[T]he 2016 legislative session ended ahead of schedule. Lawmakers in a last-minute shuffle managed to adjourn on Friday night — a day before originally anticipated.
The early departure signaled the end to an uninspired, housekeeping session that was remarkable for how few big initiatives lawmakers tackled. While there were many small bills that will affect businesses and households in Vermont for years to come, the session closes with no sweeping legislation.
But given the tumultuous beginning of the first half of the biennium, which was marked by loud protests, the demise of single payer, and the arrest of a senator on the Statehouse lawn, it was a fitting, low-key finale.
The quiet conclusion also marks the end of an era. For the past six years, four men have run the ship of state — Gov. Peter Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell and House Speaker Shap Smith — and none of those leaders will be back next year.
It’s the first time in modern history that the state has simultaneously lost leaders in all four positions. Scott is a Republican; the other three are Democrats.
As Shumlin put it in his farewell speech, “Tonight probably represents the biggest transition in leadership in the legislature in state government in the greatest state government in country in any time in recent history.”
Shumlin ticked off a list of the bills on his agenda that passed last session in a 20-minute speech to a joint assembly of the Senate and House (typically the governor speaks to each body separately at adjournment).
Vermont is the fifth state, he said, to ensure employees get paid time off when they are sick. The fourth to offer automatic voter registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The second to “ban the box, ensuring we won’t sentence Vermonters to a lifetime of struggling to get that interview, to get that job.”
The Legislature eliminated outdated traffic ticket fines, repealed property tax caps, funded the naloxone program for addicts overdosing on heroin, limited prescription painkillers prescribed by hospitals and required regulators to direct renewable energy developers to site projects in areas designated by towns.
“We passed a balanced budget for the first time in a decade that doesn’t rely on any one-time funds and does not raise rooms and meals, income and sales tax rates,” Shumlin said.
“Coming out of the worst recession in history, we invested in job creation and made the single biggest investment in infrastructure in five years and cut in half the number of crumbling roads and bridges in Vermont,” Shumlin said. “We have one of lowest unemployment rates in America. You’ve added 17,000 new jobs.”
“Despite the revisionist history I hear consistently that our budgets are growing faster than the economy, in fact they have grown at 3 percent,” Shumlin said. “We have been fiscally responsible in a long great tradition of government in Vermont.”
“The work we have accomplished together is extraordinary, and it will have a lasting impact on Vermonters for generations to come,” the governor said.
Speaker Smith took a more philosophical approach. He didn’t cite a list, or pat himself on the back. He talked about what makes the Legislature a great institution — dedicated individuals who come to Montpelier for four months for very little pay to help make Vermont a better place.
“All I ask is that you retain the faith that motivates you to do the work every day here, to work for the people of the State of Vermont because we all believe in the opportunities this state affords,” Smith said.
While sometimes Smith said he wished his Republican and Progressive colleagues “wouldn’t point out flaws in legislation,” that criticism is vital to a functioning democracy.
“For the greater good, we need to have a discussion and dissension in the House so we can be stronger for it,” Smith said. “Disagreement is not a bad thing. When we all agree, we will have lost the institution we all love so dearly.”
Sometimes leadership voids fill naturally — people step up to take on more responsibility — but that didn’t happened this session. It was an awkward transition year. The governor’s agenda was largely disregarded by the Legislature, and the power dynamic shifted in the House and Senate just enough to make passage of major legislation difficult.
An omnibus retail marijuana bill suffered a slow twisting death in the House. Representatives who felt strongly about marijuana legalization didn’t have enough political capital to forge broad support for pot legalization in any way, shape or form, and the Senate was unwilling to compromise. Shumlin’s push behind the scenes only made matters worse.
An independent contractor bill that would have clarified the difference between employees and contract labor failed after a session-long vetting.
Divestment of fossil fuels from pension funds took a torturous route. Lawmakers had no interest in mandating divestment as the governor wished and in the end the State Treasurer wrested the issue away from Shumlin.
There was no more appetite for major health care initiatives after the collapse of a long-promised single payer system. Instead, lawmakers were left with the disheartening task of holding Shumlin administration officials accountable for Vermont Health Connect, a health care insurance website that cost more than $200 million and still doesn’t work properly.
Another legacy of the Shumlin administration and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate is an ongoing, nine-year budget gap that next year will be $30 million. General Fund budget spending has averaged 4.6 percent year over year since 2011. In recent years, the gaps reflect the Shumlin administration’s expansion of the Medicaid program.
Rep. Don Turner, the Republican minority leader, says lawmakers have approved about $100 million in new taxes and fees over the biennium. “I say it isn’t affordable, and
we’ve got to stop it,” he said to his colleagues on the House floor during the final budget vote.
There is also a sea change among the rank and file in the Legislature. The following representatives are retiring from the House: Donna Sweaney, Joan Lenes, Tim Jerman, Leigh Dakin, Tony Klein, Allison Clarkson, Carolyn Branagan, Linda Martin, Ann Manwaring, Debbie Evans, Bill Frank, Bob Krebs, Patti Komline and Betty Nuovo. Rep. Kesha Ram, D-Burlington, is running for lieutenant governor.
In addition to Campbell, three other senators are leaving the Green Room: Sen. David Zuckerman who is running for lieutenant governor, Sen. Helen Riehle who temporarily filled Diane Snelling’s seat, and Norm McAllister who was suspended at the beginning of the session as a result of criminal charges of sexually assault.
The retirement of so many longtime leaders and lawmakers ushers in a new era for the Statehouse that will be shaped by the election and defined by new leadership in the months to come.
Correction, May 9, 9:10 a.m.: Rep. Bob Krebs was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.