This year, as Vermonters see a new governor and lieutenant governor begin their terms, new presiding officers are also overseeing the legislature. In the Democratically controlled House, Mitzi Johnson became the third female speaker to lead that chamber. The Senate is being led by a Democrat/Progressive from Burlington. Tim Ashe has been a member since 2009, sitting on key committees including Finance and Judiciary. Now in charge of the Senate agenda, he says the legislators’ key challenge comes from outside the Statehouse.“Overarching everything else is trying to manage the state at a time of great uncertainty in Washington. And I don’t mean that in a partisan sense. But I think it’s pretty clear that on virtually every major policy front we don’t quite know what to expect in the coming year. And so writing the budget of the state of Vermont is going to be done with just a cloud of uncertainty and volatility hanging over it.”
Listen to an extended conversation with Vermont Senate President ProTem Tim Ashe here:
