Final Reading: Not nuthin’ – vtdigger.org

There’s a painting by Vermont artist Dug Nap that I think about a lot. In it, a goofy broadcaster delivers the “Vermont evening news” and says, “Nuthin’ happened in Vermont again today — Goodnight.” 

That’s rarely true in the Statehouse during the final days of the Legislative session, and especially not on Tuesday, when two floor votes suddenly turned into nail biters.

House lawmakers narrowly failed to override Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes on two bills: A Burlington charter change that would ban no-cause evictions, and the clean heat standard. Each failed by just one vote — and seemed to blindside legislative leadership.

“We had a hundred votes in the morning, and by the end of the vote, we didn’t,” said Conor Kennedy, chief of staff to House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington. 

On the clean heat standard, Rep. Thomas Bock of Chester was one of three Democrats to vote against overriding Scott’s veto. He didn’t know he’d be the swing vote, he said.  

Bock, who had voted for the clean heat bill in a prior floor vote, told VTDigger he made a last-minute decision to vote against the bill, and didn’t tell House leadership about his plans. He said it was calls from constituents that ultimately changed his mind. 

On no-cause evictions, three lawmakers joined the “yeas,” while two — Reps. Thomas Burditt, R-West Rutland, and Paul Lefebvre, I-Newark, shifted their stance to vote “no.”

Lefebvre told VTDigger he initially planned to vote for the charter change. He said he changed his mind Tuesday morning after deciding the bill would be too restrictive toward landlords.

Tuesday’s votes demonstrated the power of an executive veto, even in a Legislature dominated by one political party. 

Scott has issued the most vetoes of any governor in Vermont history, totaling 30 (so far) over his tenure, according to state archivist Tanya Marshall. Scott broke the record for most vetoes by a single governor last session; the former record was 21, set by Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat. 

Besides the Burlington charter change and the clean heat standard, Scott has issued four other vetoes so far this session: 

• H.157 would have created a statewide registry of construction contractors. That provision is now included in S.226, a separate housing bill that includes many provisions Scott supports. The governor has called the registry a “poison pill.”
• S.30 would have strengthened firearm background checks and banned guns in hospitals. After Scott’s veto, lawmakers drafted a compromise bill, S.4, which Scott signed into law in March. 
• H.361 would have amended Brattleboro’s charter to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections. The Senate failed to override Scott’s veto in a 15-12 vote in March. 
• S.286 codified a pension deal with state employees. Both chambers voted unanimously last week to override the veto, enacting the deal into law. According to Krowinski’s office, it was the first veto to be overridden unanimously in both chambers in state history.

We may not be done yet. At his weekly press conference Tuesday, Scott announced plans to veto S.234, a bill to revise Act 250, the state’s land use and development law. 

Kennedy expressed frustration with the governor’s penchant for vetoes. The Speaker’s Office often feels like they’ve walked away from the table with an acceptable compromise, Kennedy said — only to see the governor shoot down legislation in the end. 

“First it just feels, like, a little political, but then eventually — we just have trust issues now. And that’s a bummer,” he said.

Scott also holds first place for most vetoes overridden by the Legislature, clocking four overrides as of last Friday. Former Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, was the first governor in Vermont history to have more than a single veto overridden. 

— Riley Robinson with reporting from Emma Cotton, Jack Lyons and Lola Duffort

IN THE KNOW

House and Senate lawmakers got a rundown Tuesday from their respective appropriation chairs — Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier, and Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia — on the budget deal struck yesterday between the two chambers. The House speaker’s office said a floor vote was being scheduled for Wednesday. The Senate will likely also vote that day, according to the pro tem’s office.

— Lola Duffort

Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, who has carved out a reputation as a moderate but outspoken Republican, is bowing out from the state House of Representatives after representing Stowe for nearly 16 years.

In a written statement Tuesday announcing her departure, Scheuermann said her legislative accomplishments during her eight terms in office were made possible “by working with people from across the political spectrum to advance the interests of the people of Stowe and of Vermont.”

In an interview Tuesday with VTDigger, she said she is “exceptionally” worried about the rising temperature of political partisanship across the country, which she said is no longer limited to just Washington, D.C. The divisiveness is palpable in state legislatures and “Vermont is no exception,” she said.

Read more here. 

— Sarah Mearhoff

Sen. Cheryl Hooker, D/P-Rutland, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Education, said Tuesday that she will not seek reelection this year. 

Hooker has been in and out of the Vermont Legislature for more than three decades, following her 1990 appointment to the House. She has served two stints in the Senate, the most recent of which began in 2019. 

With Hooker stepping down, two of Rutland’s three Senate seats are wide open in this year’s state elections. Sen. Brian Collamore, R-Rutland, confirmed to VTDigger on Tuesday that he plans to run for another two-year term. The third member of the delegation, Sen. Joshua Terenzini, R-Rutland, announced in April that he won’t seek reelection. 

Read more here.

— Riley Robinson

ON THE MOVE

House and Senate conferees agreed on a compromise Tuesday that gives Gov. Phil Scott most of the nearly $100 million he wanted in workforce and economic development funds.

The compromise provides money to subsidize training for thousands of Vermonters as they change careers or enter new ones, to provide businesses and nonprofits with grants and forgivable loans in the hope that they create more jobs, and to help businesses keep employees on the payroll if another Covid wave hits the state. 

The Legislature’s budget allocates $114.5 million in total for workforce and economic development. Lawmakers agreed on $84.5 million of that in S.11 on Tuesday, with an additional $30 million set aside in a budget agreement reached Monday.

Read more here.

— Fred Thys

Members of the Green Mountain Care Board had one goal for this year’s legislative session. The five-member body regulates hospital growth, but it sought the power to set entire hospital budgets.

The care board argued that setting budgets with an eye toward the overall needs of the state would protect everyone, including hospitals, from financial ruin. The Vermont Senate agreed, but House members said the Agency of Human Services, not the Green Mountain Care Board, should set the direction for Vermont’s health care reform efforts.

The two chambers found a compromise this week. S.285 gives the Green Mountain Care Board more than $4 million to come up with a “patient-focused, community-inclusive plan” for setting hospital budgets. The bill also directs the Agency of Human Services and the care board to work together on a new proposal that may, but not necessarily, include the budget-setting authority the board wanted.

— Liora Engel-Smith

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL 

Charity Clark, who has served as chief of staff of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office since 2018, is stepping down from her role while “seriously considering” a run for attorney general.

Clark’s resignation comes just days after incumbent Attorney General TJ Donovan announced that he is vacating his role as the state’s top prosecutor. Clark, who has worked in top roles with the Attorney General’s Office since 2014, is widely seen as a potential candidate to succeed Donovan.

Clark told VTDigger in a phone interview Monday that she plans to make an official announcement “in the coming days.”

Read more here. 

— Sarah Mearhoff

Jared Duval, an environmental advocate and former state director of economic development, is vying for a Washington County seat in the Vermont Senate, he announced late Sunday. Duval is entering the race just days after Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson announced her candidacy. 

Read more here. 

— Sarah Mearhoff 

COVID CORNER

The Vermont Department of Health plans to “phase out” the Covid-19 case dashboard that has been the centerpiece of its data reporting since March 2020, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said at a press conference Tuesday.

The dashboard — part of a collection of Covid data available on the department’s website — publishes the daily number of cases, hospitalizations, deaths and the percent positivity rate, as well as analyzing trends over time in the geography, demographics and vaccine status of Covid infections.

But Levine said the department has cautioned for months that ​​data points such as cases and percent positivity “lack a lot of relevance at this point in time.”

“We’ve spoken many times here about data reporting and the need to focus on the larger picture of Covid: its impact on our health and on our health care systems,” he said. 

Read more here.

— Erin Petenko

WHAT’S FOR LUNCH

Tomorrow’s special is a smoked brisket salad, with grilled veggies and blistered cherry tomatoes. The grill special is chicken parm sandwiches. The deli special is a ham and brie panini with apple and pickled red onion. We hear there will be maple mustard on the side, made with maple syrup produced by Rep. Rodney Graham, R-Williamstown. 

— Riley Robinson

WHAT WE’RE READING

As session draws to a close, advocates say more needs to be done to curb overdose deaths (VTDigger)

Less than a third of Vermonters have ever gotten Covid, CDC study shows (VTDigger) 

Many Vermont adoptees can’t see their original birth certificates. A new law restores access (VPR)How the pandemic has affected Vermont’s organ donation program (VPR)