On January 5th, the Governor delivered the annual State of the State speech to the General Assembly. The Governor used the occasion to praise Vermont’s strength and resilience following Tropical Storm Irene, and we join him in recognizing all those that gave – and lost – so much.
The State of the State is also the Governor’s opportunity to tell us where it is he intends to lead us. On that point, we were left with grand visions of where the Governor wants to go, but little idea of how we might get there. As one reporter put it, it was
“brimming with optimism, light on substance.”The simple truth is that the real challenges we face require strong, substantive proposals. We need to grow Vermont’s economy, create more opportunities for the people that live here, and bring about a new age of prosperity for our state. To achieve that, we will need to make smart policy decisions . . . because empty promises won’t get us anywhere.
We wanted to bring three items related to the State of the State to your attention:
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First, notwithstanding the Governor’s stated determination not to increase broad-based taxes on Vermonters, Senator Randy Brock correctly noted that we must watch what the Governor does, not what he says:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock, meanwhile, said there’s no reason to believe Shumlin will walk the walk when it comes to tax policy. Last year, Brock said, Shumlin issued similar admonitions about the ills of higher taxes, then proposed tens of millions of dollars in tax increases on dentists and hospitals.
“I don’t know if he considers that a broad-based tax,” Brock said. “But I certainly know a lot of people who go to the dentist.” (source: Times Argus, 1/6/2012)
Senator Brock was also interviewed by WCAX after the speech, which you can watch
here.
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Secondly, we loved the comments made by House GOP Leader Don Turner of Milton. Representative Turner has spoken out before about how the quick and efficient road reconstruction processes the State utilized after Tropical Storm Irene should become “the new normal.” Yesterday, the Governor indicated that he, too, thinks it is possible to streamline regulations to move projects faster and less expensively . . . leading to this great quote from Representative Turner:
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Lastly, while the Governor may be good at making promises, his team may have a difficult time keeping them . . . as evidenced by the reception Shumlin’s single-payer health care team received in the State House on Wednesday. Members of the House Committee on Health Care questioned the new Green Mountain Care Board about their impartiality and their failure to produce a plan on how the proposed single payer system would be financed. You can read more about it by following this link to
www.vtdigger.org, but here’s an excerpt where concerns are raised by Democratic and Independent legislators:
Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, who sits on the committee, hinted that the legitimacy of the board’s decisions may hinge on how much it can distance itself from the politics of the Shumlin administration.
Till said he wanted to stress the importance of independent decision making. At a meeting earlier in the week, Till said he continued to be concerned by the fact that a November study on the costs of the state’s health care system came from the administration and the Legislative Joint Fiscal Office rather than the non-partisan JFO alone.
Poirier pushed the board on the funding mechanism for the single-payer initiative.
“The biggest criticism I’m hearing is you’re punting on the financing,” Poirier said.
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