For three peaceful days this week, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Democratic legislature appeared to have resolved a months-long feud over taxes. But in a dramatic turn of events on Friday, that harmony dissolved into discord — stalling the legislature’s adjournment and prompting the very real threat of a gubernatorial veto.
Suffice it to say, “Kumbaya” is no longer playing on the Statehouse jukebox.
Dividing the Dems is a push by leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees — Rep. Janet Ancel (D-Calais) and Sen. Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) — to enact progressive reforms to the tax code in the closing days of the legislative session. While declining to fully describe their plan, they say it would lower income taxes for the vast majority of Vermonters and raise them for a small minority — all in a revenue-neutral manner.
But the governor deeply opposes the plan, saying it violates the terms of an agreement he reached with House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morrisville) and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (D-Windsor) earlier this week to avoid new taxes and spending. Shumlin claims that despite the legislators’ assurances, their “on-the-fly” reforms would result in higher taxes overall and put at risk a recovering economy.
Throughout the Statehouse on Friday, the question on everybody’s minds was whether the legislature would complete its business late Saturday and adjourn for the year. To do so, conference committees writing the budget and tax bills had to wrap up their work early Friday afternoon — but that deadline blew by without any signs of progress.
At issue was whether Smith and Campbell would side with their committee chairs, Ancel and Ashe, and provoke a confrontation with the governor — or whether they’d pull the two back, close up shop and go home.
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