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Scott Vetoes Minimum Wage, Paid Family Leave Bills

Alicia Freese May 22, 2018 18:04 PM
File: Alicia Freese
Gov. Phil Scott
Updated at 8:18 p.m.

Gov. Phil Scott on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have raised Vermont’s minimum wage to $15 and established a paid family leave program.

The high-profile vetoes came as the governor grappled with a midnight deadline to determine the fate of more than three dozen bills. In total, according to a spokesperson, Scott signed 38 bills into law on Monday and Tuesday; he allowed two to become law without his signature, and he vetoed four.

Scott previously vetoed legislation regulating toxic chemicals, and he is expected to do the same to the state budget and tax bills.

The legislature likely won’t be able to override the governor’s vetoes because Democrats in the House lack the two-thirds majority required to do so.

Scott’s decision to veto the minimum wage and paid leave bills came as no surprise. He expressed his opposition to both measures throughout the legislative session. But the move is nevertheless a blow to two signature progressive causes. The vetoes drew immediate rebukes from Democratic lawmakers and advocates.

In a statement reacting to the fate of the paid family leave legislation, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) said, "Unfortunately, the Governor today ignored the needs of working families and vetoed a bill that would sustain Vermonters against hard times."

The program would have been funded through a payroll tax on employees, and Scott had said he would oppose any new tax or fee. “While the goals of this legislation are admirable,” the governor said in a statement accompanying his veto, “it simply is not responsible to impose a new $16.3 million payroll tax on Vermonters.”

As for the minimum wage measure, Scott said, “I believe the bill is more likely to harm those it intends to help, weaken small businesses and the economy as a whole, and deepen the economic inequality that exists between Chittenden County and other counties in the state.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) slammed Scott’s minimum wage veto in a Facebook post: “Amazingly, as a result of the Governor’s veto, Walmart will have a higher minimum wage than the State of Vermont. On economic and moral grounds, the Governor’s veto is an enormous disappointment.”

Scott also vetoed S.197, which would have made it easier for individuals exposed to toxic chemicals to compel responsible companies to pay for related medical expenses. And he vetoed S.105, which would have prevented companies from including "unconscionable terms" in contracts — such as requiring someone to travel to a distant location to bring a claim against the company. Both bills met with fierce resistance from a number of business groups, which expressed concern that S. 197 and S. 105 could expose them to a raft of lawsuits.

The governor allowed two other bills — H.636, a miscellaneous fish and wildlife bill, and H.764, which imposes a $100 registration fee on data brokers — to pass into law without his signature, even though the latter would appear to violate his no-new-fees dictate.

In a statement, Scott made the case that, while the fee is being newly applied to an industry, it is “the standard fee charged by the Secretary of State, Office of Professional Regulation for other regulated businesses and, therefore, is not new.”

Among the 38 bills Scott signed into law Monday and Tuesday were several that lawmakers thought he might veto. Those included S.289, meant to protect net neutrality, and S.260, a waterways cleanup bill that legislators diluted during the final days of the session.

A full list of the bills signed, vetoed and passed into law without signature this week is below:

Vetoed:
Allowed to Become Law Without Signature:
Signed:

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