Jill Krowinski, left, and Phil Baruth. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThe Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more.The 2024 election was a political tsunami that washed across the country and Vermont. The Green Mountain State led the national anti-incumbent wave: More Democrats lost seats in Vermont than in any other state, with more than two dozen Democratic state lawmakers losing their re-election bids. Though  Democrats still retain the majority in the State House, the election erased the Democratic supermajorities enjoyed in both chambers of the Vermont legislature.In addition, Republican John Rodgers won Vermont’s Lt. Governor race, defeating incumbent Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman. It is the first time an incumbent lieutenant governor in Vermont has been defeated in over two centuries.The 2024 election has reshaped statewide politics. Republicans now control the top two elected offices in Vermont and Democrats no longer have the ability to override vetoes by Republican Gov. Phil Scott.Confrontation and stalemate that has often characterized the politics around tax reform, housing, and energy must now yield to compromise.“One of the things that struck me was that (Gov.) Phil Scott has had pretty much a singular message since he got in, and I do believe that Vermonters have a certain amount of trust in him on the issue of property taxes and the related issue of education finance. And what we had never seen from the governor were detailed proposals on his part,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth told the Vermont Conversation. So Baruth made an offer: he would give the governor the first week of the legislative session to present his ideas to the Senate.“To his great credit, he has taken us up on that,” said Baruth, noting that this is a departure from the governor’s past practice of “letting us go through an exercise of four or five months work and then vetoing it and demanding that we revise it on the fly at the end.”“My hope is that we’ll take the governor’s plan, which is detailed, complex (and) has multiple moving parts, and we will marry it with our own ideas, and we’ll reach compromise with not just the governor, but with all three major parties.”Is Baruth willing to do things that would have made him uncomfortable five or 10 years ago?“Yes, absolutely,” he replied. He cited as an example his changing approach to education funding. Part of the problem is that “Montpelier has no authority over (school) districts so they make their own budgets. They spend as much as they want, as long as their voters will approve them. They are sovereign in a certain sense. If they don’t want to close a building with 22 kids in it, they can have a principal and a superintendent there. But we’ve reached a point where that doesn’t work anymore. The system won’t bear that, so we have to have some levers in Montpelier to control spending.”Democratic House Speaker Jill Krowinski added, “Everything’s on the table. We can’t come into this with topics that we can’t touch or that are off the table … It’s gotta be bold, and we have to be open minded about it.”When it comes to education funding, Krowinski said that she has “been talking with members about showing up wearing our statewide hats, because it’s going to have to be a statewide solution, and there’s going to be a need for some pretty big compromise here to make a difference.”“Why I’m optimistic is because everyone is talking about this, everybody is agreeing that we have to tackle it this session and that is the most critical thing we can do right now to support our communities and our families who are struggling,” she added.Regarding the housing crisis, which has left some Vermonters sleeping in tents in frigid winter conditions, Baruth said that Vermont has spent $1.5 billion on housing in the last five years that was enabled by Covid relief money. “That has never been done in Vermont history.”“There is a small explosion of housing going on,” said Baruth. “It’s not going to get us to the ultimate place, but we’re about a third of the way there with this last huge infusion of money, and that’s no small thing.”Krowinski said that the House “will be looking at how we can modernize our general assistance program and supporting more shelter capacity. What can we do to ensure that we have the beds that we need for folks that are unhoused? It’s been an expensive program and we haven’t been seeing the outcomes that we thought we might see and we were hoping for.”“We’re going to have a tough budget year,” she predicted.Krowinski acknowledged that many Vermonters are on edge about changes and threats being made by President-elect Donald Trump targeting immigrants, abortion rights, and his political opponents.“My message to Vermonters right now is that we have your back and we will do anything we can within our power if we see threats to Vermonters,” she said.“We’re in this together, and we have a lot of things that we can do to help protect us if those threats come through,” she said.“So hang in there. We’ll get through this.”Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Conversation: What comes next after losing the most Democratic seats in the U.S.? Sen. Phil Baruth & Rep. Jill Krowinski on compromise & change. .