PUTNEY — At the start of this legislative marathon, there was quite a pack of issues to deal with and - this being Vermont - a lot of hills between the starting line and finish.
We faced big problems: a budget gap larger than originally thought, due to flagging revenues; health-care access and cost; a plan to clean up our state's waters before the Environmental Protection Agency would come in and impose a solution; and concerns about how to keep growing the Vermont economy in a way that would be fair to all workers.
We also faced a myriad of other smaller issues, from the safety of our children to the safety of guns, as well as the ongoing concerns related to the seemingly omnipresent effects of drug abuse from drugs, both legal and illegal, an issue that also touches on child safety and law enforcement.
Then there were the regular, nuts-and-bolts issues. With 25 standing committees in the House and Senate, and each committee with at least five parochial issues, alongside the big issues, the four-month legislative session fills fast.
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If we had looked at these problems, especially the clean-up of our state's waters, as if we had found a hole in the roof leaking onto everything inside, it would have been clear to us how we had to act.
However, two schools of thought emerged on how to deal with the state budget crisis.
Some of us said: There would be no way to get around spending some money on new shingles, so let's figure out how many shingles we need, how to pay for it, and stop the leak.
Another strategy on how to deal with the leaky roof also emerged. Others said: There's plenty of shingles already on the roof. Let's not spend any money; let's just use what we have and make do.
The problem with that strategy, though, is it creates another hole elsewhere on the roof.
A majority of us in the legislature said: We need to make some tough decisions here and do so in the most fair way possible. Whether it was the budget, or cleaning up our water, it was going to take raising some money.
The tough decision was to balance the budget in a fair way through some revenue increases and some reductions in services. We didn't take the easy way out, and when we got to that 20-mile mark of the Montpelier marathon, when some “hit the wall” and headed to the sidelines, we made the tough decisions - and made it to the finish line.
Sound bites that make things sound easy can be seductive, but they don't get you to the finish line, and they don't prevent your roof from leaking.
One example? All the talk about “spending in Montpelier.”
Spending is spending and includes everything from a dam in Guilford to paving roads in Newport. The reality is that investing in Vermonters, and Vermont, was only up a bit more than 1 percent, and this budget puts us on sound fiscal ground for both the short term and the future.
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Last year, some headline issues still warranted attention, such as the GMO labeling bill that has just passed its first test in a court of law. We won't have those kinds of issues every year, and this year hasn't been very glamorous.
But this session was full of necessary work and tough decisions to get us to the finish line. We did pass some laws that keep Vermont in the front of the pack. For a more comprehensive list of all the bills we passed this year, please visit windham4.net.
• The same-day voter registration bill will boost voter participation at a time when other states are trying to restrict voter participation.That's good for Vermont, good for the nation and good for democracy.
• The healthy workplace law allows workers, especially food-service workers, to earn sick leave so when they happen, or a child happens, to get sick, taking time off doesn't add to the stress of the illness.
• RESET, the energy bill, continues the path to a greener, more economical energy future for us and our children.
This year, we also made the tough decisions to keep us on track for growing the economy and increasing access to health care for more Vermonters with the Vermont Blueprint for Health, even as our uninsured rate has, like our unemployment rate, fallen to less than 4 percent.
We made Vermont safer for our children, for our elders, and paved the roads - all factors adding to the quality of life and infrastructure to keep our state attractive to new residents and businesses for a more prosperous future for us all.
We fixed the roofs, so to speak.
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Now that the session has ended, I'm getting back to work here at my “paying job,” as well as planting peas, setting in my cole crops, and looking forward to that first tomato sandwich and ear of corn later this summer.
And I'll be preparing to head back to the starting line for another marathon in Montpelier in January, doing the people's work. We have a lot to do, and we want to hear from you.
Please feel free to be in touch with any of your citizen legislators with questions and suggestions.
We'll be listening.