intemperate speech.
As any Statehouse maven knows, however, one angry outburst can generate a frenzy in the fishbowl that is the Golden Bubble, and sometimes it’s hard to separate the emotions that surface in the heat of the moment from the substance.
Such was the scene Thursday night when House Democratic majority leader Lucy Leriche in a fit of pique called her GOP counterpart House minority leader Don Turner a “terrorist.”
Leriche told members of the Democratic caucus that Turner had refused to suspend the rules in order to allow about a dozen bills lawmakers had been working on for the last four months to reach final passage. She accused Turner of holding the bills hostage in exchange for meeting a list of demands regarding GOP legislative priorities.
Vermont Press Bureau reporter Peter Hirschfeld was on the scene and quoted Leriche saying, “As far as I’m concerned we don’t negotiate with terrorists.” Later, after Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, demanded a formal statement on the floor of the House, Leriche apologized to lawmakers for getting “carried away.”
On Friday, Leriche said her comments were “unfortunate.” She compared the disagreement with a family fight. “We’re talking now and we might be at a place where we’re moving forward in a productive way,” Leriche said.
That one word, “terrorist,” however, hit the news cycle full force Friday and Leriche gave a reprisal of her mea culpa for a variety of media outlets, including WDEV, WCAX and WPTZ.
The catalyst for Leriche’s moment of chagrin was Turner’s insistence that House Speaker Shap Smith accede to a list of about 10 demands in exchange for the GOP leader’s permission to suspend the rules. One of those demands included a tax increment financing deal for the town Milton, Turner’s home turf.
“One of my biggest disappointments,” Turner said, “was her accusation that I was trying to negotiate things for my own community.”
Under normal House rules, all bills, regardless of where they are in the process of passage, take 24 hours to be sent to the other body. If the usual waiting periods aren’t suspended in the waning hours of the session, it can cause adjournment to be delayed. The Speaker must defer to the minority party for rule suspension permission.
At the beginning of the biennium, in January 2011, Turner sent a letter to the Speaker advising him that the Republican caucus “will not vote to suspend rules on any bill with which we have concerns unless all members have had a full 24 hours to read the bill before it’s brought up for a vote.”
In practice, Turner has suspended rules on a frequent basis, though he has made it clear that his caucus would need more time on all money bills and any bill that is particularly complicated.
Turner reissued the letter to the Speaker two days ago, after warning the Democrats for several weeks that he might not be willing to suspend rules as the session came to an end.
“I never guaranteed I’d do it,” Turner said.
The GOP leader said he was particularly perturbed by Smith’s decision to pass over Republicans on the gas fracking conference committee. His caucus believes the state should have gone with the House proposal for a three-year moratorium on fracking instead of the ban the Senate wanted and that point of view was not represented by any of the conferees on the committee.
Turner’s list of demands include: a permanent ban on sales taxes for software accessed from the computing “cloud,” the elimination of a proposal to charge union fees for non-union teachers, workers compensation for volunteer emergency workers in the line of duty (Turner is a volunteer firefighter), special allowances for Beaverwood energy, and an electric ratepayer protection clause. He wants to see some movement on these issues, though just how much movement, he wouldn’t say.
Democrats complain that Turner is suspending rules arbitrarily.
Turner said in an interview that he is using rule suspension to push the Democratic majority to give in on policy points he feels the Vermont GOP hasn’t had a say in.
“It’s not the 24 hours,” Turner said. “It’s the leverage I have. At this point, it’s a negotiating thing.”
Speaker Smith said he and Turner have had a good relationship. “I’ve considered him to be a man of his word,” the Speaker said.
Smith said he was disappointed about the recent turn of events: “I believe the rules of the game changed yesterday.”
The tiff between the two parties could have real consequences: About a dozen bills could languish, many of which simply need to be “messaged” or carried from the House Clerk’s office to the Secretary of the Senate. Turner has said he would allow the fee, budget, tax and pay act bills to be expedited.
Some of the legislation that could be affected includes S. 200, a bill that would require insurance companies to disclose information about claim denials and political contributions, and a bill that would allow family members of service men and women killed in action to obtain gold star plates.
Another key piece of legislation hanging in the balance is the search and rescue bill, which includes the workers compensation language for emergency responders that Turner wants.
Turner said, “Vermonters might be better off if some of these bills didn’t pass.”
There is also an outside chance the disagreement could lead to a delay in adjournment.
Smith and Turner are meeting at 3 p.m. on Friday to see if they can settle the dispute.
