May 21, 2015
Today, in a move prompted by the desire to save money and
improve legislating opportunities, Vermonters called for Legislative
Consolidation that could lead to the formation of one state legislature for all
of Northern New England. As one citizen
explained: “We’re thinkin’ that having one legislature for Vermont, and say,
for Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and maybe also New York and
Connecticut, and possibly Rhode Island, would make things simpler and easier to
understand. As everyone knows, bigger
means less complex, and less complex is always cheaper and better.”
“This is NOT a mandate”, explained the chair of Vermont
Citizens for Legislative Consolidation.
“We’ve simply decided to require that all New England legislators,
especially those in small states like Vermont and Rhode Island, shift their
entire focus to a participating in a lengthy series of meetings, facilitated by
people who think this is a good idea. If
Vermont’s legislators decide NOT to merge with the legislature of at least one
other New England State, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns will conduct a
Legislative Quality Review (LQR) to determine if the VT Legislature is doing a
good job. If the Legislature’s
performance is found to be sub-par, the VLCT will require it to merge,
most likely with with a geographically contiguous state (probably New
Hampshire, since it already kind of looks like Vermont, only upside-down).”
When asked how this move would save money and improve
legislation, one proponent responded this way: “Well, maybe we’d have fewer
legislators, for one thing. And we’d
have one budget for two or more states, and that would be like having a bigger
state, and then maybe we could fire at least one governor, and maybe a whole
passel of legislators and state workers.
Besides, Vermont’s issues aren’t all that unique. What’s the diff?”
