The Legislature’s chief lawyer has deemed Gov. Phil Scott’s move to extend motel voucher eligibility for a narrow segment of unhoused Vermonters an “unconstitutional consolidation of power.” 

The executive order, signed by Scott late last week, extended motel stays for families with children and certain people with acute medical needs through June 30. It came after the governor blocked an attempt by Democratic legislators to pass a three-month extension for all people sheltered through the state program this winter. 

Speaking from the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon, Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, said that he’d asked the Office of Legislative Counsel, the nonpartisan body that drafts bills for lawmakers, for an opinion on the legality of Scott’s order.

A subsequent letter penned by Brynn Hare, the office’s director and chief counsel, did not mince words.

The order effectively creates “a new eligibility category” for the emergency housing program, Hare wrote, “prioritizing that new category” over the groups determined most vulnerable by the Legislature last year.

“The executive order directly and intentionally conflicts with the actions of the legislature in favor of the Governor’s policy preference,” Hare wrote. “The Governor’s attempt to circumvent the intent of the General Assembly is an unconstitutional encroachment on a core function of the legislature.”

Scott’s order leaves out the majority of people eligible for the program over the winter months — including people over the age of 65 and people fleeing domestic violence. Evictions for those not included in his order began Tuesday. 

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VtDigger and Vermont Public.