After a two week lull in which the House transferred the biggest batons of the session to the Senate — money bills for transportation, the budget, tax proposals and capital improvements — the Legislature will hit a double time pace this week.
There are three back-to-back hearings scheduled to solicit public testimony on stun guns, end of life choices and a “fair share” union bill this week. Press conferences on GMO labeling and tobacco taxes are in the offing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Meanwhile, the House will finalize a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, and the Senate will put its stamp on the transportation and capital bills this week. Senate Appropriations has set an April 19 deadline for advancing the budget.
Spring, after all, is in the air, and adjournment is looming. House Speaker Shap Smith has kept a strict timetable for representatives in the past and this year is no different. As per usual, he has pushed for a 17-week session, and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell is also pressing his members to meet that deadline.
The House and Senate will be holding sessions on the first two Saturdays in May in order to hit the preferred end date of May 11.
The Legislature has funding to pay lawmakers for a total of 18 weeks, which means the session could extend to May 18. But there seems to be little appetite among members of the General Assembly for staying in Montpelier any longer than necessary.
The factors that could derail a May 11 adjournment? Major disagreements over the budget and taxes, splits over key social issues, namely end of life choices and pot decrim bills and/or the Christmas tree effect, in which lawmakers pile on as many statutory tweaks as possible in the form of tinsel on the housekeeping bills.
Anything can happen in the waning three weeks of the session, but at this point the grand finale seems to be on cue. The House GOP caucus has decided not to take a position on pot decrim and end of life issues. (In a confidential poll, too many members supported the issues, according to Don Turner, minority leader.) And Campbell told senators last week: “no Christmas trees.”
What the budget and tax bills will look like, however, is an open question. A showdown could be looming over the governor’s plan, which relies on unproven revenues (a tax on break-open tickets for charity raffles) and two proposals that would have a direct impact on low-income Vermonters — a cap on welfare-to-work benefits and the elimination of a portion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which would be used to subsidize child care for low-income Vermonters (a fair tradeoff, according to the administration).
Lawmakers on the left eschew these changes, and are less likely to support a compromise that tilts in the governor’s direction. In order for Campbell and Smith to get a bill passed, rejection of some of the governor’s key mandates (like the repudiation of EITC, break-open tickets and Reach Up in the House) may be inevitable.
