As Democrats bickered over, and ultimately failed to pass, their top economic priorities, Gov. Phil Scott watched from afar and kept quiet.
His approach to moderating the Democratically controlled Legislature this session was markedly different from his first term, when he regularly threatened vetoes and pressured lawmakers to support his policy proposals.
This year, as divided Democrats in the House and Senate struggled to find consensus on two major issues — raising the minimum wage and establishing a paid family leave program — the governor said he’d weigh in once the House and Senate settled on a joint proposal. But they never did.
“I mean there is no other way to look at it except he comes out looking like the winner,” Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint, D-Windham, said of the governor. “I’m not going to do some political posturing: This is a disappointing moment for us to not get these things through that both caucuses care about.”
Sen. Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington, chair of Vermont’s Progressive Party, said Scott “looks like he’s the only adult in the room” after last week’s debacle. “I think it’s unfortunate, but true. He sat quietly in the corner and watched the Democrats self-destruct.”
Not only did Scott win the broader political battle, he also walks away from the legislative session having accomplished many of the lower profile goals laid out in his budget speech, which unlike in prior years included a few new taxes and fees and steered clear of major education spending reforms.
The governor asked for additional spending on child care, broadband expansion and, for the first time, shared in lawmakers’ call for a long-term clean water funding source. Democratic legislators took up these proposals, and others pitched by the governor, including estate tax reform and a tax on electronic cigarettes.
“His focus on trying to make Vermont more amenable and comfortable for young families was completely in line with what we are working on,” Balint said. “I don’t feel we are moving in different directions.”
Democrats touted a list of achievements, including the passage of expansive abortion rights protections, medical monitoring for toxic pollution, the repeal of the statute of limitations for civil child abuse suits, a ban on single-use plastics and a 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases.
But their top economic priorities — a minimum wage increase and a paid family leave program — fell flat. For days, the House and Senate were unable to reach agreements on the two bills. Then on Friday the House blew up negotiations on the policies amid Senate stalling.
Scott, who vetoed previous versions of both bills last year, remained mostly silent on the proposals this session. Earlier this year, he pitched a more moderate paid leave program, and hinted he would veto a minimum wage increase. But he avoided staking out clear positions on the bills.
And because the House and the Senate failed to send either policy to his desk, Scott can avoid a backlash from liberals for rejecting the initiatives and calls of betrayal from conservatives for letting them pass into law.
“I think it makes it easier on him not to veto those two bills,” said former Democratic Speaker of the House Shap Smith. In crafting the bills, House and Senate leadership was too preoccupied with trying to win over the governor and guessing at what he could support, Smith said.
The chambers made concessions on the bills, slowing the phase-in of the minimum wage and reducing the benefits offered by the paid leave program, in an attempt to gain the governor’s support.
“Both the House and the Senate engaged in a lot of shadow boxing based on what they thought the governor’s positions would be,” Smith said. “I understand that you have to compromise where you have to compromise … but I think we could have been a little more aggressive.”
While Scott’s strategy kept Democrats off-balance, Republican leaders praised the new approach.
“By not engaging the Legislature he did not become the common enemy that he had been in the past,” said Rep. Jim Harrison, R-North Chittenden, the former president of the Vermont Retail & Grocers Association and a leading opponent of a minimum wage increase.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, added that Scott’s absence left the egos of House and Senate leadership to take center stage in negotiations.
“I think the session a couple of years ago, when he was in the middle of everything, gave all the majority party reason to battle him and thus unite themselves,” Benning said. “But in this particular occasion he wisely stayed out of the fray and you got to witness the House vs. the Senate majority leaders posture with each other.”
Both House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, and Senate leader Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, insist that their inability to find common ground was due to difficulty finding consensus in each chamber — not personal feuding. But throughout the session, Ashe and Johnson appeared to be at odds and did not hold a single joint press conference. Previous Democratic leaders worked together hand in glove. Shap Smith and Senate leader Peter Shumlin had an easy personal and professional relationship. They developed policies jointly, held press conferences together and presented a united front against Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.
Though Ashe and Johnson’s economic priorities will not be moving this session, Democratic leadership has committed to passing both pieces of legislation at the beginning of next year. Johnson said party leaders plan on pressuring the governor to take a stance on the policies early next year.
“I think the governor was clear about not wanting to ensure that low-income working families had a way to move up in the world,” said Johnson. “So we want to make sure to get a reasonable policy on his desk so he can clarify his position because he’s been cagey at best on most of these things.”
Sen. Robert Starr, D-Essex/Orleans, who owns a trucking business in the Northeast Kingdom, said the Democrats had a better shot at passing their ambitious economic agenda this year, before moderate members of the caucus started to worry about 2020 elections.
“If you’re gonna really bite the apple you’d be better off doing it this year than in an election year,” Starr said in an interview earlier this month, before the House adjourned. “Somebody that’s wobbling a little bit this year is going to really wobble next year.”
Moving into next session, Democrats are also hoping Scott will be clear about what versions of the policies he can support.
“We’re not getting a lot of guidance from him, about what he will and will not sign, and I really want him to be a partner at the table with this,” said House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington.
Patti Komline, a former House Republican minority leader, said it is critical for Democrats to quickly reach an agreement on these policies next session. But a delay, for now, won’t hurt them.
“As long as they don’t do a repeat of this next year, people have short memories and it won’t matter,” she said.
Colin Meyn contributed reporting
