The Democratic-controlled Vermont Legislature returns to the Statehouse on Tuesday to try to override a number of Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes, including his rejection of the state budget bill and key social programs that lawmakers passed.
The Legislature, which adjourned last month, passed bills to expand child care, subsidize free school meals for all public school students and fight climate change, among other things. Scott has said while he shares many of the goals of the Legislature, he believes it was spending too much money.
“Vermonters have made their ongoing concerns about the affordability of our state abundantly clear,” the governor wrote in a message to lawmakers last week when he allowed the free school meals legislation to become law without his signature.
“Despite these concerns and my efforts, legislative action this year has added a new, approximately $100 million payroll tax; $20 million in unnecessary DMV fee increases; hundreds of millions in additional cost pressures that will come as a result of the override of my veto of the clean heat standard bill; an unsustainable $70 million increase in base budget spending over my recommendation; an eventual doubling of their own pay and benefits; and more.”
Legislative leaders have vowed to overturn his veto of a bill that would have expanded child care subsidies for some families, which Scott said he objected to because of the payroll tax to partially pay for it.
“This bill will be our number one priority for the veto override session, at which time we will speak loudly, in the only way that matters in the end,” Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Philip Baruth said in a statement. “We will vote to end the childcare deserts in our state, and we will vote to pay childcare professionals a respectable wage. Vermont’s kids can’t wait any longer.”
The Legislature’s $150 million child care plan would have expanded child care subsidies to families with incomes up to 575% of the federal poverty guidelines. It would have also increased pay for child care workers and would be paid for with help from a 0.44% payroll tax split between employers and employees.
Scott also vetoed the proposed $8.4 billion budget, the largest in state history, saying it would unfairly raise taxes and fees on state residents.
Democratic House Speaker Jill Krowinski has said that lawmakers followed the will of the people, who she said wanted them to do more about issues such as affordable child care and universal school meals. The House passed the child care subsidies bill by a large enough margin that they will have the two-thirds votes needed to override Scott’s veto.
