MONTPELIER, Vt.—Around the Vermont Statehouse, the garden is planted in January. This year's perennial issues include school finance, health care and energy. The annuals are expected to feature privatizing the state lottery. And a new bud could sprout: a debate over relaxing penalties for small amounts of marijuana.
Lawmakers return Tuesday with the usual talk already in the air of coming together to do the people's business, and the reality once again of a Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and liberal Democrats running the Legislature trying to rein in one another's fondest ambitions.
"I'm looking forward to working with all the legislators in addressing the challenges and problems that are facing our state," Douglas told reporters this past week.
That might be a tall order, if what happened in 2007 is any indication. Lawmakers returned for a special session in July and tried but failed to overturn two Douglas vetoes of bills aimed at extending Vermont's leadership on conserving electricity to heating fuels and on limiting donations to political candidates.
Douglas and the two leading Democrats in the Legislature -- House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin -- agreed this past week that an "all-fuels efficiency" program to tighten Vermont's houses and buildings and make their heating systems more efficient would be passed once again this year.
The governor continued, though, to float an idea he had last summer -- one that doesn't appear to have gained a lot of popularity among legislative Democrats. Douglas wants to have the new heating efficiency measures paid for mainly through state-subsidized, low-interest loans from private banks.
Shumlin was less clear on how to pay for it, saying he would prefer to design the program first and then figure out the financing. He said legislative consultants were to report soon on how to do that.
School finance is probably the most reliable perennial issue around the Vermont Statehouse, but this year it could appear leaf-by-flower with the debate about leasing the state lottery to a private company. Douglas has been promoting the idea of taking a one-time payment estimated at about $50 million from such a company for rights to the lottery.
In the governor's vision, the money would be split between school construction projects on which Vermont has fallen behind and property tax relief designed to bridge the gap between the present and the 2009 effective date of a new brake on school spending. That would come from a new law requiring a second vote in a local school district before surpassing a certain spending threshold.
Douglas said he wants "immediate property tax relief," something the $50 million lottery windfall could provide, at least in some measure. But the lottery lease idea got a cool reception from Shumlin and a frigid one from Symington.
"I'm not in favor of increasing reliance on gambling to finance state government," the speaker said.
Here's a sampling of some of the other issues likely to be the subject of conversation under the Golden Dome:
-- Health care. Douglas said he wants to take steps to make health care more affordable, with efforts directed at Vermonters who have insurance but are groaning under the weight of premiums, copays and deductibles. Some lawmakers, meanwhile, are floating a plan to move toward a single-payer system for the state's hospitals, while maintaining a hybrid system for other providers.
-- Housing. Douglas wants to revive his "new neighborhoods initiative," which would promote construction of more affordable housing by relaxing some state permit requirements. The construction industry is strongly behind him on that. But non-governmental groups that work on affordable housing appear to be allying with environmental organizations with the aim of steering housing development to village centers.
-- Vermont Yankee. Lawmakers aren't expected to vote until next year on whether to allow Vermont Yankee to continue operating after its current license expires in 2012. But Yankee issues have a way of rearing their head anyway, and one this year may have to do with the adequacy of the plant's decommissioning fund to dismantle the reactor when it shuts down.
-- Campaign finance. Douglas vetoed last year's attempt to rein in campaign contributions, saying it likely would have led to the second losing court challenge for Vermont this decade. Lawmakers are itching to tighten limits on campaign contributions and spending just enough to avoid having the U.S. Supreme Court strike down another Vermont law. Douglas says his preference would be to return to the more relaxed limits in place a decade ago.
-- Marijuana. Douglas said this past week he's open to having a conversation about relaxing penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, but stopped short of saying he supports such a change. Shumlin said he would like to see lawmakers take up the issue.
