Republicans this session want to reform the education funding system, make health care more affordable, create more jobs, clean up Lake Champlain and not raise taxes, they said in a news conference Wednesday.
Twenty-eight GOP members flanked House Minority Leader Don Turner on Wednesday in the Cedar Creek Room at the Statehouse and took turns highlighting elements of their legislative agenda.
Their priorities are similar to those outlined by House Speaker Shap Smith, a Democrat, earlier that day in a speech to the House. His speech focused on education funding/property tax reform and economic growth.
The GOP is riding high after claiming a number of victories in the Legislature in November’s election.
There are now 62 Republican legislators: 53 in the House and nine in the Senate. Republicans, through a massive grassroots campaign, picked up eight seats in the House in November.
“We want to make sure we know that Vermonters know that we’re serious about this,” Turner said.
No mention was made that Thursday the Legislature is set to elect a governor, because neither incumbent Democrat Peter Shumlin nor Republican Scott Milne received more than 50 percent of the votes cast.
Milne was in the Statehouse on Wednesday talking to lawmakers but was not at the GOP news conference.
Republicans said they want to assure the public that they introduce many bills each session, some of which historically have not been taken up by Democratic leadership. They said they believe their larger caucus will have more success getting those bills passed.
Republicans said they will report to the media and public if the majority continues to stonewall their bills.
Republicans are now vice-chairmen of two committees: Appropriations and Education. There are now three Republicans on the Health Care committee, although Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, was moved off.
But because Republicans are still a minority in both chambers, Turner said their most important work happens in committees, which advances bills to the floor.
Republican lawmakers took turns Wednesday describing their “Freedom and Unity Plan.”
In what will be a tough year for the state budget, which has a gap of more than $100 million, GOP legislators said they want to examine every department of state government and determine what really works.
The Republicans said they want to reform collective bargaining for teachers and pass a bill to ban teacher strikes.
GOP leaders also talked about working with environmentalists, farmers and state and local officials on ways to clean up Lake Champlain and other waterways.
Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, said the cost of school budgets, paid for by property tax, is the No. 1 issue in the state. Legislators from all three parties have said that the burden of property tax is a main concern of their constituents.
Rep. Patti Komline, R-Dorset, talked about a bill prohibiting unfunded mandates for school districts. The bill passed the House last year, Komline said, but stalled in the Senate.
Requirements imposed by the Legislature should be paid for out of the state budget, not school budgets, which are funded by property taxes, Komline said.
The Republicans said they also want to focus on health care issues, including a bill that would allow businesses with more than 50 employees to continue to purchase health insurance outside of the state exchange, Vermont Health Connect.
Rep. Job Tate, R-Mendon, said economic development is another top priority, because if people have more solid and predictable incomes it prevents other problems.
Vermont residents and businesses are overtaxed and Republicans will oppose increases in taxes or fees, said newly elected Rep. Corey Parent, R-St. Albans.
After the news conference, Parent talked more about economic development. He was assigned Wednesday to the committee on commerce and economic development.
Parent lives across the street from a shopping center that contains a JC Penny store. News broke Wednesday that that company will close that store and one in Rutland.
Parent, 24, said economic development will also encourage young people to stay in Vermont.
“I’m sick of seeing my friends leave the state,” he said.
Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, said she wants to focus on education funding reform.
“Property tax and education. That’s what I heard time after time on the campaign trail,” Flory said.
She also wants to focus on an omnibus bill on child protection, developed by an offseason committee of which Flory was a member.
The bill is designed to help the state’s child welfare system function better in the wake of the deaths of two toddlers last year whose families were involved with the state Department for Children and Families.
Flory said she thinks the larger Republican Party presence this year will help advance its priorities, but in general, Vermont lawmakers are good at working across the aisle.
“If we could put out of our mind who was an ‘R’ and who was a ‘D’ and just make it that we’re doing the best for Vermont, then we’d be a lot better off,” Flory said.
