State Leaders Hope
For Cooperation in 2008
By M. D. Drysdale

Under the imposing portait of George Washington, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas gives his annual "State of the State" address. At left is Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie and at right is House Speaker Gaye Symington.

The 2008 legislative session offers hope for new legislation to encourage housing and to enact an all-fuels efficiency program, along with modest health care reforms.

Important disagreements, however, loom between the Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and the Democrat-controlled legislature.

Those were the mixed messages last Thursday as Douglas delivered a short, low-key State of the State address to the legislature, followed by a response from Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington.

Both speeches were delivered under a gloomy cloud of lowered expectations for state revenues next year—and, possibly, the foreseeable future.

Gone from Douglas’s speech were the calls for new visions for Vermont—last year’s "E-state" message, for instance, proposing to bring broadband to everyone, or the "Promise Scholarships" of the year before, proposing to bring valuable scholarships to everyone who needs them.

The lesser goals of last week’s speech may have been a response to the financial difficulties on the horizon—or they may have reflected a weariness with the nasty political skirmishes that marked the end of last year’s legislation session. Those disagreeable events included two vetoes by the governor and a special session (after an two-month period of charges and counter-charges) in which the legislature tried but failed to overturn the vetoes.

Both Gov. Douglas and Speaker Symington this year think they can pass a bill similar to one of the ones Douglas vetoed last year. This is an "all-fuels" bill that would help Vermonters who want to make their homes better insulated, thus cutting down on fuel consumption. The bill will cost money, and last year the disagreement came on the point of where to get the money, but last Thursday, both the governor and the legislature seemed committed to find a solution.

Speaker Symington also was conciliatory about the possibilities of a bill to make it easier to build more affordable housing. The Douglas administration’s "New Neighborhoods" bill went nowhere in last year’s legislature, but recent discussions have brought the sides closer together, it appeared.

The governor also told the legislature he agrees with several recommendations of the bipartisan Health Care Reform Commission—items like allowing parents to keep young adults on their family plans longer. He asked for a bill to sign before Town Meeting.

However, Democrats have said they plan a more ambitious bill, which would undoubtedly take longer to craft. Their proposal would be aimed at helping Vermonters who have some health insurance but not enough. In addition, an even more ambitous bill has been filed, proposing a single-pay system for all hospital care in the state—thus making hospital care free for patients because it is paid for by taxes.

Despite a number of pressing priorities, Douglas re-affirmed his opposition to new or increased taxes—specifically mentioning the income tax, payroll tax, property transfer tax, home heating fuel tax, and the gas tax. These, he implied, are all taxes the Democratic legislature may want to raise.

He again tied oppostion to new taxes (which was also a frequent refrain of former Gov. Howard Dean) to his concerns for the "affordability" of life in Vermont.

"My chief concern is that Vermonters are working harder than ever to make ends meet," Douglas said.

The governor never mentioned many expensive state needs, such as more investment in roads and bridges, or a new mental health facility to replace the state hospital at Waterbury. The proposals he did make were modest and included:

• Investing a quarter-million dollars in two "green technology" programs, one focusing on start-up businesses and the other an "e-coummunities" program to enable more locally-generated internet content.

• Raising the investment in college scholarships and workforce training from $7 million to $8 million.

• Asking the state retirement boards (over which he has no control) to make available $10 million in capital to create "green" jobs.

• Supporting more harvesting of timber in the Vermont state forests, along with continuing to fight invasive species.

• Forming a cluster of transportation programs called "Go Vermont" that, among other things, would double the number of park-and-ride spaces over the next decade. It would also encourage more research and advances in biofuels.

Douglas acknowledged the work of the Commission on Climate Change but did not recommend any of its conclusions except the all-fuels efficiency initiative. He stressed that Vermont already has "the smallest carbon footprint in the nation," and thus isn’t contributing much to global warming.