As many of you may know, Sen. McCormack and I filed a lawsuit in VT Superior Court on Wednesday. The suit asks the court to enforce the separation of powers and declare Gov. Scott’s “interim” appointment of Zoie Saunders after the senate’s rejection of her appointment to be invalid and illegal. I didn’t take the decision to pursue this lawsuit lightly. To me, Democracy is not a vague concept. It is a living system that each one of us plays a part in. It’s not just a set of ideals. It’s how citizens in our society participate in government and hold that government accountable. As a Vermonter and a Senator, I knew I couldn’t sit by and stay silent as I watched the checks and balances that keep our system honest crumble before my eyes.
What may seem like a complicated legal issue is actually quite simple. The governor can’t strip away the power granted to the senate by both the VT Constitution and state law. But by disregarding our unambiguous decision to reject his appointment for Secretary of Education, he did exactly that.
Let me be clear: this is not about the person Gov. Scott submitted for appointment nor is it about the work that she’s done. It’s about the governor’s decision to overrule the senate and make that appointment without our legally required consent. It’s about making case law that tells any governor who comes after Scott that Vermont enforces the separation of powers.
Let me also be clear: this is not about political parties or divides. Standing up for the constitution shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be something that unites all of us. Sen. McCormack and I are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the letters after our names, and because we both took an oath of office to protect and uphold the Vermont Constitution. We’re doing this because history shows us over and over again that the overreach of executive power leads us away from democracy to authoritarianism unless it’s challenged at every point.
So what’s next? With the lawsuit officially filed, that’s in the court’s hands. Our only goal is to have the court declare that a governor can’t make an “interim” appointment while the senate is in session, and because the senate has already declined this appointment while in session, that the governor cannot reappoint that same person now that we are out of session. It is not up to us to decide how to move forward after those decisions are handed down. Again, this is not about the person that Gov. Scott tried to appoint. This is about his disregard for the separation of powers when he did so.
This is also not about any piece of legislation from the biennium. This was an incredibly challenging session where we grappled with very complicated crises. Through this session the General Assembly worked hard to respond in the ways it thought would be best for Vermonters, and the solutions we had available were mixed. I wish we could have had a session where all of the players came to the table in good faith. But that’s not the session we had. I stand by the work we did. We spent hundreds of hours working together, taking testimony from constituents and experts, debating in committees and on the floor and coming to the best policy we could with the options we had. We all take this work extremely seriously and many of us, like me, sacrifice a lot to be here and serve. To suggest that this lawsuit in any way is meant to distract from scrutiny of any bill we passed is not just incorrect, but wildly off base. To speak directly to the yield bill, which the governor has taken aim at, I want to clarify that this bill does not set the cost of education for the state. That’s not up to us. What this bill does do, and it is critical that it does, is fund the school budgets that local voters in each community passed. Without the work that we did, the cost of those budgets would have been a 20% rate increase. We got it down significantly to an average of 13.8%. Once again let me be clear: this does not mean that everyone’s taxes are going up 13.8% – in fact I know that in my district, Winooski’s tax rate is actually going down. As always I want to make sure I’m sharing facts, not fear.
We tackled so much this year – the opioid crisis, the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and much more, and yes – we have a lot more work to do next year when we return to the statehouse. But with so many incredibly complex crisis level issues facing us – I could not in good conscience go home and do nothing when a crisis of democracy was added to the list.
Finally, I’d like to take a minute to recognize the people who helped get us here today. First, I’d like to thank my fellow senators for their support of Sen. McCormack and me as we moved forward with this suit. I’d also like to thank my attorneys, Jared Carter and his co-council John Franco, for their tireless work and expertise. Putting together a lawsuit like this isn’t something that is accessible to many people, and as a self-employed social worker, I’m not someone with personal wealth. This lawsuit wouldn’t be possible without the financial contributions of a wide network of supporters from across the political spectrum who donated directly to my attorneys to cover their fees and to whom I’m deeply grateful. I’m also grateful for the outpouring of support I’ve received from my constituents since news of the lawsuit went public yesterday. This action is the culmination of so many people who believe that democracy is worth defending and in honor of all of them I will continue to do what I believe is right, even when it’s not easy.
Tanya Vyhovsky 