Well, looky here. VTDigger’s Anne Galloway found herself a little somethin’-somethin’ that nobody else noticed in the last-minute machinations of the Legislature:

A little-known, six-paragraph provision that passed in the Senate just five hours before adjournment on Tuesday could lay the groundwork for significant changes in the way business is conducted at the Vermont Statehouse.

The resolution, S.R. 7, allows the Senate to form a special committee to examine the lobbying activities of publicly funded organizations.

This special committee will have subpoena power to compel testimony and gain access to relevant records and accounts, and its members will include many of the Senate’s most powerful figures.

The resolution was the brainchild of Sen. Dick Sears, and his intended targets are public-school organizations such as the School Boards Association, Principals Association, and Superintendents Association. He’s tired of what he calls their “brick wall” of opposition to school reforms.

“It seems as though trying to make changes in ed policy is like pulling teeth,” Sears said.

Sears insists he doesn’t have “any preconceived notions that anybody is doing something wrong,” but the Senate has just given him a big ol’ hammer and the authority to search for nails. And you know what they say about a man with a hammer, right?

After the jump: my biggest objection to S.7, and an interesting potential twist.

Apparently, Sears and other Senators are tired of getting a flurry of constituent contacts whenever school reforms are under consideration. He blames the Associations for orchestrating these inconvenient floods, ignoring the notion that maybe a lot of Vermonters are actually happy with their local public schools and are leery of centrally-imposed “reforms.” (F’rinstance, the overwhelming approval rates for school budgets.)

Be that as it may, my biggest objection isn’t about the content of S.7, it’s the process. We never heard a peep about this during the legislative session. Sears and his cronies snuck it through on Adjournment Day, with no advance notice. Seems a bit… well… undemocratic.

Sears’ primary intent is to examine the lobbying activities of the school associations, but as Galloway notes:

The language in the resolution is broad – any organization that receives state funding could come under scrutiny when the committee begins meeting this summer.

At least one member of the special committee, Democrat Jeannette White, asserts that “state funding” includes tax credits and tax breaks.

And that would be truly fascinating. Because just about every entity of any size in Vermont would qualify under that definition.

The seven-member committee includes Sears, White, John Campbell, Kevin Mullin, Jane Kitchel, Bobby Starr, and Richie Westman. There’s a whole lot of support for the institutional status quo in that group. I’d feel a lot more optimistic if someone like Tim Ashe or David Zuckerman had a seat at the table.