Senate Democrats on Saturday declared soaring property taxes to be their No. 1 priority when they return to Montpelier, pledging to move Gov. Phil Scott’s ideas for fixing the problem to the top of their agenda in January.
In a morning caucus at the Statehouse, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) told his badly weakened majority that compromising with the governor is the new name of the game this legislative biennium.
“Given where the votes are now, no one is going home without a Phil Scott-approved tax plan,” Baruth told colleagues.
The meeting was the first public gathering of Democratic leaders since the November 5 election that stripped them of their supermajority in the legislature. Democrats lost 18 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate as voters angry at an average 14 percent hike in property taxes embraced Republicans and their promises to make the state more affordable.
Baruth said it was “the worst election I’ve been through” and the message he took from it was clear.
“Vermonters want the property tax reduced — period,” he said.
They also want the education finance system simplified and its impacts on property taxes to be addressed, as well, he said.
He noted that the education system was designed for a population of 125,000 students. But with changing demographics, the number has dwindled to fewer than 74,000.
“I view it as a de facto emergency,” Baruth said. “The governor is not going to issue an emergency order, but I want us to act in the Senate as though he had.”
This coming session, Baruth said, he plans to give the administration the first full week to lay out its plans for fixing the education finance and property tax systems. Three key committees — Education, Finance and Appropriations — will vet the proposals, take testimony, run the numbers and see what they can agree to.
Baruth reminded colleagues, including three new ones, that last year they “worked like dogs” to reduce the possible property tax burden by a combined $70 million compared to what it could have been. But he said he wanted the committees to take another look at some of the ideas the governor proposed that Democrats — including Baruth — explicitly rejected as financially irresponsible.
“I want all those back on the table, including his plan to buy down the property tax rate much further than we did,” he said.
In addition to the wake-up call, Democrats had leadership business to attend to.
They nominated Baruth to another term as their leader, which needs to be formalized by the full Senate in January.
They also narrowly picked Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden-Southeast) as their majority leader over Sen. Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor), who has held the position for four years.
Senators insisted the vote was not a rebuke to Clarkson’s leadership but rather a reflection of the new reality that with their majority so narrow, working together to find consensus was more important than ever.
There are now 16 Democrats and one Progressive in the 30-member Senate.
“We’re a team. We need to be united,” Ram Hinsdale said. “The alternative is failing Vermonters.”
“I think what Vermonters really told us is that they are socially liberal and they are financially hurting,” she said. “They want to see full schools, they want to see access to rural health care, and they want to see us grow the economy.”
While senators voted for Ram Hinsdale, they did not agree to her request to waive the tradition that party leaders in the chamber cannot also be chairs of committees. That means she could lose her post as chair of the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs committee.
Sen. Becca White (D-Windsor) was selected to be assistant majority leader, known as the whip. And veteran Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (D-Chittenden-Southeast) was picked as the third member of the powerful Committee on Committees.
“Everyone loves Ginny,” Sen. Thomas Chittenden (D-Chittenden-Southeast) said.
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