John Rodgers is in his first weeks as Vermont Lieutenant Governor. The Legislature is about to take its annual week long Town Meeting break, and the Republican tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley he is dissatisfied with the progress legislators have made so far.
From my perspective, the legislature as a whole has made far too little progress on anything. I know we have to get new legislators up to speed, but there are some pretty simple and important things that I feel should have already been done or at least be well into their committee testimony ready to come out that are still hanging on the wall.
What are those items?
From my perspective, the Clean Heat Standard needs to be repealed. It's going to cost Vermonters, you know, a billion dollars over 10 years. It was poorly thought out. I don't think it should have ever passed. It was controversial when it passed. The private right to action in the Global Warming Solution Act need to go away. We need to have clear standards of where we want to get to. But to give folks the right to sue the state of Vermont is just going to cost Vermonters money that are better spent in other places. And then we just had a press conference with military veterans about exempting military benefits from state income taxes. It's a no brainer. Forty-seven other states do it. We know the issue. We don't need testimony. Yet that still hangs on the wall. So that's just a spattering of a few of the priorities that should already be on the floor or should have already passed through the floor.
Governor Scott has been focusing a lot on the education transformation proposal. Has that been distracting legislators?
Well, unfortunately, there seems to me a lack of courage in many legislators. They all said after the election they were going to wait for Governor Scott's proposal and some form of it was going to pass. And they have been unwilling to move forward on it. Now, there's other proposals coming out end of February. If they were going to have other proposals, they should have had them ready to pitch at the beginning of January. I quite frankly think the governor's proposal is an excellent start. I know it's not going to be implemented perfectly as written. I think there are some areas that we will need to negotiate. But they should have been taking testimony on that bill and moving forward and I've not seen much progress there either.
I know that you do not submit legislation. You're not really active in those committees as lieutenant governor. But has Governor Scott given you a role to try to advance those proposals?
Well, we meet with the governor every day and we're working on a lot of his priorities. But I actually do have a fairly active role. See, I'm a bit of a different Lieutenant Governor than there has been for a while. I am actually working with Senators and Representatives to propose and forward legislation. A couple of the things that I'm working on right now is we have a very unfair taxation system on used cars. For instance, a person buys a used car for $7,000 because it needs work, and they go to get it registered, and the state wants them to pay the countrywide average value which is $12,500. It's affecting poor people and the people that can afford it the least. And there's no other place in state government where you have to pay a sales tax on more than you paid for something. So I'm trying to get that changed. I'm working on some changes to our inspection laws which, again, are affecting poor and working class people that can't afford new cars and so they run older cars. I'm working on issues that are important to poor and working class people and also working on some public safety issues.
What about housing? That's a huge issue for poor and working class. Are you directly involved there?
I am definitely involved in discussions and talking with legislators about how to best move forward. Some of the things that I have been working on is trying to educate people on how last year's Act 250 bill is negatively affecting housing in rural areas. Most people that I know that have moved to Vermont from other places or grew up here don't want to live in an apartment in the city and the Legislature seems to think that that's where we need to do all our housing development. The folks I'm talking with want a small house and a small piece of land where they can have a garden and maybe some chickens and other animals and be more independent, more in touch with the land and with nature. That's why they came to Vermont. That's why they want to be here in Vermont. And the legislature continues to make that harder and harder.
You mentioned that the legislature has made far too little progress so far. Any way to nudge them?
Well, one thing that we did on the Affordable Heat Act was try to call it up onto the floor directly out of committee and relieve the committee of it. And that failed on the floor. But it at least puts pressure on the majority party and it shows Vermonters that were not willing to just let it set, because this was an extremely important issue during the campaign, as was the Global Warming Solutions Act. And voters asked us to deal with these bills and voters asked us to do away with the Affordable Heat Act because we can't afford it. Vermonters are invested in making changes to address climate change, but they have to be changes that Vermonters can afford.
How are you and the legislature taking a look at some of the executive orders out of Washington DC? I know the Governor has basically said take them one at a time, review them and not panic over everything that's coming out of Washington. What about the legislature and your office?
Well, I think we're all much in the same boat. There's no need to panic before something happens. But that said I, myself, and a lot of people in this building are very upset with what's going on and very concerned about Vermonters. I met with the federally qualified health care centers from around the state of Vermont and they are all, they're already not flush with money, and some of them literally have five or six days working cash on hand and they're operating every day under that stress. So the extra stress of having their funds cut and having Medicaid cut could just be devastating. And those federally qualified health care centers take care of tens of thousands of Vermonters whether they have health insurance or not. They take care of people and they're so important and if they collapse our health care system will collapse because those people will have no alternative but to go to the emergency room.
John Rodgers, a lot of issues have come up since you took office in the beginning of January. How do you feel you've settled in to the position of Lieutenant Governor?
Oh, quite well. And I have a lot of folks that are just thrilled that, you know, I have an open door policy. We're very accessible. People really like that. We're getting out into the community. I've been meeting with police departments around Chittenden County and traveling to breakfast events in different parts of the state and doing as much outreach as I can in the time I have between the days that we're working here in Montpelier. But I'm settling in well. I love the new job. I think this is a wonderful platform and I look forward to using it to its full potential.
Lieutenant Governor John Rodgers served in the Vermont House and Senate from 2003 until 2021 as a Democrat. He switched parties to run for Lieutenant Governor, saying Vermont Democrats had become fiscally irresponsible. He defeated Democrat/Progressive David Zuckerman, who had served three terms in the office.
