DOVER-With a strong sense of urgency and just weeks before the election, Rep. Laura Sibilia is planning to challenge House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, for the leadership role when the Legislature returns to session in January.
The reason for the rare challenge? Sibilia, who represents Dover, Jamaica, Somerset, Stratton, and Wardsboro, said that she believes Vermont is in crisis on many fronts, including education, climate change, and health care, and that under Krowinski, the House of Representatives is not moving fast enough to find solutions.
"It has been very clear to me that members feel really frustrated," Sibilia told The Commons. "We've got a supermajority who is dissatisfied with their process. I think the speaker is universally liked, and I personally admire how hard she is working. And she works very hard during the session. But the fact of the matter is, we are not getting the work done."
Many people have been surprised by the five-term independent's decision to try to oust Krowinski from the role she's played in the Legislature since 2021.
"People do not like to upset the apple cart," she said. "No one wants to offend Speaker Krowinski. And I really understand that. But in this moment, that's not good enough. We actually can't wait for the right leader to arrive via the normal party channels."
Sibilia said that the body needs "a different type of leadership," and her style is "bent toward getting work done."
"I've been extremely deliberative," she said. "I have talked with many, many, many people. I have looked for alternatives and have not found them. And so that is why I've made this decision, and that is why I'm moving forward."
Sibilia is unopposed in her re-election bid for the Windham-2 district seat. Krowinski and Progressive/Democrat Rep. Kate Logan are running unopposed for the two-person Chittenden-16 seat, one of Burlington's five districts.
In a letter to her constituents, Sibilia said, "The challenges our state faces - particularly regarding affordability and the urgent need for adaptation in our economy and communities - demand effective leadership and collaboration. Despite a legislative supermajority, significant work remains undone, and many voices are not being fully heard."
Mentioning neither Sibilia nor her campaign for the speakership, Krowinski issued a statement saying, "I plan to run for re-election as Speaker. Currently, my focus has been on connecting with Vermonters in all 14 counties and hearing their thoughts, specifically: 'What is working and where do we need improvement?"
"Knocking on doors and connecting with Vermonters has only solidified my belief that we can, and must, continue to take on the big issues we have ahead of us this biennium," Krowinski said.
Serious problems
"We are facing some pretty serious crises right now with some public institutions that are in real jeopardy," Sibilia said. "We have Vermonters who are really stressed and feeling the pinch. That's certainly true in my family."
For one thing, Vermont's education system - "not our education financing system, but the structure of how we deliver education in the state of Vermont - is in real trouble," she said.
Sibilia cited "the number of buildings, the staff that are available to do it, the support for that staff, the conditions of the buildings, the funding that is available, the technical assistance that is available, the staffing of the Agency of Education" as factors that have an impact on the cost of education.
Finding the right funding formula has always been challenging, she said, but while legislators "mess around" with trying to fix it, the real educational problems continue to fester.
"I'm completely open to thinking differently about how we fund education, but I also am a believer that we have to solve the root problem," Sibilia said. "And the root problem is not how we pay for education."
And Covid, she said, "did an unbelievable amount of damage to our public education system - the mental health needs that it put on people taking their kids home to home school them, plus the stress and turnover that it caused amongst our leadership."
Continued declining enrollment is one big issue, Sibilia said. Another is the age and state of disrepair of our school infrastructure.
"There is a serious period of time where there has been disinvestment and lack of state support for maintaining our buildings," Sibilia said. "We're seeing these huge PCB challenges and other things, and we can't just continue to tinker with how we pay for education. We have to begin to do the hard work."
Health care is also in crisis, Sibilia said.
"The state made a moral decision, long before I got into the Legislature, that we wanted to increase access to health care for all Vermonters," Sibilia said. "I support that, and we've made a lot of steps to move in that direction."
But at the same time, she said, "we are extremely reliant on federal funding for the stability of that system."
"We are an old population with workforce challenges that are driving up costs, and our regulatory framework is such that we have fewer providers," Sibilia continued. "We've expanded access to health care, so I take nothing away from that."
But Vermont "has not mitigated the financial risk that comes with a lot of the access being dependent on the federal government," she said. "And you know, about the federal government, some might say there's a little volatility and unpredictability there."
Another Vermont crisis can be found in the housing sector, Sibilia said.
"We're making some progress on housing, but affordability is an issue," she said.
Gov. Phil Scott "totally has his finger on this and is using the bully pulpit and reflecting back to Vermonters a huge concern that they have and an experience that they are feeling," Sibilia observed.
"I would not say he has brought forward a lot of proposals to address that," Sibilia said. "I think his answer is we just can't do anything else. I don't know if that, in and of itself, brings relief or affordability."
Consequently, "the Legislature is not even talking to Vermonters about affordability," she said. "And these issues are not getting less urgent."
Other challenges on Sibilia's list:
• Global climate change, which brought flooding to mid-Vermont two times this summer.
• Digital commerce, which challenges our small-store economy.
• A transfer of energy as the state makes the sometimes-painful switch from gas to electric.
• The fact that a large cohort of the population consists of aging boomers, who are increasingly dying.
"We're in trouble," said Sibilia, who sees neither the governor nor the Legislature "putting proposals on the table to deal with those challenges."
"We can't keep going like that," she said. "We just cannot."
The Legislature needs to be managed differently, Sibilia said. She pledged that her leadership would involve finding the broadest point of agreement around a problem and building solutions from there, "utilizing the talent of all who come to contribute to problem solving […] to help us get further down the road and to become more successful," she said.
Anticipating January
When the 78th biennial session starts on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, the secretary of state will call the House to order. After devotional exercises, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a roll call of all 150 members, the very first order of business will be to elect the House speaker.
In the ceremonial language of the House Journal, the official record of the body's proceedings, the secretary of state will then appoint a committee of a handful of representatives "to wait upon the Speaker-elect, inform her of her election, and conduct her to the rostrum to receive the oath of office."
The speaker will take the gavel and lead the body through the business of lawmaking for the next biennium.
Sibilia is in the process of fundraising, campaigning, and creating an organization to accomplish her mission.
"I think there are a lot of members who bring a wide array of talents and experiences into the State House, and I'm not sure that they feel that those experiences and talents are being utilized in a way that can help us make progress on these problems," she said.
Sibilia promised to "make sure that we are organized appropriately to make progress on those challenges."
"I will put out a vision that draws on the widest possible agreement and gets us moving and sets an expectation that we will make progress," she said.
"I am running a serious campaign, which means we have to be ready to go the first week of January," Sibilia said. "I'll be putting out some information soon about staff and I expect additional information will follow about how I intend to proceed."
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.