Budget is job No. 1 for Legislature
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By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: December 18, 2009
BARRE – Vermont's budget is in poor shape, but the situation is not as severe as in many other states, House Speaker Shap Smith said Thursday.
Smith, a Democrat from Morrisville who is entering his second year as the leader of the Vermont House, said he has heard horror stories from other states about their own struggles to fix their budget gaps.
"We're not alone," Smith said. "This is not a challenge unique to Vermont. If anything, I would say we are in the middle of the pack."
With just weeks to go before the start of the Vermont Legislature's second half of their session, Smith sat down with the editors of the Times Argus and the Rutland Herald on Thursday afternoon to discuss the issues facing the state.
The 90-minute discussion centered mostly on the budget problems facing Vermont – the 2011 budget, which lawmakers need to approve next year, has a $150 million gap – along with other hot topics such as Vermont Yankee, health care and the 2010 elections.
Smith said the "overwhelming challenge" for the Legislature will be to narrow the budget gap to a manageable size. He is optimistic about the chances that lawmakers and the Douglas administration – who are usually at odds with each other – will be able to find a solution for the budget together.
He said he was pleasantly surprised this week when the Douglas administration presented its budget adjustment bill to lawmakers. The request to reduce the current spending plan by $16.4 million did not contain any measures that Democrats, who control both the House and the Senate, found overtly offensive.
"It was a very clean bill," Smith said. "There's not anything to fight about and I think that's a tribute to the fact that we are trying to lead. I think everyone has learned some lessons from last year."
Last year, Gov. James Douglas and legislative Democrats were miles away on the budget, a division that led to the governor vetoing the spending plan passed by lawmakers. Lawmakers, in a historic move, overrode Douglas' veto. But that move only fed resentment between those two branches of state government.
Smith said he has high hopes for a working group consisting of top lawmakers and administration officials to find ways to reduce expenses for state government in a bipartisan fashion.
Options on the table right now – Smith stressed that the plans are far from complete – include increasing the student-teacher ratio slightly to cut education costs, consolidating outreach services in the Vermont Agency of Human Services "into a single portal," restructuring the state's court systems and making alterations to the retirement benefits for state employees and teachers.
Smith said he hopes that combining these trims can add up to between $30 million and $80 million. He's ruled out new taxes to fix the rest of the budget gap – he said he is focusing on expenditures, not revenue – and thinks Vermont could see some additional federal stimulus money to plug into the budget hole.
He said he hopes the budget gap can be filled without any additional layoffs of state workers. But he also left open just a crack the door to cutting the work force.
"I would prefer not to go there, but I can't say that won't happen," he said.
Lawmakers may also tackle the controversial topic of allowing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to operate for an additional 20 years beyond 2012, when its license expires. But Smith said he has not directed his committees to begin working on a bill yet because the company has not yet reached a new power deal with Vermont utilities.
Entergy Nuclear Vermont, the plant owner, announced this fall that it would release its "best offer" to state officials today. Earlier this week they announced it would not be ready by today and may come out later this year.
Unlike some Democrats in the House, Smith said he "doesn't have an ax to grind" against nuclear power, but he said there will not be a vote in the House next year on continued operation if the company does not have a power purchase agreement with the utilities.
He also raised concerns about Entergy's plan to spin off Vermont Yankee and several other nuclear plants into a new limited liability company called Enexus. Smith said the corporate reshuffling appears to be a way for the company to avoid long-term clean-up responsibilities when the plant does shut down.
"If Vermont Yankee wants a successful vote, then they haven't laid the ground work for it yet," he said.
Health care is a perennial issue for the Vermont Legislature, but Smith said much of the debate is on hold right now as officials wait to see what emerges from Washington, D.C. The House Health Care Committee will take testimony on a host of bills, including a single-payer proposal, he said.
"We'll take a look at a number of bills out there," Smith said.
Next year is also an election season in Vermont and Smith said the landscape is a "challenging electoral environment" for all major political parties in the state. His philosophy during election years is to consider himself "the underdog," he explained.
He added that he hopes the host of serious problems facing Vermont does not dissuade people from running for office in 2010. If anything, it should encourage them to run, he said.
"This is the time you want to be in a decision-making capacity," Smith said. "This is the hard stuff. There are no easy answers. It's a great time to be here."
Does that mean Smith has no regrets leading the Vermont House during a time of crisis?
"It's a great job," he said. "I wouldn't miss it for anything in the world."
daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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