Things Look This Way to Me

Editorial by J.B. McKinley 4/12/07

Governor Chats

Governor Jim Douglas dropped in at the News & Citizen office for a long talk Monday after he’d been down at the Boyden Farm awarding grants. He arrived without a retinue and seemed disposed to chat rather than to harangue me with his agenda. Of course, your editor had a few questions.

He said he is committed to his stance on affordability, i.e. concerning taxes, higher education and education costs, housing, and more. He mentioned the lack of funding for the Vermont Promise scholarships as one reason he vetoed the budget add-on bill recently.

He said he felt the proper tack to take on many of these issues was to find ways through incentives – not disincentives like new taxes. He felt this was a major disagreement between himself and the majority of the Legislature. “I’m for the carrot,” Douglas grinned.

The Governor said he is concerned about the “disconnect” between our so-called citizens’ Legislature and the people. He’s hearing about genuine concerns over high taxes, the high cost of college educations, the inability to buy a home and at the same time, he asked, the Legislature has tentatively brought up the idea of five new taxes?

However, though we discussed a number of issues such as wind generation, energy tax credits, class size, student/teacher ratios, global warming, one theme subtlety underlined our whole conversation. I emphasize that this strictly my reading of the Governor. I felt that he was unhappy with the Legislature’s work ethic. He mentioned a recent Free Press article that interviewed several young legislative pages, who basically said lots of legislators were arriving late and leaving early. In his way,  he wryly noted the pages seemed very candid. He did not say they were wrong. The legislators “... really need to dedicate their full energy to improve the lives of their constituents,” admonished Governor Douglas. He recalled arriving at the State House at 7:30 a.m., ready to roll with the day’s business as being the way things were done a few years ago.

In retrospect I guess that was my chance to ask when our Reps. and Sen. arrive, but I wasn’t that quick, nor do I think Douglas is suggesting a time clock be installed at the State House. But, I now know that our Governor is questioning the work ethic of this Legislature’s participants and that’s one aspect of the Governor himself I don’t believe anyone can question.

So here’s the way I see it; most of us have been around long enough not to expect to get all the government we pay for, nor do we expect the government to get it right. But we should expect everyone involved, starting at the top, to take their jobs seriously and remember for whom they are working.

Thanks for the insider snapshot, Governor.