Scott using veto threat to get voters' attention
On Saturday, the Vermont Legislature adjourned its 2018 session. On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Scott sent a letter to legislative leaders calling the House and Senate back to Montpelier next week for a special session. Scott is calling that session to try and hammer out a budget deal more to his liking.
Scott says he’s living up to a campaign pledge to keep Vermont affordable by not raising taxes and fees. He doesn’t like that the Legislature, in their final budget bill, approved a $33 million increase in property taxes to fund education in the next fiscal year. Scott wants the Legislature to instead use $58 million in unanticipated tax revenues from the current year to cover the planned shortfall. In short, Scott wants to use those revenues to paper over a hole in next year’s education spending, while legislative leaders chose to spend those “excess” tax dollars in other places, and pass the education hike on to property-tax payers.
The veto threat and special session are political gamesmanship at a level not normally seen in Vermont. Generally, governors and legislators reach an agreement on budgets before the session ends. That happens regardless of which party controls the Legislature or the governor’s office.
But in each of Scott’s two years as governor, the legislative session has ended with a veto, or threat of one, of the state’s budget. Scott, for his part, has been very consistent in saying he doesn’t want to see taxes raised anywhere in the state. He says Vermonters have had enough of increases during the past decade, and he wants to rein that in.
Scott may be right about that, but his tactics appear to be more aggressive than we have seen in prior years, especially when it comes to using the veto threat to get what he wants. Like that approach or not, it does get legislators’ attention.
It also gets the voters’ attention. Most voters don’t follow the day-by-day ins and outs of the Legislature’s annual five-month stint. Most of the laws passed get scant attention. But taxes, now that’s something people pay attention to. People want to know when their wallet is under siege.
Scott, for his part, has seized the “no new tax” ground and planted his flag firmly in it. It’s simple, straightforward politics.
How straightforward? Well, the subject line on the email press release about the special session was titled “Special session to ensure Vermonters don’t see an increase in property tax rates.” It doesn’t get any more direct than that.
Nobody wants higher taxes, and Scott has taken that simple approach and made it a centerpiece of his administration. While Scott’s stand doesn’t help solve the many complex issues Vermont is facing, like shrinking public school enrollment, drug addiction, crumbling roads, and a host of others, taxes are one of the few things that directly impact most voters and therefore one of the things most voters pay attention to.
Just in case anyone hasn’t noticed, it’s an election year. Scott has positioned himself as more friendly to taxpayers than the Legislature, and he’s scoring points for himself and his policies. That may pay off come November.
We’re not sure if Scott’s gamesmanship will really get a better handle on education spending in Vermont. Governors and legislators have been trying to control education spending for decades. Even after the 1997 Brigham Decision, which laid the groundwork for the current education funding laws in Vermont, public school spending control remains a nebulous proposition.
But there is no doubt that Scott sees the issue as worth the effort, and his “no new tax” stance as keeping a promise he made during his last campaign. We assume he’s looking forward to using that position again during his next campaign as well. Only time will tell if the voters like Scott’s stand or if they use their own veto power.
