“It’s been a whirlwind,” Lt. Gov. John Rodgers said Thursday afternoon, standing in his new office on the first floor of the Vermont Statehouse with members of his family around him. Sworn into his post that morning, Rodgers spent the early afternoon welcoming in a stream of well-wishers.
One of the many tasks that lies ahead of him: making the corner office look just how he wants.
Currently, the walls feature Works Progress Administration artwork favored by his predecessor, Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman, whom Rodgers unseated last fall. But Rodgers said that the Depression-era paintings, with their bold colors and shapes, aren’t really his thing.
“I can’t say I like his art,” the Republican said, bluntly. If any, Rodgers said, he may keep one large painting across from the desk that, more to his vibe, depicts a small pastoral village.
Rodgers said he’d angle for more paintings of Vermont landscapes — or, if possible, famous battles from state history. He’s also adamant about having decor that reflects his passion for hunting, saying he wants to display both a deer head he’s hunted and a fish he’s caught.
“There’s going to be something dead hanging on the wall,” the lieutenant governor said.
Rodgers, in fact, is not the only Senate leader moving into a new office this week. Down the hall, Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, and Minority Leader Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, are putting together a shared office space in the former Senate Agriculture Committee room.
Neither senator’s position comes with a dedicated office. But the Senate Ag room is available, Ram Hinsdale and Beck said, since it was previously used not for hearings, but as a de facto office for former Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Orleans, the longtime chair of that committee.
“Bobby’s office” is too small to host committee hearings, Ram Hinsdale noted, so Senate Ag has instead shared a nearby room with the Senate Education Committee, an arrangement that’s possible with one panel meeting in the mornings and the other meeting in the afternoons.
She and Beck plan to use the room to take meetings and calls, sometimes together, but other times likely trading off if they need some discretion. They’re trying to spruce the place up — agreeing, in what could be an early sign of bipartisan cooperation this year, to bring in a minifridge (from Beck) and a microwave (from Ram Hinsdale). Not bad!
“It’s really like a college dorm,” Ram Hinsdale said with a laugh.
— Shaun Robison
In the know
As he kicked off his fifth term leading Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday used his inaugural address to preview his two top legislative priorities: creating new housing and reforming the state’s education funding system.
Before a packed House chamber, the governor said voters believe the state has gone in the wrong direction. The solution, he indicated, was collaborative policymaking, focused on areas he said were long overdue for change.
The governor spent much of his speech addressing rising education spending, which he said needed immediate attention. Part of the problem, Scott said, was the state’s idiosyncratic funding formula. He declared his intent to seek major reforms to that formula and school governance structures.
“‘Let’s have the courage to fix the entire system,” he said, rather than just “tinker.”
— Ethan Weinstein
Nine of the Vermont Senate’s 11 standing committees will have new leaders this biennium and three will be helmed by Republicans, Rodgers announced from the Senate floor Thursday afternoon.
The committee overhaul follows the retirement, death or defeat of a considerable number of veteran chairs last year — and after Republicans picked up six seats in the 30-member body in November’s election. Democrats and Progressives now hold 17 seats, while Republicans control 13.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, noted in his opening remarks to the chamber Wednesday that nearly two-thirds of the Senate’s members joined the body over the past two years. Illustrating the point, newly sworn-in Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, was tapped to chair the Senate Education Committee. (Bongartz had previously served in the House since 2021 — and had tours of duty in both the House and Senate in the 1980s.)
The sole returning chairs are Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, who will continue to lead the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, and Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, who will retain control of the Senate Finance Committee.
— Paul Heintz
Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: Senate leaders move into offices old and new(ish).