After unanimously winning election to a fourth term as speaker of the House, Morristown Rep. Shap Smith urged his fellow lawmakers to press forward with the politically difficult task of overhauling the state’s education system.
Smith’s speech Wednesday morning served as the unofficial kickoff to a two-year legislative biennium in which the Democratic speaker will look for ways to curb rising property taxes that many blame for Democratic losses in the House and Senate in the November elections.
While the economy may be improving, Smith said, “too many of our neighbors are feeling pinched, plain and simple.” And part of alleviating that pinch, according to Smith, will require education reforms that soften the impact of property taxes on Vermont businesses and homeowners.
Smith says the fiscal year 2016 budget must also be sensitive to the difficult financial realities facing taxpayers. But he says lawmakers must simultaneously reinforce a social safety net on which Vermonters increasingly rely.
Smith said health care reform will remain a top priority in the Legislature, despite Gov. Peter Shumlin’s decision to abandon his pursuit of a single-payer health care system. While lawmakers will no longer consider a plan to replace private premiums with public financing, Smith said lawmakers “must address the rising costs of health care … this session, this biennium.”
Smith offered no specific policy proposals for how to go about the massive task of education and health care reform. Those details – as well as how to solve the $100 million budget shortfall – will emerge in the coming days and weeks.
Windsor Sen. John Campbell, meanwhile, won unanimous election to another term as Senate President this morning.
The most closely watched event of the opening week is scheduled to come on Thursday morning, when House and Senate lawmakers will cast votes for governor. While Shumlin received the most votes in November, he did not win a majority. In such cases, the Vermont Constitution dictates that the Legislature decide the race by secret-ballot vote.
"Too many of our neighbors are feeling pinched, plain and simple." - House Speaker Shap Smith
Republican challenger Scott Milne is now actively campaigning for votes in that race, and says he’s spent “a few hundred dollars” on social media advertising in the last week or so. Milne’s own efforts are in addition to the $30,000 being spent by a new group that began airing pro-Milne television advertisements just before the new year. Those advertisements have, according to several lawmakers, spawned an extraordinary number of constituent calls from Vermonters who want to see the Legislature seize on the vote to dispatch with Shumlin.
Milne was in the Statehouse Wednesday to watch his father, Don, sworn in as House clerk. But Milne says he was also working votes while there.
The winner of the gubernatorial election – Democrats far outnumber Republicans in the Legislature, and Shumlin is expected to prevail – will deliver an inaugural address Thursday afternoon.
