Neal P. Goswami – Bennington Banner
BENNINGTON — Legislative leaders are hoping to shepherd lawmakers through a streamlined session that focuses on closing a massive budget gap and creating jobs.
“This session is going to be about jobs and job creation,” Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith, both Democrats, seek to guide the Legislature through a 16- or 17-week session, Shumlin said. They hope to exclude the kind of bitter sniping between the Democratic majority and Republican Gov. James Douglas that took place during the previous session.
“The Speaker and I understand that what Vermonters want are results, not bickering. We’re going to work as hard as we can to make progress on job creation and work together with the governor in his last term,” Shumlin said.
Last year, Douglas vetoed the Democrats’ spending plan. But the majority, with the help of Progressives, made history when they overrode his veto. This year, all sides agree that budget challenges are more severe, with a gap of about $150 million.
Smith said a consulting group that has worked through the summer and fall with the administration and legislative leaders has helped changed the tone in Montpelier. “I think that that process has really given us an area to grow from,” Smith said.
The process is bringing both branches of government together to 
help “restructure and reinvent government,” he said.
Smith praised the administration for providing lawmakers with early copies of the budget adjustment, which adjusts spending midway through the budget year. The early access to the governor’s proposed adjustment is a “testament to their efforts,” Smith said.
Additionally, Smith called the administration’s adjustment plan a “clean bill.” “There wasn’t anything in there that was a surprise or political,” he said.
Shumlin, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said he has heard a common theme across the state — employers cannot find enough trained workers. Vermont needs to “double or triple our efforts to re-train Vermont’s work force for 21st century jobs,” he said.
“We’ve got to make job training a priority. If we need money we’ll have to find it,” Shumlin said. “We’re good at that.”
The session that begins next month will begin with business owners meeting with lawmakers to air concerns and issues.
“We’ve got to find ways to help this fragile recovery move forward and create jobs. The Speaker and I intend to begin the second week of the session with a jobs forum where we’ll invite the whole Legislature and we’ll listen to businesses small and large about how we might help them grow their companies,” Shumlin said.
The two leaders said they will also explore ways to help business get access to private capital.
They said the biggest challenge will be finding ways to reduce spending to close the budget gap. Both Smith and Shumlin said raising new revenue — taxes — will not solve the problem.
“The answer to our economic problems in Montpelier is not new taxes, it’s new ideas,” Smith said.
Smith said lawmakers must “sharpen our pencils” and take a fresh look at the existing budget. “I don’t think it makes much sense for use to be taking a look at new taxes,” he said.
Administration wary
Douglas spokeswoman Dennise Casey said the administration is wary of Shumlin’s statements regarding taxes. “It’s just like more of the same from him. I don’t think he’s being clear with Vermonters,” she said. “He needs to be clear with Vermonters with how much he intends to tax them.”
Casey said administration officials were disappointed with the mood within the Capitol during the last session and pleased with the early tone set by legislative leaders. However, there is a long, difficult road ahead, she said.
“We are encouraged by the change in tone from legislative leaders, but we’re going to withhold our judgment on this session until the full Legislature comes back, and until the rubber really meets the road,” she said.
Casey said Douglas will seek legislative support in passing a “package of economic initiatives” in “the most difficult budget that anyone will be able to remember for some time.”
“The decisions that we make this year are going to set the course that we take out of this session. These decisions will determine whether we spring out of it ready to go with innovative programs … or whether we crawl out of it by doing the bare minimum to keep state government chugging along,” Casey said.
She said Douglas, who is not seeking re-election, remains committed to addressing the budget challenges. “He knows what’s at stake, and because he’s not running again, he knows that his chance to get this state on the right path is right now. I think that influences his thinking and his decision making,” Casey said.
Published in the Bennington Banner – December 18, 2009
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