John Walters is a political columnist for VTDigger.
The first half of the 2020 legislative session has come and gone in a hurry.
“We hit the ground running,” said House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney. “This one seemed especially quick. We had a lot of important votes, and there were two vetoes early in the session.”
Everyone seemed a bit out of breath at the end of last week. Many were profoundly grateful for some time away from the golden dome. Most were satisfied with the amount of work that was done.
But not everyone.
“I’m concerned that many are losing sight of the fact that we have some real challenges in the state that we should be focusing on more,” said Republican Gov. Phil Scott in a Feb. 27 press conference, indicating dissatisfaction with legislative consideration of his economic development proposals.
His analysis was not shared by top Republican lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, sees progress on the governor’s economic agenda. “Take the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail,” Benning said. “It seems both sides and all three parties are pretty much in lockstep on that.”
McCoy thinks the governor’s ideas are getting a fair hearing in the House. “We’re working from his budget,” McCoy said. “The committees welcome input from the governor’s staff.” She added that her Republican caucus is treated “respectfully, for the most part” by the Democratic majority.
The Democrats are happy following a spurt of action in the House, including an override of Scott’s veto on raising the minimum wage, approval of the Global Warming Solutions Act, and passage of controversial bills on cannabis and reforming Act 250, Vermont’s land use law. Also, H.610, a bill to enact new gun-safety measures, is about to emerge from the House Judiciary Committee.
“I’m very excited with where we are right now,” said House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero. It was a rather remarkable turnaround after the majority’s Feb. 5 failure to override Scott’s veto of a mandatory paid family leave program. The Legislature may face more Scott vetoes on high-profile issues, so the minimum wage victory was a crucial signal that overrides are at least possible.
“It’s been really positive,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden. “Both the Senate and House are talking about the big-picture issues that matter.” The Senate has approved S.338, a broad-ranging effort to ease the transition from incarceration to community and reduce recidivism, and may act next week on S.261, a bill to strictly limit sentences of life without parole.
Also on the judiciary front, Ashe is committed to action on firearm safety. “We will take up the House bill,” Ashe said. “And we haven’t given up on waiting periods.” A bill before Senate Judiciary, S.258, would establish a 48-hour waiting period for anyone purchasing a firearm.
Just before the break, the House approved S.54, which would establish a tax-and-regulate system for cannabis. Last year, the Senate approved a very different version of the bill. “That might take a while to work out in conference committee,” said Ashe.
Despite the governor’s complaints, legislative committees have looked favorably on his economic development initiatives — although there’s some concern about the cumulative price tag of various incentives and tax breaks. Act 250 reform was a constant struggle in the House, and is likely to bring more of the same in the Senate, but leadership seems determined to tackle the issue. Other climate-related bills are high on Democrats’ priority list, including an overhaul of state energy efficiency programs and Vermont’s prospective membership in the multi-state Transportation and Climate Initiative.
There’s one issue that’s certain to make waves in the second half: the state’s public-sector pension obligations. Democratic and Republican leaders agree it’s a high priority, although they differ on the solution.
“Our pension system is not under control,” Benning said. “We Republicans have been told it’s under control, but it’s not. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
In recent years, the state has made extra payments into the pension programs to make up for inadequate funding in the 1990s and early 2000s. Democrats have seen that as sufficient to restore the pensions to a sound footing. Not any more.
“We’ve done substantial work in the last seven years,” Johnson said. “We’ve made changes to health care benefits and made tens of millions of extra payments. But the alarming part is, we’re moving in the wrong direction.”
McCoy, Benning’s House counterpart, sees an obvious solution: a switch from defined-benefit pensions for teachers and state workers to 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans. “Look at American business,” McCoy said. “I don’t know any company that offers a defined pension anymore. 401(k) plans are the standard. That’s the reality.”
McCoy and Benning expressed support for H.848, a bill proposed by Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, that would split the pension plans in two: “Legacy” plans for current retirees and employees, and entirely separate plans for new hires. The new plans would almost certainly follow the 401(k) pattern.
That’s unlikely to go over well with Democrats, who benefit from the backing of public sector unions. Johnson makes a purely financial argument against the H.848 concept. “There are significant costs in running two systems,” she said. “We’d be running two systems for 50-60 years. That’s a very big commitment.”
Democratic and Republican leaders are united on the urgency of the pensions issue, but the conversation is unlikely to bear fruit this year. “We will be diving into the overall health of the system and how the changes we made a few years back have affected the system before we proceed,” Ashe said. That sounds like the opposite of a rush job.
And then there’s one thing that could derail the best-laid plans: coronavirus. State officials are talking about the prospect of closing public spaces where large numbers of people gather, as the French have done with the Louvre Museum. That could include the Statehouse, which doesn’t have a pandemic plan right now.
“It’s one of the things on my list to think about this week,” said Johnson. “We have to make a decision and see about either suspending the Legislature or finding a way to suspend the rules to allow remote voting.”
If worst comes to worst, the Legislature might throw everything else out the window and content itself with the legal requirement of enacting a budget for the new fiscal year. In the event of a public health crisis, the rest is noise.
