A little-known, six-paragraph provision that passed in the Senate just five hours before adjournment on Tuesday could lay the groundwork for significant changes in the way business is conducted at the Vermont Statehouse.
The resolution, S.R. 7, allows the Senate to form a special committee to examine the lobbying activities of publicly funded organizations. The purpose of the committee is to study whether entities that receive taxpayer dollars use that money to influence the Legislature and the executive branch.
The Senate gave the seven-member committee the authority to use subpoena power to compel witnesses to testify and to gain access to books, records, papers, vouchers, accounts or documents. The committee will begin meeting this summer.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, sponsored the resolution with Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor. Twenty-two members of the Senate endorsed the proposal.
Sears says he is tired of hitting the “brick wall” that the Vermont School Boards Association, the Vermont Principals Association and Vermont Superintendents Association put up “every time” the Legislature tries to change education policy.
“Taxpayers are not represented in these groups, and yet it is state tax dollars that are being spent,” Sears said. Property tax reform will likely be a major topic of legislative discussion next year, he said, and he describes the VSBA, the VPA and VSA as the most powerful lobbying groups in the Statehouse.
“It seems as though trying to make changes in ed policy is like pulling teeth,” Sears said. “My experience has been that even to the point of having the commissioner appointed by the governor was a huge battle.”
Sears said the resolution doesn’t target education associations, and it could just as easily apply to hospitals, designated agencies and municipalities. It would not, however, include public unions that are supported by dues-paying members.
“I’m hoping to find out more and address the situation,” Sears said. “I don’t have any preconceived notions that anybody is doing something wrong, that’s not my goal here. It’s just looking at this whole issue.”
The language in the resolution is broad — any organization that receives state funding could come under scrutiny when the committee begins meeting this summer. Sears said hospitals, designated agencies, municipalities and other groups could all be subject to the rarely invoked subpoena requirement, though he doesn’t anticipate that compelling witnesses to attend hearings and provide documents will be necessary.
Still, he thought it was important for the full Senate to approve his request just in case. The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Sears is chair, has used subpoena power twice — once to investigate the death of an inmate in state prison and in another probe in the 2003 that determined how much private fundraisers pocket when they raise money for charities.
Four states have restrictions on lobbying activities by publicly funded entities, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ten prohibit state agencies from using public funds to retain lobbyists.
Peggy Kerns, director of the Center for Ethics in Government for NCSL, says such restrictions are usually prompted by a reaction to a lobbying effort.
Education lobby groups fought hard against a late-session property tax reform proposal from three members of the Senate Finance Committee that would have shifted $60 million in income tax money to the Education Fund in order to buy down the property tax rate by 6 cents in towns that keep spending levels below 3.5 percent. The proposal, which was not voted out of committee last week, would require municipalities to obtain support from a supermajority of voters to pass school budgets that exceed the rate of inflation by more than 1 percent. In addition, it would have required a minimum of 25 percent of all registered voters to pass budgets.
Dozens of school board members and citizens called and emailed senators shortly after the Senate proposal came to light, just three days before the originally scheduled adjournment on Saturday. In testimony before Senate Finance, Jeffrey Francis, director of the superintendents’ association, told senators that school officials were very nervous about the proposed changes because they were burned five years ago when the Senate passed the two-vote budget requirement for schools that exceed spending levels 1 percent above inflation.
Several senators, including Sears, complained about the barrage of emails.
Steve Dale, director of the Vermont School Boards Association which represents 1,500 school board members, said his organization has an obligation to bring information about legislation to school board members. Dale said he was concerned about the Senate Finance plan because it was not in writing, it was not part of any bill and there was “virtually no testimony taken.”
“There didn’t appear to be a forum to weigh in,” Dale said.
School board members, he said, have an obligation to ensure that schools provide a quality education for students. Hampering a community’s ability to pass a school budget could jeopardize that mission.
“Obviously, in this instance there a lot of people who wrote to legislators because they didn’t like what Montpelier was doing in the final hours of the session,” Dale said. “They needed information, and as constituents, they need to be able to contact senators.”
The resolution passed on Tuesday, Dale said, sends a message that senators would “rather do their business outside the watchful eye of the public” and “don’t want to hear from locally elected school board members.”
Dale said his organization has engaged in a “partnership” with lawmakers to move the governor’s ambitious education agenda. “It’s important that busy citizens who have lives beyond their school board work have a voice in these discussions. We will only move forward if we’re pulling in same direction.”
“The reality is the scales are weighted in favor those who have people in the building,” Mullin said. “Our job is to represent Vermonters. As long as it doesn’t turn into a witch hunt, I’m happy to serve. The average taxpayer is home working and taking care of family and doing what is necessary to live. The people at end of the table who are witnesses year after year are people who are paid good sums of money to represent a particular interest. I think a discussion has to occur about the influence of lobbyists period.”
Sen. Jeannette White, D-Windham, intends to do just that. As chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee, she plans to work on a bill examining lobbying activities in the Statehouse.
White said the resolution is broad enough to include evaluation of any entity that receives public money, including tax credits or tax breaks.
The Senate Committee on Committees appointed the following members to the committee: Campbell, Sears, Mullin, White, Jane Kitchel, Bobby Starr and Richie Westman.
