Vermont Lt. Gov. John Rodgers is in the middle of his first term. The Republican had previously served as a Democrat in the state Senate, over which he now presides.
Less than a month into the second half of the legislative biennium, Rodgers tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley a number of serious issues are on the agenda.
Well, of course, there's lots swirling and not much done, right? We're early on. There are serious issues to deal with. The majority of calls I get here in my office are people who say I can't afford to live in Vermont anymore. You know, this education reform, something has to be done because we've gotten to a point where Vermonters can't afford the system we have. And unfortunately, there seems to be a whole bunch of folks here in the state house that are fine with the status quo. There are other people who are saying oh, we can just change the way we fund it, which I totally disagree with. Vermonters are very heavily taxed and we're not a high income state. And those two things don't go together. When we look at energy costs, we're the 10th highest in the country in energy costs because of policies that the legislature has forwarded. We need to deal with energy costs. We've got really tough regulations for businesses to get through. So we've got a lot to do here. Health care is probably the biggest issue with the federal aid cut for folks buying their own health insurance. I'm very worried about the health of Vermont because had a couple, no kids, married couple told me their insurance this year is $38,000 with a high deductible. That is just unsustainable and many people are going to drop their insurance, which means we're going to end up with sicker people going to the emergency room, which is the most expensive way to provide health care. So serious issues. Hoping we can make progress on health care and education and start to bring down the price of the cost of living here.
With all of these issues, I mean, last year education kind of crept forward. What do you anticipate? Do you think anything valid, anything big, will come out of these issues that you've talked about?
Well, I'm certainly hopeful. You know, the legislative process it's sometimes slow and painful but Vermonters are asking us to do it. So real, real leadership does what their people need and I'm super hopeful. Another thing that I've been working on as I travel around the state, I'm really encouraging more of our youth to go into technical careers, whether it's the trades, in home and building construction or it's in high tech manufacturing. We need to encourage our youth to take up careers that we need jobs filled here in the state, because one of our big problems is our demographics. We continue to be an older state. We're one of the oldest in the country and we've got to make it so more of our kids can be here. And that means the correct training and it means building housing that they can afford.
State Auditor Doug Hoffer recently released a report that says the state is not reducing energy use enough and it needs to improve how it tracks and reduces use in order to save money. Have you been involved in trying to make the corrections that Auditor Hoffer is suggesting?
I have not been involved in that. But I think everybody, whether individual or businesses or the state, need to do what they can to reduce power consumption. But one of the problems Pat is a legacy cost from implementing net metering all those years ago. And I'll never forget the conversation with my friend Representative Robert Dostis who was the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee and one of the architects of net metering. And he asked me why I didn't vote for his bill and I said because I believe it is going to drive up costs for rate payers. And he said well I think it's going to bring them down. And I told him, Robert I hope you're right. Well, some years later he came back and worked for a power company and was trying to get the legislature to bring down the cost of net metering. When it started out net metering costs were 21 cents a kilowatt hour, when we could buy Hydro Quebec power for six cents a kilowatt hour. And so what has happened is everybody who gets an electric bill has paid hundreds of millions of extra dollars and are still paying those extra dollars because of the cost of this program. And those are the things the legislature can address if there's the appetite to do it. We could bring down energy costs here in the state pretty, pretty dramatically at the same time we do the efficiency work and we could have a real impact.
Lieutenant Governor Rodgers, your predecessor was pretty famous about not really interacting with Governor Phil Scott. I'm curious how much and how you've been interacting with Governor Scott as this session of the legislature started.
The Governor and I meet at least once a week. I interact with members of his administration and his staff pretty much on a daily basis. So yes, we work very well together. I certainly appreciate it and I think the governor appreciates having somebody that he can actually work with. Also work with legislators on some of the governor's policy priorities, working on legislation with legislators, helping them improve legislation and working between the legislature and the public, as well as the legislature and the governor's office.
Have you decided if you will run for a second term?
Well, early on, let's see it was sometime last fall, Sarah Copeland Hanzas said that she was going to run for Secretary of State and reporters started calling around asking people and a whole bunch of people said no they weren't ready to say. And I tried to be very transparent, so I told them at that time I was planning on running for office though I've not made an announcement yet. But just so you have the inside scoop, I plan on making an announcement next Tuesday at noon here on the State House front steps.
A lot of people wait for Governor Scott to make his decision. I take it you're not worried about that in this case?
No. I've told folks for several months now that my intention is to run for this job again no matter what Governor Scott does. I absolutely love the job. Before I called you, I probably made 10 different constituent calls to people around the state needing assistance. And that's what we do. I feel like I am an advocate for all Vermonters and it is very rewarding to be able to help people with their issues, whether it's with state government or other agencies and other groups. So I am going to use this platform to its full potential for as long as I'm here,
Three Democrats have entered the race to challenge Rodgers for the lieutenant governor’s seat. Former Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, former gubernatorial candidate Esther Charlestin and former advisor to Sen. Peter Welch Ryan McLaren announced their campaigns this month.
