(Host) The geographical boundaries of Vermont’s legislative districts will be under close review in the coming months.
That’s because every ten years, the state’s Reapportionment Board considers redrawing some of the boundaries to reflect changes in Vermont’s population over the decade.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports.
(Kinzel) Former Shelburne Rep. Tom Little is the chairman of the Vermont Reapportionment Board.
He views the state as a big puzzle when he thinks about his upcoming job.
Each House member in Vermont represents roughly 4,000 people and each senator represents about 20,000 people. In multi-member districts these numbers are proportionately larger.
This winter, the Reapportionment Board will review how Vermont’s population has shifted in the last 10 years and it will determine if any district lines need to be changed. Little says that’s where the puzzle analogy comes into play.
(Little) "If you start moving a line in one place to try to solve a problem there with population shifts,that has a ripple effect in the next district and the next district beyond that."
(Kinzel) Little has a clear example from the Reapportionment process of 2002 that shows how changes for one town can influence many parts of the state.
(Little) "With an effort to fix what was perceived to be an issue in southwestern Vermont and it flowed all the way up to Cabot over to Shelburne and back down to southwest Vermont and with the result that the solution in southwestern Vermont for a House district caused so many other problems that that solution was abandoned."
(Kinzel) Little says the work of his Board is made easier by a special computer program that will contain all the new census numbers.
(Little) "So that we will be able to scroll a mouse on the computer screen and move a line two inches on a computer screen and it will immediately tell us what that would do to the two districts affected and it will also illustrate what may be happening as a result of that for the next town over and the town beyond that."
(Kinzel) During the Reapportionment process in 1992 and in 2002, a group of Republicans tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Board to break up the 6 person Senate district in Chittenden County. No other Senate district in the country has more than 3 members.
Because the Vermont Senate has the final say on the boundaries of its own districts, Little says it’s unlikely that the Board will look at this question unless Senate leaders ask for it.
(Little) "I would want to see some sign that the Senate – when it organizes next year – has some interest in doing that on its own, has an appetite for that undertaking before spending too much time and resources at the Apportionment Board and doing it on our own."
(Kinzel) Little says the Board will hold public hearings throughout the state and he hopes to present the Legislature with a final plan this summer.
Lawmakers would then vote on a new map during the 2012 session.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.