The Key to Compromise?

Democrat House Speaker Gaye Symington [left] was the guest on Ch. 3's "You Can Quote Me" which aired Super Bowl Sunday morning.

In case you didn't tune in, I watched for you.

News Director Marselis Parsons and Statehouse Reporter Kristin Carlson asked the questions. One zeroed in on the apparent quick compromise between the Democrats in the Legislature and the Republican - Jim Douglas - in the Governor's Office on one hot topic.

Last year, Symington and the Dems could not muster the votes to override Douglas' veto of their big "fight global warming" energy-efficiency legislation. Funding derived from a tax on the profits of Entergy's Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station were unacceptable to a certain governor.

Carlson: What do you think changed from last year to this year to sort of make this all come together because last year it was so divisive... and this year we’re just a few weeks into the session, the same players, the same people at the table, and now we have an idea that’s really close to coming out as a bill in the committee?

SYMINGTON: Well, I’d say it’s fuel prices!

Vermonters are in a lot of pain around fuel prices and I could show you a graph: property tax increase is here, and municipal taxes here and healthcare costs up this much. And then there’s a bar for the increase in fuel prices [which] is enormous and is really affecting Vermonters.

And I think it’s a shame we’re a year behind where we could have been if we had passed that bill last year.