A key Senate committee voted unanimously Friday to reject Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s recent executive order restructuring how Act 250 land use permits are reviewed.
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy voted 5-0 to block the governor’s mandated changes for the Natural Resources Board.
The resolution now moves to the Senate floor.
“The provision for executive orders is a terrific opportunity — for people who have worked together to reach consensus, to streamline the lawmaking process,” Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, said in committee, but no agreement had been reached on this particular issue.
“I would vote to leave [the current system in place] and hope the next time the governor proposes an executive order that it’s because a consensus has been reached,” MacDonald said.
Under the executive order, the Natural Resources Board would be reduced from five members to three and would have more authority to review major Act 250 project applications.
Act 250, the state’s overarching land use law, has had a major role in considering development projects for the past half-century.
Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, who chairs the committee, said the executive order put lawmakers in a tough position, but he pledged to prioritize finding a solution.
“It’s a take it or leave it option, which is a hard place for us as legislators to work from — not a very productive venue for sorting things out and making improvements,” Bray said.
Sen. Richard Westman, R-Lamoille, the committee’s vice chair, said many people should have the opportunity to weigh in on proposed restructuring before it becomes law.
“There are a lot of people who would like to testify on this issue and way beyond the number of people that we have had in,” said Westman, the committee’s lone Republican.
Scott’s executive order is aso facing a legal challenge.
Last week, a lawsuit was filed in Vermont Superior Court, challenging the governor’s authority to circumvent existing law with executive orders. However, that lawsuit also claims the Legislature has no power to veto such orders.
Current law states that only one chamber needs to reject an executive order to prevent its enactment. Senate leaders have double-checked with the Office of Legislative Counsel and are comfortable with this legal framework.
But, in the text of the executive order, the Scott administration says it will go into effect automatically unless both the House and Senate reject it within 90 days of the date it was issued: Jan. 14.
Jaye Pershing Johnson, Scott’s general counsel, told lawmakers last week that the administration decided to include a requirement for both chambers to object in order to “give the Legislature notice” of its belief that both chambers must vote to reject.
Johnson said the governor’s legal position is based on U.S. Supreme Court decisions issued over the last three years.
Friday’s move by the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy sets up a likely vote on the Senate floor early next week. If the upper chamber votes to reject the executive order, the governor’s proposal will not go into effect, unless the Scott administration challenges that outcome in court.
