In another week, it will be thumb-twiddling time in the House of Representatives.
With the kind of adherence to discipline that is the hallmark of Shap Smith’s tenure as House Speaker at the Statehouse, lawmakers have already finished the money bills and a controversial education reform proposal. Once the $22 million health care package is taken up this week, the House will be waiting for spring and the Senate to finish its business (most of which is still to come).
But even with the logjam facing the Senate floor over the next six weeks, Smith says timely adjournment is very likely. The legislative session is budgeted for 16 to 18 weeks, and that puts the end date at May 9 or May 15.
On Wednesday, the House will take up H.76, a ban on teacher strikes and imposed labor agreements. If the committee votes are any indication, the bill faces a split vote on the floor, as Democrats are divided on the issue. The bill passed out of House Education 8-3 then failed in the General, Housing & Military Affairs Committee over a proposed one-cent tax penalty on homestead rates in communities where teacher contracts are not settled within one year of expiration.
House committees are reviewing several notable Senate bills this week, including S.141, legislation that would prohibit certain criminals from possessing guns, and S.9, legislation protecting children from abuse and neglect.
The jobs bill is on the floor of the Senate, but most of the serious business downstairs this week is in committee.
The sweeping water quality bill, which in the House version includes pollution control measures and fines, is set to pass out of Senate Natural Resources this week, once senators have struck the House language and replaced it with their version of the legislation. A floor vote is scheduled at the end of next week.
The House education reform package, which passed last week in an 88-55 vote, will likely take a two week tour of duty in Senate Education and come up for a floor vote the week of April 22.
That leaves the best for last. All the major money bills — the capital bill, transportation, budget and tax proposals — will come out of the Senate at the end of April. And then the two bodies will reconcile their differences in the conference committee compromises that mark the denouement of the session.
The end can’t come soon enough for many inside the Golden Bubble. The grim reality of shrinking resources has made for a tough budget year, and Gov. Peter Shumlin’s negative public approval rating has cast a pall over the Democratic majority. Under those circumstances, making the small world of Vermont a better place can feel like more of a chore than an opportunity.
