MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont House repeatedly delayed a vote on its $5.8 billion budget bill Friday while Democratic leaders held closed door meetings and negotiations with Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
The House was scheduled to begin voting on the third budget bill of the year in the morning, but delayed the vote so Democratic leaders could fine-tune aspects of the bill and craft a package that would put a state budget in place before the new fiscal year on July 1.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, a Democrat from Grand Isle County, also met with Scott Friday. She declined to discuss specifics of the meeting.
Lawmakers were expected to begin voting around noon Friday, but repeatedly delayed the vote in half-hour increments. Few outside of the leadership understood why the vote was being delayed, and lawmakers groaned aloud as each new start time was posted.
By late Friday, there was no word of a vote.
The Legislature is in a rare late June special session because Scott vetoed two previous budget bills. The Senate unanimously passed a third version of the budget bill on Thursday, but Scott said there were changes that needed to be made to that version as well.
The governor had proposed using $34.5 million of the state’s surplus to hold all property tax rates at last year’s levels. Democratic leaders opposed the measure, saying it would be fiscally prudent to use the money to pay down teacher pension obligations to avoid interest. They estimated funding teacher pensions would save the state $100 million in the long term.
The third budget bill was touted as a compromise, but it only held residential rates level while allowing a small increase in the nonresidential rate.
Scott has held firm behind his proposal, citing a campaign promise to oppose any bill that would result in an increase in taxes or fees. But the increase is largely driven by school budgets approved by voters earlier this year.
The Legislature worked quickly to pass the current bill after the House failed to override the second budget bill veto on Tuesday.
If the state does not have a budget in place by July 1, Vermont will have a government shutdown for the first time in its history.
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