Speaker Symington
Comes to Town
By M. D. Drysdale

Gaye Symington, the speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, brought her seven-town "Listening Tour" to Randolph last Thursday evening and attracted an interested and knowledgeable crowd of about 40 to the high school media center.

Speaking without notes, more in the analytical manner of a college seminar leader than in the manner of bare-knuckled politician, Symington described the output of the 2007 legislative session as she saw it. Then, as promised, she listened. The vigorous questioning pushed the session beyond the scheduled 90 minutes to nearly two hours.

Symington was generally upbeat about the accomplishments of the legislature in her survey of its action in the areas of health, energy, rural economic development and property taxes/education.

She made it clear that the predominantly Democratic legislature had far more ambitious goals than it was able to accomplish, because it was facing Republican Gov. James Douglas, and she criticized Doublas for his veto of the session’s signature energy bill.

Her criticisms, though frequent, were muted. She several times expressed "disappointment" at the legislative impact of the governor, but that was as tough as her rhetoric became.

"We have an executive branch and a legislative branch that see the world differently," she summarized.

Questions

When it came time for questions, Symington encountered much interest and support for the Democrats’s energy bill. This, she agreed, was "a significant issue for the legislature" that involved input from four legislative committees, and the audience supported her in her attempt to overturn Gov. Douglas’s veto.

However, Symington ran into a passionate protest about the session’s second most controversial bill, the educational financing bill.

This bill, engineered in the final days, rejected Gov. Douglas’ call for a legislative cap on school budget increases. It did, however, create an unusual mechanism that may make it harder for some school budgets to pass.

The new mechanism, generally called the "think twice" clause, will require—starting in 2009—two Town Meeting votes on a school budget if it meets two criteria.

If the school district’s per capita spending is over the state median and if the requested increases is substantially higher than inflation (in terms of a special formula), then voters will have to vote twice to pass the budget.

The first vote would approve the budget up to the amount permitted by the formula. The second vote would ask voters to "think twice" whether they really would like to approve the extra money above the formula.

Educators Upset

The surprise legislation has sparked feelings of outrage, and even betrayal, in some educational circles. The outrage turned up Thursday night in the person of Laura Soares, a long-time Randolph board member who is past president of the state School Board association.

Praising Symington’s grasp of the energy field, Soares said she wished the legislature had had the same mastery of educational issues.

"I feel that you (the legislature) cut me off at the knees as a school board member," Soares said.

The "think twice" concept is "insulting" to school boards who have looked at every issue umpteen times, not just twice, she said, and insulting also to voters.

This was "hastily enacted legislation," Soares said.

Another teacher agreed, calling the legislation "inflammatory."

Symington defended what she called "reasonable legislation," while admitting that she has been surprised at the vehemence of the opposition. "I didn’t think it would be so offensive," she said.

State government "has to come to terms" with increasing edcuational expenditures even while enrollments fall, she declared.

She acknowledged that a majority in the House would like to address the property tax issue by putting more of the burden on the income tax, but "not with this governor," she commented.

She and Senate President Peter Shumlin and the governor all agreed early in the session that increasing the income tax for education would not be "on the table" this year, she said.

In another education-related question, she told RUHS school board director Angelo Odato that she didn’t know when the legislature could relax its new moratorium on state aid for school construction.

The state needs $30 million to follow through on past promises for funding, but it only has $9 million available to do that, she said.

Since the state has not been able to keep its promises, it has simply decided not to make any more promises, as regards school building money, she said.

"I don’t know how to answer your question," she told Odato frankly.

Symington was similarly frank in discussing the financial problem the state has when it comes to roadbuilding.

On both roads and bridges, the state has available only about half what it should be spending each year just to keep things from deteriorating further, she said.

Bridges are especially in need of work, because of the number of old bridges built, like Randolph’s, after the 1927 flood.

Positive Note

On a positive note, Symington praised the bill to extend broadband coverage, a farm bill that will put pressure on other states to bill milk distributors instead of farmers for transportation costs, and the "workforce investment" bill that Gov. Douglas calls his "scholarship" bill.

The latter bill was an instance of creatively working together, so that the governor’s first idea was modified to include internships and workforce training as well as college scholarships, she said.