MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Can Vermont lawmakers strike out the governor’s red pen? The House and Senate will return to Montpelier on Monday, aiming to override the governor’s rejection of seven bills.
Vetoes were not always so numerous. In the first 225 years of Vermont history, there were 145 vetoes issued. But in just the last eight years, Gov. Phil Scott has vetoed 51 bills.
It shows the stark political divide in Vermont government.
Vermont lawmakers will be back at the Statehouse Monday for round two, and Democrats– with a supermajority in both the House and Senate– will try to override vetoes from Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
“This is just one more battleground between two parties with relatively distinct views toward political issues,” said Matt Dickinson, a political science professor at Middlebury College.
Two-thirds support is needed in each chamber to successfully override a veto.
The House passed each of the bills originally by lopsided totals and is expected to easily override on all seven.
But in the Senate, the votes could be closer.
They’re expected to hold votes on:
- A bill allowing for a safe injection site
- The data privacy bill
- A bill banning certain pesticides
- A bill expanding restorative justice
- The yield bill setting property taxes at 13.8%
- A sweeping renewable energy bill
But whether the Senate will override on the massive Act 250 reform bill or negotiate with Scott remains an open question.
Senate Secretary John Bloomer says while state lawmakers are back in, they can take up other pieces of legislation, too.
“There are a number of bills on the notice calendar that could be taken up. We have a bill on the action calendar that could be taken up. It’s not limited to bills that are just vetoed,” Bloomer said.
This is also an election year that will result in big turnover at the Statehouse. About 20 seats are open in the House and six in the Senate.
Republicans are not expected to make any inroads toward lessening Democratic control. So Scott is hoping pragmatic and moderate Democrats win seats in the Senate to push back on policies the governor opposes.
Dickinson says the stakes are high for campaign 2024 and whether future vetoes can be sustained.
“They don’t go into this lightly. It’s political but it’s also institutional here in terms of the calculations that individual legislators have to make,” he said.
Last session, the Democratic supermajority set a record by overriding five vetoes in a single day. But since this is the second year of the biennium, bills lawmakers fail to override have to begin the legislative process all over again next year.