The Vermont general assembly is the legislative body of the state of Vermont. The legislature is a bicameral legislature which means that there are two groups, the Vermont House of Representatives and the Vermont Senate. There are three parties in the Vermont General Assembly, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Progressives. Vermont is the only state with a third party represented consecutively alongside Democrats and Republicans. Members of the House of Representatives are chosen by single or two member districts. 58 Districts choose 1 member and 46 choose 2. The Vermont House was started in 1777 but the Senate would not be established until 1836.
The Vermont senate was started in 1836 because the Vermont house could not decide on a governor in the year of 1835. There were three candidates for Governor that year and none of them received the majority vote needed to win. So the choice got flipped over to the House. There was a deadlock over which of the two candidates to vote into office. Between October and November the House cast 65 ballots, none of which gave a majority vote to either candidate. The house then decided to have the sitting Lt. Governor, Silas Jennison, become the “acting Governor” for that year. After that year, he got elected to serve for six more years. Even with the creation of the Senate, the Legislature continued to be called on to decide on the governor until 1870 when the Governor’s term was extended from one to two years. These years are considered some of the most unstable years in Vermont’s legislative history. The four biggest issues facing the state were: slavery, prohibition, debtor’s prison, and the death penalty. Both slavery and prohibition were very contentious issues and everybody had very strong opinions about them.
People weren't allowed to have slaves. Slavery was outlawed in Vermont in the early 1700’s. Black men were allowed to vote but it was challenging because black people couldn’t own land so they couldn't prove their residency, which was needed to register to vote. Slavery was outlawed in Vermont mostly to prove the point that the state wasn't part of the U.S. and that they were going to follow their own rules no matter what. The law makers didn’t really care about the wellbeing of blacks, they were more interested in proving that they were morally better than the other states that continued to have legal slavery.
Women wanted prohibition because their role was to stay home and keep having children. This meant that women couldn’t make enough money on their own to support themselves and their children. Men’s use of alcohol was irresponsible and dangerous. When husbands got drunk they could kill or injure themselves, which made them unable or incapable of working and making money for their wives and children. Women were furious about the circumstances of their lives, which was without the right to vote or own land. Because these things were happening to so many women they got together and decided to try and make it illegal for anyone to buy, sell, or consume alcohol. By making alcohol illegal it made it so that women had some control over their lives, and the law gave them something to rely on. When men got drunk they could call the police instead of having to make decisions about what to do. Women fought very hard to outlaw the consumption and sale of alcohol. Silas Jennison’s support for prohibition was more about money than the wellbeing of the women, but it also helped get women get what they needed.
Although the legislature has had to decide upon candidates since 1836 when the Senate was started, it has been almost 50 years since the Vermont general assembly had to decide on a candidate. The last time the Vermont general assembly had to decide on a statewide race was in 1976 and they had to decide on the Lt. governor of Vermont. The main responsibility and job of the House and Senate is to make and vote on laws. The representatives and the senators collaborate on ideas for and present bills to the speaker of the house or the Lt. governor, who then have to assign it to a committee for review and adaptation. The committee then has to listen to citizens who the bill would affect, and make changes or adapt the bill how they see fit. Then the committee has to represent the updated bill to the Representatives who first had the idea for the bill. If they like it and think that it is close enough to the original purpose then the whole House or Senate would have to take a vote and pass it on the floor. If the bill passes then it gets swapped from the House to the senate or vice versa. When a bill passes in both chambers it goes to the governor and he or she can approve or veto it. This year two important issues going through the legislature are The clean heat act or s.5 and h.165, which is about universal free school lunch.
The clean heat bill or s.5 is a bill that has to do with heating Vermont sustainably without fossil fuels. This bill has gone through the legislature multiple times before without success. The governor of Vermont vetoed the bill because he said that people that do decide to continue heating with fossil fuel will pay a higher price due to the fact that fuel companies will charge more because they will have to pay a large fee to stay in business being only a fossil fuel dealer. Lots of people support this bill because it will make it so that people who decide to switch to using heating methods such as advanced wood heating and solar heating, as well as make energy efficient upgrades to their homes will get financial help or tax credits. Even though the governor vetoed the bill, both the House and the Senate had a super majority and were able to overrule his veto. The first steps of the project are that the oil companies have to register with the State and that the Public Utility Commission has to study the impact of the clean heat act and come back to the legislature in 2 years and present their findings.
Act h.165 is an act relating to providing universal free school breakfast and lunch to all Vermont students in public school, or in private schools that have opted into the program. There is a lot of support for this bill because everyone needs food, and we now know that hungry kids can’t learn. This bill will make it so that people who didn’t financially qualify for the old program now could have free breakfast and lunch. By making it so that everyone could have free breakfast and lunch will make it so that there is less social tension between kids in school because it now wouldn’t signify that you are poor. It will be just something that all students have a right to. If the bill is passed by the governor, kids with poor families will be able to eat two solid meals a day, making their lives easier, and will remove one of the big social tensions that has made school a lot harder for these kids.
The governor and other lawmakers are concerned about taxpayers saying that they would be paying for rich people's children to have free lunch. Even though one way that the state could pay for this program is through property tax there are also lots of other ways to pay for the program. The governor is saying that the middle class families who might technically have enough money to pay for lunch food would have to pay for the program. But most of these people don’t have enough money to own a house so it wouldn’t affect them unless landlords increase rent to cover their property tax increase. There is a 29 million dollar estimate for the program and the state's education fund has a 64 million dollar surplus that could pay for the program in the short term. There are also certain items that are sales tax exempt like soda and candy, that could help pay for the program long term if we put the tax on them. The financial burden is possible but there are lots of solutions that can work. This bill will make it so that all families can rely on having their kids be fed even if they don’t have the money to feed the kids themselves.
Today, the legislature of Vermont isn’t perfect, and there are still challenges with how it is run. At the end of the legislative session there is a time crunch. This can lead to certain bills being shunted off to the side so that other bills can take priority. Some legislators may use the limited time to make it difficult for anything to move forward if they oppose a major bill that has taken priority. But it has gotten better since the 1700s and will continue getting better as people learn from history and their own mistakes. All of the legislators in the Vermont legislature have opinions and that is what sparks the idea for a bill. But what it really comes down to is the perspective of the people the bill will affect. In most scenarios the legislator will use some of their own opinions and the opinions of the citizens to make a decision about how to cast their vote. If you disagree with one of your legislators on a bill, you can do something about it. You can write to one of your representatives about how you feel on the matter. Even if you are a kid it can still make a huge difference in how your representative thinks and votes on the bill.
Please note that I wrote this a couple of months ago so some of the bills are no longer a thing, or have been voted into law.
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