[T]here was a deal, then there wasn’t, and now Vermont’s House could be back to the Statehouse on Monday to vote again on a budget bill that they already passed.
Senate leadership scuttled a budget deal that had been reached by Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson and Gov. Phil Scott on Friday.
Johnson and House budget and tax leaders scrambled late into the evening to craft a new proposal they hoped would satisfy all three parties.
But that plan did not win commitments from Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe and the governor, and Democratic House leadership backed out of their second attempt at compromise Friday night.
Democratic representatives then voted against a compromise amendment they had proposed earlier in the day, advanced the budget bill passed by the Senate this week and angered House Republicans who said the pivot was “disingenuous.”
Just before midnight, Johnson announced a vote on the Senate budget bill, H.16, and it was quickly passed on a voice vote, with only a few House members saying no.
Minority Leader Don Turner, R-Milton, stood up and said he did not realize what the vote was for, and then argued that there were not enough representatives remaining in the chamber for the vote to count.
After Johnson said the vote was final, Turner approached her and said he had accidentally voted yes, giving him the ability to call for a “reconsideration,” meaning the House could return to vote on the bill again on Monday.
“I have no idea [what happened],” Turner said. “It was crazy, it was quick, and it was over. But I have the right, it’s a rule, to ask for a reconsideration, which I’ve done.”
The deal that wasn’t
Following weeks of gridlock, House members and administration officials said on Friday that they had finally hammered out an agreement that could resolve the property tax dispute at the heart of their disagreement, potentially ending a weeks-long impasse over the state’s spending package.
The plan would have taken the Senate’s budget bill but also split a large pot of anticipated surplus revenue that has not been officially forecasted.
Under the plan, up to $28.3 million in anticipated surplus revenue would be split 50/50: half would go to the education fund to lower property tax rates and half would into paying down teacher pensions liabilities.
The governor, who had previously refused to consider any agreement that raised property taxes next year, said he was on board with the plan.
But Senate leadership was not, according to lawmakers.
Senators expressed trepidation about allocating even more one-time money to buy down tax rates in 2020, according to Rep. Kitty Toll, D-Danville, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.
“When the Senate looked at this proposal they had some great concerns about setting aside additional one-time money for ongoing expenses and the hole that would create,” Toll said during a meeting of the House Republican caucus Friday night.
Responding to the Senate’s concerns, Toll proposed divvying up the pot of anticipated surplus three ways.
In an amendment she put on the table, one pot of money would go toward paying down property tax rates in 2020, the governor’s priority; another would go toward teachers pension liability, a Democratic priority; and the third would go toward a spendable reserve in the general fund, a concession to Senate leadership.
“The conversations broke down,” Toll said of the initial deal, “and this looked like a way out for me where everybody got a little of something,” she said of the revised proposal.
But after receiving a tepid response to the second proposal from the Scott administration, House Democrats decided to scrap their efforts at compromise, pass the bill almost unchanged, and punt to the Senate.
Toll encouraged House members to get in touch with their senators to pressure them to pursue a solution.
“It behooves each one of us to contact our senators from our areas and ask that we come to a resolution on the budget and tax proposal that is before us tonight so that we can move on and so that Vermonters can move on,” Toll said.
Democrats already view the budget bill passed by the Senate as a major compromise with the Scott administration. The bill will harness about $20 million in surplus money to level the residential property tax rate.
But it also leads to a 4.5 cent hike in the nonresidential property tax rate — a provision that Scott’s administration has said is unacceptable, as it breaks his pledge to hold the line on taxes next year.
Republicans cry foul
The governor and House Republicans said they felt betrayed after Democrats backed out of the first compromise proposal on Friday.
“I thought we had a good plan to move forward, it was somewhat of a compromise on all of our parts,” Scott told the Republican caucus. “I thought this was something that could bring us across the finish line.”
Republican ire amplified further after Democrats dropped their second compromise proposal.
Many in the GOP accused House Democrats of being beholden to Senate leadership.
“I’ve never been so disgusted, it’s disgraceful. To pull the plug on something a number of us agreed on as a good faith compromise,” Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, said during the final Republican caucus.
“I think they probably have heard from and the Senate wants them to do this and they know they can probably screw us this way,” Wright added.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, blasted Democrats for shifting their stance on using surplus money to buy down tax rates.
“This is really disingenuous and to say now that we can’t support a buy-down of property tax rates in 2020, when that was agreed to,” she said on the House floor. “This is less than our finest hour.”
Johnson was not available to speak with reporters following the vote.
Ashe declined to comment on the House’s budget proposal following a meeting with Johnson Friday afternoon.
In a statement sent to reporters Friday evening, he said that senators “look forward to reviewing the changes being sent to the Senate on H.16.”
