By Nancy Remsen

Source: Burlington Free Press, April 4, 2010

“MONTPELIER — The Legislature and the Douglas administration faced a barrage last week after Vermonters got their first glimpse of how state government would be altered under a budgeting experiment dubbed “Challenges for Change.”

“Clearly the proposals put on the table Tuesday shook things up and engendered a fair amount of pushback,” said House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown.

Smith wasn’t backing away from the unusual process. “We still see this as a way to improve outcomes by rethinking the way services are delivered. It’s not just about the money, it is about improving the results we get.”

The report suggested, for example, consolidating the states’ 280 school districts into fewer than 50; creating expedited environmental permit procedures; focusing economic development dollars on no more than nine regional centers rather than funding dozens of organizations; and overhauling adult mental health services.

Critical response

“Many issues will be controversial,” Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden, said the day the report was released. She got that right. Critics pounced.

The proposed changes in permit regulation “can only be described as the biggest giveaway to polluters in Vermont’s modern history,” said Elizabeth Courtney, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

“Is there any way to stop this freight train?” asked Daniel Quinn, president and chief executive of Rutland Mental Health Services.

“Never in my time here have I seen remotely close to the level of usurpation of the legislative process through joint action of the administration and legislative leadership,” complained Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield. “It is an evisceration of a representative democracy.”

Still, by week’s end, Smith said many lawmakers had regained their conviction about the need for this budgeting experiment.

“I sense in the membership that we have to do things differently and a willingness to work with the administration on how we can move forward on many of the suggestions,” Smith said.

House Republicans were some of the fiercest critics of the plan as it was released, but Rep. Oliver Olsen, R-Jamaica, was singing a different tune Friday.

“I think everyone has concerns and we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t have concerns,” Olsen said. “Circumstances dictate we take a creative approach to solving the problem before us.”

Full story: Change a Challenge at Vermont Statehouse

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