Conceptual rendering of the Act 46 debate. Dave Sharpe’s in there somewhere.
This Act 46 thing is turning into a giant-sized tangle of no-win, isn’t it?
The House and Senate are at odds, with the Senate voting to repeal limits on school budgets and the House considering a range of tweaks. The Senate is also throwing the House under the bus, disavowing any responsibility for the spending limits. The Governor is hounding the Legislature to repeal without thinking about it too much. On top of all that, we discover that the Agency of Education misinterpreted a key passage of Act 46 in a way that changes the actual limits for many a district.
Meanwhile, the Republicans can just sit in the balcony, laughing and throwing Jujubes. As VTDigger’s Anne Galloway notes, unless the House gets buffaloed into changing course, the Republicans will get exactly what they want: the limits will remain in place and the Democrats will look like disorganized idiots who don’t care about rising property taxes. And if the limits are repealed, the Republicans will get something just about as juicy: the Democrats repealing a measure designed to provide some tax relief, and looking like idiots in the process.
Meanwhile, school districts are closing in on Town Meeting time with no idea how to plan their budgets.
Yeah, nice. This lame-duck session is off to a rip-roaring start.
The Vermont Political Observer. 