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Editorial
"Distraction"
has Major Consequences
 By
Rob Roper
House Speaker Shap Smith
and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin adjourned the legislature on
May 9th because, at the beginning of the year, this is what they said they
would do. It was a good idea that, if competently executed, could have
saved Vermont taxpayers a half a million dollars. What Smith and Shumlin
did not say they would do at the beginning of the year is bring up the
issue of same sex marriage. They outlined their priorities, and that issue
was not one of them. The 2009 legislative session was supposed to be focused
like a laser beam on fixing the budget crisis, the economy and jobs. In
the end, it wasn't.
When Smith and Shumlin did
spring the same sex marriage issue on the legislature during Town meeting
week, they did so with the promise that they could "walk and chew gum at
the same time." The efforts to fix the fiscal crisis would not suffer.
In the end, they couldn't and it did.
What we witnessed in the
closing days of the session (after weeks of divisive battling, tens of
thousands of emails to legislators, and hundreds of thousands of dollars
in out of state money spent) was a hurried attempt to cobble together a
budget. This inept effort ultimately failed to address the major
financial problems we've all know about since last summer. What Smith and
Shumlin did was not adjourn on May 9th, but quit. Quit before the job they
promised would be done was finished.
What did they leave undone?
Here are some highlights...
-
Despite the fact that our revenues
are decreasing by 5.58%, the Democrats' budget actually increases overall
spending by 3.11
-
They failed to address the fact
their spending plan leaves a $67 million General Fund deficit in fiscal
2011 and a $141 million deficit in fiscal 2012.
-
They failed to address the fact
that Vermont faces unfunded liabilities in the state workers' and teachers'
pension funds of $29 million and $60 million - a number that will grow
to over $4 billion unless corrective action is taken.
-
They failed to address the fact
the unemployment insurance trust fund is facing a $160 million deficit
by the end of next year, and could go bankrupt.
-
A full 15% of this budget is
funded with one time federal stimulus money, leaving us with a dangerous
financial "cliff".
-
To cover these failures, the
Democrats raise over $26 million in new or increased taxes on Vermonters,
including $9.3 million in income taxes with over $5.5 million of those
new taxes coming from small businesses and farms.
This is not a job well done.
It's not a job DONE. And this is why the Governor has had to call the legislature
back on June 2nd for a special session. When Republicans called on Democrats
to take a temporary 5%
pay cut to share in the sacrifice, Democrats refused, saying
that by adjourning in mid-May they had already given themselves a pay cut.
Well, now they're coming back to finish the job they left unfinished -
on our dime. In many more ways than one.
See the Governor's full letter
to Smith & Shumlin HERE
(pdf).
Rob Roper is the Chairman
of the Vermont Republican Party
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