by Guy Page
When the 2024 session of the Vermont Legislature began, some Vermonters worried that the veto-proof supermajority could and would do whatever it wanted. Damn the tax hikes, full speed ahead!
But so far, the record shows that if anything, an uneasy sense of caution has set in among supermajority’s leadership under the Golden Dome. Suddenly the invincible supermajority looks, well, vincible.
For example:
1. The legislative pay raise was shelved – bad optics with a Town Meeting school budget revolt looming.
2. The constitutional amendment to control the election, training and discipline of sheriffs lacks the votes in the Senate. Senators aren’t saying why. But ever since Vermont woke up and realized that Sheriff John Grismore – the House impeachment panel’s raison d’etre poster child – kicked that suspect in the midsection BEFORE he was elected sheriff, the ‘get the sheriffs’ vibe has cooled. It seems you can’t impeach an elected official for something done before he was elected. And maybe the whole amendment won’t pass a Separation of Powers challenge. Whoops!
3. H.258, a bill taking away the rulemaking authority of the Fish & Wildlife board from the governor and hunters, lacks enough votes to pass the Senate.
4. The Legislature is now dithering over the $1 billion pricetag to rebuild Vermont’s power grid to suit 100% renewable power.
5. A Homeless Bill of Rights passed out of committee without key provisions sought by homeless rights supporters.
6. And on Tuesday, school budgets were rejected by 31 school districts at Town Meeting – an unprecedented oof-maker to the doughy midsection of Vermont’s professional educator establishment, AKA what free market conservative pundit Rob Roper calls The Blob.
7. Now, a housing bill armageddon looms. In both the House and Senate, hard-charging bills to relax Act 250 to build more housing are stalled in the House and Senate environment committees chaired respectively by Rep. Amy Sheldon and Sen. Chris Bray, two mild-mannered Addison County lawmakers who are utterly intransigent about significant Act 250 housing reform. Vermont is their unspoiled Garden of Eden and they are the angels wielding the flaming swords, lest the corrupters invade.
In short, a lot the Supermajority said they’d do, or wanted to do, they’re not doing. The two bottom line reasons are money and fear. They know taxpayers won’t stand for the huge tax hikes these changes require.
They’re worried about November.
A captain at sea has unlimited power of command, but if he goes too far, he must face an admiral’s board of inquiry once he puts into port. We voters are the admirals. Vermont’s ship of state drops anchor in November. And they know it and they know we know it.
Until the adjournment gavel falls, they still control the process. Who knows what will get snuck into other legislation in the last half of the second biennium? But we do know this: people like Phil Scott, and Vermonters for Clean Environment, and yes the Vermont Daily Chronicle, will be watching and telling. And the supermajority knows it.
Try to do too much, and they lose the Supermajority. Momentum is a pendulum that swings both ways.