by Anne Galoway vtdigger.org Representative Tom Koch, R-Barre Town, announced on the floor of the Vermont House on Tuesday that he will retire at the end of the biennium after 22 years of service. Koch, who grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Middlebury College in 1964 and holds a juris doctorate from the University of Chicago. He managed a private law practice in Barre for nearly 39 years, and he has been the Barre Town moderator since 1984, according to his official biography filed with the Vermont Secretary of State.
Rep. Tom Koch, R-Barre town and Sen. Alice Nitka, D-Windsor, worked on a new bill during an Interim Study Committee on the Regulation of Precious Metal Dealers meeting Friday. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
In a speech addressed to the Speaker, Koch, 72, told his colleagues that it has been a privilege to represent the Town of Barre. Several times, Koch, who is among the longest serving representatives in the House, struggled to control his emotions as he spoke.
“I have always maintained … that my service in this House will end before they carry me out feet-first, and it is time for me to make good on that vow,” Koch said. “I will not be a candidate for re-election this year.
“In my view, the Vermont Legislature is a very special place: a place where each member represents a very small number of citizens and has an unusually close relationship with his or her constituents; a place where members develop friendships and working relationships across party lines; a place where members arrive with genuinely good intentions, listen and learn to an extent that I am sure is totally unanticipated, come to different conclusions, debate their differing points of view, resolve them by majority vote, and then go out and socialize together in the evening.
“Above all, the Vermont Legislature is a place that, in my experience and observation, is devoid of corruption and ethical problems. Once again, I refer to Dick Snelling, who in his first inaugural address said, ‘There may be other public offices in which one can serve besides that of a legislator, but there is no higher office.’
“Mr. Speaker, I believe that one’s service, both here and outside these walls, is measured by the effect one has had in improving the lives of others,” Koch said.
Over the course of his career, Koch said he has been fortunate to work on election law reform, Act 250 revisions, mental health parity, improved treatment of patients with mental illness, health care reform and “helping to fight the epidemic of illegal drugs.”
“Whatever effect my efforts have had is for others to judge, but what I do know is that people who refer to being a legislator as “a thankless job” are dead wrong; I have been repeatedly amazed to open my mail to find a simple ‘thank-you’ note,” Koch said. “And notes like that are all the reward that one could ever want.”
“Mr. Speaker, we often speak of this House as a “family,” and that is true. We share each other’s joys, and we share each other’s sorrows. We have our disagreements, and as they say, ‘there’s no fight like a family fight,’ but at the end of the day, we come together under our motto ‘Freedom and Unity,’ knowing that we all have at heart the best interests of our beloved State of Vermont,” Koch said.
“Mr. Speaker, you have often emphasized that once you are a member of this family, you are always a member, and I take comfort in that fact,” Koch said. “The late Sen. Graham Newell stressed to me that a member speaks of right on behalf of the member’s constituents, and it is not necessary to thank the Speaker either for recognizing the member or for tolerating the member’s remarks, and so I believe I have never before concluded a speech on this floor with these words. But today, to you personally, and through you to all of the other members, staff, and others with whom I have had the privilege of working over the course of nearly a quarter of a century, I say: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”