(
Host) Vermont legislators return from their two week recess today with a full agenda.
Among the most critical decisions will be adjusting this year’s budget in light of revenue shortfalls – and writing a budget for the next fiscal year.
In order to reach agreement, Democrats and Republicans will have to bridge stark differences.
Speaking on VPR’s Vermont Edition, Democratic House Majority Leader Floyd Nease said any budget solutions will have to include tax increases in order to preserve essential government services.
(Nease) "I think that most Vermonters understand that if they want state services to be in place in the way they are now, that they’re going to need to be paid for, and the way that we pay for them is through taxes. The legislature a couple of years ago proposed a gas tax. And the gas tax, a third of that money comes from out of state. Instead what we put in place was the governor’s proposal which was fees, a hundred percent of which come from Vermonters. I think that at this point Vermonters are fed up with that kind of thinking."
(Host) Nease says Democrats also support the idea of making state government more efficient.
But Republican House Minority Leader Patti Komline says the leadership has dropped the ball on that count. She says there’s nothing new in the Democrats’ legislative initiatives for dealing with budget shortfalls.
(Komline) "When you look at them, the first word on every initiative, these are the words: ‘evaluate, review, review, review, reexamine, analyze, analyze, reevaluate. There are no action dates on any of the initiatives and no new ideas. I felt that we needed to start on day one in looking to make structural changes in government to make it work more efficiently."
(Zind) Komline says steps should be taken to streamline government before considering increasing taxes.