Tom Koch: Don’t abolish the Vermont Senate; it gives us better legislation

This commentary is by Tom Koch of Barre City, who served for 22 years within the Vermont Home of Representatives.

Jon Margolis is dreaming. He proposes abolishing the state Senate and decreasing the dimensions of the Vermont Home to 50 members or so.

Plain and easy, it’s not going to occur. The state Senate is written into the Vermont Structure. All constitutional amendments should start with a two-thirds vote of the Senate. The Senate isn’t going to vote to abolish itself. Finish of debate.

However it shouldn’t be the tip of the dialogue, as a result of there are superb causes to take care of a bicameral legislature. As a former member of the Home, I can say with out hesitation that there have been many occasions when the Senate merely made errors in payments that have been picked up and corrected within the Home. In fact, it by no means labored the opposite method round, with the Senate correcting errors made within the Home. (Wink, wink.)

Past easy errors, the 2 chambers typically had completely different views of laws, completely different concepts, other ways of approaching the identical drawback. In these instances, convention committees have been fashioned, the variations resolved (more often than not), and compromises made. The outcome was often higher laws. 

In these uncommon instances the place the variations couldn’t be resolved, payments died and have been left for consideration one other time — not essentially a nasty outcome. Frankly, I typically puzzled how Nebraska will get together with its unicameral legislature!

There’s one more reason Margolis’ proposal ought to be rejected, regardless that it could possibly be applied with no constitutional modification. He proposes to lift the salaries of legislators to $50,000 per yr or so. And he’s not alone in making this suggestion, as others, together with some legislators, have additionally completed so.

However this runs two dangers, as a result of paying a full-time wage implies that being a legislator can be a full-time job. As such, one might count on the Legislature to be in session almost on a regular basis, as in states like New York and California. That’s an concept that, frankly, frightens me.

Even worse, when the “career” of legislating is the supply of an individual’s revenue, that individual could do unwelcome issues with a purpose to retain that individual’s seat. That might embody violation of marketing campaign finance legal guidelines and even outright monetary wrongdoing. Simply take a look at New York’s latest lieutenant governor and speaker of the Home.

Vermont’s citizen legislature has labored properly. It’s a place the place, as Gov. Dick Snelling reminded us, individuals serve for a time after which return to their common endeavors. Let’s hold it that method.