Who holds the power in the Vermont Statehouse? The House, the Senate or the governor? That appeared to be the question in play Wednesday.
By an 82-63 vote, the majority Democratic House stood up to Republican Gov. Phil Scott by defeating his executive order to merge the state Lottery Commission and the Department of Liquor Control.
House members said they like the idea of merging Lottery and Liquor — they just don’t trust the governor enough to let him do it without their input.
“These are great goals,” said Rep. Helen Head (D-South Burlington), chair of the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee. But she added, “There is not enough detail.”
But if the Senate has its way, the merger still could happen.
Scott signed the executive order shortly after taking office in January. Without objection from the House or Senate, it would have gone into effect on Monday.
Head complained that by choosing an all-or-nothing executive order, the governor left the legislature out of any decisions. At the same time, she argued, Scott failed to supply details about how the merger would save money or how buildings and staff would be shared.
House members plan later this week to pass a different bill that would set up a working group to decide by next January whether, and how, Lottery and Liquor should be combined.
Scott’s staff, meanwhile, circulated a memo to House members offering details. The governor would save $750,000 by contracting out operation of the liquor warehouse and he would generate $3 million in new lottery revenue. His plan depends on boosting use of lottery game consoles in bars, which lawmakers have been reluctant to do. No jobs would be cut, but some would eventually be pared through attrition, according to the memo.
Wednesday’s House debate never focused on the ethics of drawing more money from lottery games. It was all about the process.
House Republicans tried, to no avail, to argue that delaying the merger made no sense.
“Any time efficiency in state government can be realized … it should go forward,” said Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell).
But House Democrats’ plan for a working group study on a merger is headed for a roadblock in the Senate, which has its own plan to help Scott go ahead with his order.
“We believe now is the time to do it,” said Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), chair of the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee.
His committee plans to insert wording into a House bill that would merge the two state agencies. The added language says that a merger would be more efficient and produce “significant savings,” but offers no specifics for how the Scott administration should go about making that happen.
Putting the merger into an otherwise uncontroversial bill that makes technical changes to the state’s liquor laws likely means the House and Senate will duke out the details in an end-of-session conference committee. The governor likely will not be far from that debate.
“It’s not over ’til we adjourn,” Mullin predicted.
The Liquor-Lottery merger was one of three executive orders Scott signed. It was the Senate that acted to defeat another, which would have merged the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and the Labor Department.
As for the third order, legislators signaled Wednesday that they are likely to let it take effect without complaint. That one would create an Agency of Digital Services to oversee state information technology functions, an issue that has long vexed governors and legislators.
“We didn’t know if we could do any better,” said Rep. Steve Carr (D-Brandon), chair of the House Committee on Energy and Technology. “I think their plans seem to be reasonable plans.”
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Very sad how this same Democratic controlled Legislature gave Peter Shumlin carte blanche on all things Vermont Health Connect and EB-5 and now they won’t let Governor Scott take the simple step of merging two small departments to achieve savings and efficiencies. #dcstylepoliticssuck
Rep. Franzier, I am sorry to see you taking this opportunity to make a completely political statement (and emotional appeal) instead of discussing the pros and cons of the merger and when the merger how/when the merger should happen.
As I understand it, the Gov., Senate, and House are all in relative agreement that the merger should go forward (whether or not they are Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, or Independents).
What IS up for debate is: 1) what should that merger look like? 2) how do we reasonably save money and keep in place the needed protections 3) how soon can change begin without becoming reckless in the process
It seems that the House is not blockading but simply doing their due diligence, which is what we elect them to do. If the merger went forward and, heaven forbid, the Gov had sole authority, which he used to create a hasty and ill conceived structure, Vermonters (including yourself, I am sure) would be outraged at our legislature for not doing their due diligence in vetting the proposal.
This isn’t politics. This is government working as it should.
@REPPINVT, so to your point of not doing this in a hasty and ill conceived way, exactly how much time should this take? They’ve been discussing it for 10 years!
I’m just wondering . . . Is the state employees union opposed to this merger and could that be the real reason that the House is opposed to it?
Point of information, Rep. Franzier, Gov. Scott, the current elected members of the House, and the current elected members of the Senate only just began discussing the proposal.
If Gov. Scott wanted to work with the other elected representatives in state government (the ones who are actually charged with writing bills) he would have gone to them with a proposal. Instead he gave an executive order with little to no information in it.
The House and Senate are not just there to rubber stamp broad policy decisions by the Gov.
“The House and Senate are not just there to rubber stamp broad policy decisions by the Gov.”
You’re absolutely right! They’re there to raise taxes, stamp out all economic activity wherever it rears its ugly head in Vermont, and focus on fun, politically-correct “Vermont first” socio-cultural issues, like pot, GMOs, and taxing carbon, while the economy in Vermont continues to shrink, while young people flee the state like a sinking ship, and while demographically Vermont becomes one large nursing home.