Some people devote a career to public service without ever experiencing the special privilege I enjoyed a few weeks ago.

It occurred when I cast a tie-breaking vote in the Vermont Senate. As the presiding officer there, I only get to vote to break a tie. And in my two years and four months as your lieutenant governor, this was the first chance I’ve had.

In question was a comprehensive bill to reduce mercury pollution in our state. Part of the bill would have banned the sale in Vermont of button cell batteries -- the little batteries used in hearing aids -- beginning six years from now. While these batteries contribute a fraction of a percent of all the mercury found in our state’s environment, the Eveready Energizer plant in Bennington is one of only two places where those batteries are made in the US. The vote was about making those batteries exempt from the bill’s regulations. The chair of the committee advocating in favor of banning button cell batteries said that the bill was intended to send a disapproving message to the company, where 180 Vermonters earn a living.

Voting to save those 180 jobs in Bennington was pretty simple for me.

Of course, I can’t take all the credit for protecting those jobs; 14 Senators voted for the measure, while 14 voted against. By balancing each other out, they made my one vote the vote that mattered.

Two days later, I traveled to Gage Street in Bennington. I walked through the door into the Eveready Energizer factory, where I met plant manager Jeff Schroeder, and the people who make the batteries. As we walked the factory floor, we talked about the problem of mercury in our environment, and about the technical challenge of coming up with an alternative to mercury. Everyone wants to move beyond mercury, including Energizer!

I told Jeff that University of Vermont President Dan Fogel and UVM’s researchers are eager to fuel our state’s economic engine by tackling challenges like this one -- and so are Vermont’s other colleges and universities. I promised to reach out to them, and ask for their help. Jeff said the company would welcome their energy.

Today, just a few weeks later, representatives from both UVM and Norwich University have already been conferring with Energizer about how their research partnerships might take shape.

So instead of sending a message -- instead of banning a battery made in Vermont, and used by thousands of Vermont seniors in hearing aids -- I say let’s come up with a better battery, and let’s do it in less than 6 years! Instead of banning the battery inside Vermont borders, let’s see if we can develop new ideas that will help make mercury batteries obsolete, not just in Vermont, but the world over.

You see, I went to Bennington not just to send a message, but to deliver one -- that jobs matter, and that the state of Vermont wants to work as a partner to overcome obstacles and preserve those jobs. And I went to Bennington to receive a message, too. I went to Bennington to listen. That’s called a conversation.

That day on the factory floor, two women approached me. The first woman touched my arm and said to me, “I have worked in this factory for 38 years, and I want to thank you for voting to save my job.” Then the second woman said, “I have worked here for 30 years, and I just want to thank you for understanding how important jobs are here in southern Vermont.”

Those conversations had a powerful impact on me, on a very personal level. They vividly dramatized the real-life consequences of what we do in Montpelier. It’s a lesson I’ll carry with me, and reflect on the next time I’m called upon to break a Senate tie vote.