by Alicia Freese March 18, 2013 vtdigger.org House Speaker Shap Smith was alternately starry-eyed and down-to-earth Monday as he assessed the state of affairs in the House and briefed reporters on what’ s in store for the next nine weeks.
Smith described the session’ s first half as one in which lawmakers of every party stripe ‘ put their noses to the grindstone’ in the service of three lofty goals.
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morrisville, speaks to reporters at the Statehouse Monday, March 18, 2013. Photo by Alicia Freese
‘ This session has been about strengthening our communities, making investments to ensure Vermont is an even better place than it is today, and ensuring quality and fair treatment for all Vermonters,’ he said.
Later on, however, Smith described the session as ‘ a difficult one because of the limited resources we have.’
‘ But Vermonters expect us to figure out a way to deal with what we have, and that’ s what we are going to do,’ Smith continued.
In his rundown of some of the more pressing bills on the House’ s plate, Smith focused on consumer protection, workplace equality, and drug abuse issues.
He gave a strong pitch for the equal pay bill, which would prohibit employers from punishing workers who inquire about wages or flexible work schedules.
‘ It’ s amazing to think that in 2013 women in Vermont are paid less than men. It’ s, quite frankly, an embarrassment to the state,’ he said.
Smith also highlighted a bill that addresses opioid and methamphetamine abuse and a bill that would rein in life insurance companies that aren’ t making ‘ good faith efforts’ after a client’ s death to inform the beneficiaries of the payment they are entitled to.
Smith drew attention to a pair of education bills ‘ one expands pre-K and the other provides partial tuition reimbursement to college students who stay in Vermont after graduation ‘ that mesh with Gov. Peter Shumlin’ s inaugural proposals. The education legislation is a rare spot of common ground between lawmakers and the Shumlin administration.
Despite the dissonance between the administration’ s budget and the Legislature’ s preferences, Smith said both camps are open to compromise.
‘ Everyone is going to have to give a little bit,’ Smith said. He characterized the discussions he’ s been having with the governor and his administration as ‘ frank.’ Some of the disconnect between Shumlin’ s budget and the Legislature’ s tack has more to do with fiscal factors that are in flux than with discord between their policy visions, according to Smith.
Smith cited the administration’ s proposal to cap welfare benefits. After some ‘ number scrubbing,’ they’ ve had to scale back their estimate that the move would save $6 million in Fiscal Year 2014.
The Speaker said he still hopes some of Shumlin’ s proposals will come to fruition but he expects the final products to be more modest in scope.
Whereas Shumlin continues to call for making the largest investment in early education and child care in the state’ s history, Smith said he hopes to ‘ at least make a good faith down payment’ on the latter.
Smith was similarly conservative in his prognosis for funding of the energy investments Shumlin outlined in his budget proposal. Shumlin’ s budget calls for adding $6 million for LIHEAP, $6 million for thermal efficiency, and $5 million for the Clean Energy Development Fund. Lawmakers reacted to the proposed funding source ‘ a tax on break-open tickets ‘ with skepticism.
‘ To the extent possible I’ d like to see us make investments in our renewable energy future and thermal efficiency. We are not going to be able to make the same investments that the governor proposes. That’ s not because we disagree with the governor ‘¦ we just have a different view of the budget eight weeks after he proposed it,’ Smith said.
Shumlin, like Smith, struck a conciliatory when assessing the Legislature’ s progress last Thursday.
‘ They’ re asking the right questions and, in the end, I expect, like most governors, I’ ll get some of what I want, and they’ ll get some of what they want,’ Shumlin said.
But Shumlin also suggested that it’ s a matter of time before the Legislature warms to his proposals.
‘ You’ re going to see them [the Legislature] go through a lot of iterations a lot of conversations that we had internally that in the end don’ t look so great ‘¦ this is the time of year when the legislative committees need the latitude to discuss lots of ideas, shake them out see what works and what doesn’ t work and my guess is that as they do that, they’ ll find that our package makes sense because we’ ve already been through that process,’ he said.
And the governor’ s read of the Legislature’ s driving mission this session was slightly different than Smith’ s. ‘ They are focused on job growth and prosperity, as we are.’
Crossover deadline was Friday, creating a bottleneck of about two dozen bills that are awaiting debate on the House floor. The House will slog through a ragbag of bills on Tuesday. Smith said he is reserving time on Wednesday and Thursday for debate on the transportation bill, which includes a phased-in gas sales tax. The House will take up equal pay legislation and the pre-K and the tuition reimbursement bills later this week.