The Vermont Legislature adjourned its biennium just after midnight Saturday morning. Although lawmakers approved a spending plan that’s expected to raise $49 million in new revenue, they also failed to pass some major initiatives.
Lawmakers approved a $5.7 billion budget, the one bill that is the absolute priority for the legislature.
In the late hours of the biennium, the House and Senate passed bills that give municipalities and regional planning commissions more say on where solar and wind-powered projects should be located. They also updated forestry laws. But legislators failed to legalize recreational marijuana, a priority of Governor Peter Shumlin.
Middlebury College Professor Emeritus of Political Science Eric Davis assesses the legislature in two tracks. “In terms of what they have to do the most important thing is passing a state budget. They did pass a budget which the money committees say is balanced. Republicans say that it increased spending by too much. In terms of what the legislature chose to do this year there were some initiatives that didn't make it through both houses. So on the whole I would say one would have to get the 2015-16 biennium a mixed assessment.”
There were a number of hits and misses among the bills that moved through the chambers.
Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility was successful in getting the legislature to pass paid sick leave and Ban the Box, leading Public Policy Manager Dan Barlow to characterize the session as a success. “There's going to be a lot of people talking about what they didn't pass this year. You know marijuana legislation, they didn't do the ethics reform, the possibility of a carbon pollution tax. The legislature also has some unfinished business around the definition of independent contractor. And you know there's a lot of smaller bills this year that passed I think in other states would be really revolutionary. And Vermont had a whole bunch of them. Things like automatic voter registration when you go to the DMV. Just common sense reforms.”
Vermont Public Interest Research Group Executive Director Paul Burns says lawmakers for the most part dealt with routine issues this session. “It wasn't necessarily the session of monumental ideas or legislation. I've heard it described as housekeeping. And maybe it was more than that. There were a diverse number of issues that the legislature had to address and I think did a number of those things very successfully. But as many legislators and of course the governor make their exit from the Statehouse it wasn't really the time, I guess, for really big ideas to make it all the way through.”
Governor Shumlin, a Democrat, is not running for re-election. Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott is running for governor and House Speaker Shap Smith, who dropped out of the governor’s race, may run for lieutenant governor. The Senate pro tem and at least 14 House members will not run for re-election.
