[A] new crop of leaders took over the Vermont Statehouse on Wednesday as lawmakers returned for the start of the two-year legislative session and a farewell by outgoing Gov. Peter Shumlin.
Rep. Mitzi Johnson, a Democrat from South Hero, was easily elected House speaker, and Sen. Tim Ashe, a Chittenden County Democrat/Progressive, was picked to be the next Senate leader.
On Thursday, Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman will be sworn in as lieutenant governor, and Phil Scott, the current lieutenant governor and the only Republican statewide officeholder, will become the 82nd governor of Vermont.
The last time all four offices changed hands at the same time was after the 1968 election.
Several lawmakers said the leadership clean sweep provided opportunities for fresh ideas to take hold. Some expressed concern, noting it would take weeks for the new leaders to find their stride. Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, reappointed as chair of the House Education Committee, said he felt anxiety.
“It’s all new. We’re going into a new world, new governor, new lieutenant governor, new speaker, new president pro tem, half my committee has changed,” Sharpe said. More than 30 new members were elected to the House as well, he noted.
With Democrats holding a huge majority in the House, Johnson beat back a challenge from Republican Linda Myers, of Essex, for the speaker’s post, winning 100 to 50. The Republicans have 53 seats, enough to uphold a veto by Scott if they stick together. The Democrats hold 83 seats, with independents and Progressives making up the rest.
One of Myers’ supporters, Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said she nominated Myers for the sake of a contest.
Johnson immediately named committee assignments, keeping the bulk of the committee chairs that her predecessor, Speaker Shap Smith, had appointed. That drew a rebuke from an otherwise complimentary minority leader, Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton.
“If we’re going to change things and do things different, then we can’t have the same people leading the committees,” Turner said.
He and others, however, applauded Johnson’s creation of an Energy and Technology Committee to include telecom projects. She also shifted oversight of mental health from the Human Services Committee to Health Care and added members to the Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs to deal with affordable housing.
Johnson, who previously chaired the Appropriations Committee, challenged her colleagues to “focus on being curious and asking good questions.” She outlined an ambitious plan to review all of state government programs for their effectiveness and to prioritize spending. She also vowed to study why poverty was so pervasive and find “effective ladders out.”
Ashe, elected unanimously to succeed John Campbell as Senate leader, has also expressed interest in addressing poverty. Both Johnson and Ashe told their colleagues that economic prosperity has been unevenly spread across the state, with much of the benefit in Chittenden County.
“So above everything else we work on, I believe we must in every policy area endeavor to create just one Vermont, a place where the dumb luck of who you’ve been born to doesn’t on the one hand confer a near guarantee of a great long life, but on the other condemn some kids to a life of struggle, poor health and poverty,” Ashe said.
Like Johnson, Ashe said the Legislature has a large plate of issues. Like the House, the Senate is dominated by Democrats.
In a short speech, Johnson promised to listen to Republican and Progressive voices. She said the Democratic majority is expected “to steer the ship, but the minority is there to point out the rocks.”
Lawmakers universally named creating a tight state budget as their top priority. For years, the governor and lawmakers have begun the budget process with expenses expected to outpace revenues, with Medicaid a leading cost driver. This year, the anticipated shortfall is between $50 and $70 million.
“I hope that we can make progress creating a sustainable budget and tax system for the future, and my fear is the next recession will be upon us before we can do that,” said Rep. Cynthia Browning, an outspoken Democrat from Arlington who was named to the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
Legislators also said that determining a funding source to clean up Lake Champlain and reviewing Vermont Health Connect, the state’s health insurance marketplace, were also priorities. Sharpe said his committee would study whether Act 46, an education measure designed to encourage school district consolidation, needed changes. Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, promised to produce an ethics bill in three weeks if she is renamed chair of Senate Government Operations.
Ashe, Zuckerman and Sen. Richard Mazza, a Democrat re-elected to serve on the Committee on Committees, are expected to name the chairs and members to the Senate committees this week. Sen. Becca Balint, D-Windham, was elected Senate majority leader.
In his 33-minute farewell, Shumlin listed his administration’s accomplishments, including more Vermonters with health insurance, expanded broadband services, more renewable energy, lower unemployment and 600 fewer Vermonters in jail than when he took office in 2011. He also said he had allowed no increases in broad-based taxes, including income, rooms and meals, and the sales tax.
In addition to the opiate epidemic and cleaning up the lake, Shumlin encouraged lawmakers to continue to fight to reduce carbon emissions despite members in the Trump administration who are skeptics of manmade climate change.
“We are entering an era of narrow, outdated ways of thinking, emboldened by a divisive and contemptuous president-elect,” Shumlin said. “In the face of such a future, it can be tempting to disengage from the national politics of our time, to sit back on the progress we have made, simply enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, and rejoice in the fact that our little state is not like the rest of America.
“But we can’t do that. Our nation has stumbled backwards, and America needs Vermont’s leadership now more than ever. That requires all of you to keep up the fight, and turn a momentary stumble backwards into an inspiring leap forward. Vermont must always stand against the hatred, the bigotry, the intolerance that will sadly be part of our future.”
Freshman Rep. Dylan Giambatista, D-Essex Junction, who worked for former Speaker Shap Smith, said the leadership shakeup in the Legislature and executive branch “will require a new perspective for people who have been here.”
“I think it’s a change to split party government,” he said, from when Shumlin and the Democrats had control, to Scott, a Republican who has vowed to hold the line on spending and whose mantra has been to make the state more affordable.
“The directive of the hour is to work together and find solutions,” Giambatista said.
With new leadership, Sen. Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington, said there is “room to make good things happen” and perhaps move school funding from property taxes to a system based more on income. He also expressed concern about Scott’s drive to make Vermont more affordable.
Scott will outline his budget and priorities later this month. Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, said those speeches “will be when we hear reaction from legislative leaders, and I think that will be a tell-tale sign of things to come.”
(VTDigger’s Elizabeth Hewitt contributed to this report.)
