Montpelier, Vt. - Governor Phil Scott’s Communications Director Rebecca Kelley today issued the following statement regarding Wednesday’s House vote relating to the Governor’s executive order to merge the Department of Liquor Control and the Vermont Lottery Commission:
“It is inexplicable that the House majority would not have supported this merger – something they have discussed for a decade and that has strong support in the Senate. It appears they have put politics ahead of the opportunity to modernize government for the people we serve.
“This merger would allow us to better serve Vermont retailers and empower them to improve service to their customers, while making better use of taxpayer dollars. This simple structural change would create a Department that was still among the smallest in all of state government with fewer than 80 employees.
“Governor Scott is committed to growing the economy and making Vermont more affordable, and was elected to pursue policies that would achieve those goals. It is unfortunate that this simple, commonsense approach to make government work better, and to responsibly generate more revenue, was not embraced by the House majority. We will continue to pursue every possible option for implementing this commonsense reform.”
“The Independent Representative from Londonderry also raised some credible legal questions, and we’re disappointed the House did not take the opportunity to further review what appears to be clear constitutional concerns about the authority of a single chamber of the Legislature to rescind an executive order. It is certainly something we will consider further."