Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Scott’s first budget includes plenty of popular ideas — designed to strengthen early childhood education, make higher ed more affordable, ease the burden on property taxpayers, enhance worker-training programs, support the fight against opiate addiction and build affordable housing. Taken as a whole, the initiatives target some of Vermont’s most persistent problems.
The bad news is how Scott proposes to pay for it all — while holding the line on taxes and fees.
Tags: Phil Scott , Susanne Young , Jim Douglas , budget , Town Meeting Day 2017 , Image , Web Only
“The airport will continue to administer the program until we bring it to an end,” Richards told Seven Days Tuesday.
The resolution does little more than create anxiety for neighbors who want to sell, he added.
“We’ve had people crying and we’ve had people really stressed out about this,” Richards said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Tags: Burlington International Airport , F-35 , noise , South Burlington , Gene Richards , Image , Web Only
“I am committed to doing whatever it takes to put us on a new path to a more prosperous future,” Scott told a joint session of the House and Senate.
That, he said, would require level-funding for most state agencies — as well as for public school budgets. The latter have long been controlled by local communities.
The much-anticipated, 43-minute address offered the first indication of how Scott — a Berlin Republican who took office January 5 — would meet his campaign promise to be fiscally prudent while protecting the most vulnerable.
Tags: Phil Scott , Tim Ashe , Vermont legislature , state budget , school funding , Town Meeting Day , Dave Sharpe , Vermont State Colleges , Image , Web Only
The South Burlington City Council voted 3-2 Monday to pass a resolution intended to raise strong concerns about the continued purchase and demolition of homes near Burlington International Airport under a federal noise-mitigation program.
Councilors Meaghan Emery, Tim Barritt and council chair Helen Riehle voted for the resolution. Councilors Tom Chittenden and Pat Nowak voted against it, saying they feared it could jeopardize or slow home sales for property owners who are eager to sell under the Federal Aviation Administration program.
Tags: Burlington International Airport , south burlington , F-35s , FAA , airport buyouts , Image , Web Only
The majority of business owners, residents and councilors who testified at the meeting praised a scaled-back plan from New Moran, Inc. Tad Cooke, Erick Crockenberg and Charlie Tipper hope to break ground on the $15.4 million project by the end of 2017. A previous iteration from the same trio had a price tag of $34 million.
First, the group must get approval from the city. The Community and Economic Development Office will spend the next three months reviewing the plan.
Tags: Moran Plant , Noelle MacKay , New Moran , Inc. , Tad Cooke , Erick Crockenberg , Charlie Tipper , Image , Web Only
Monday, January 23, 2017
Selectboard chair Peter Hood said the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence hasn’t caused problems for the town, but the board is tired of the state “diddling around.”
“We just said, ‘The door is open. Come back when you have a plan.’ They haven’t been back yet,” Hood said in an interview last week.
The facility opened in June 2013 as a stopgap for psychiatric patients displaced from the Vermont State Hospital after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The state signed an initial agreement with the Middlesex selectboard to close the seven-bed locked facility no later than January 2016.
The state has always intended to replace the facility with a permanent 14-bed facility in a different location, but there are still no concrete plans.
Tags: Department of Mental Health , Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence , Tropical Storm Irene , Image , Web Only
A new panel — the Committee on Campaign Finance Education, Compliance and Reform — is designed to bring more people into compliance and recommend ways to improve the law, according to Secretary of State Jim Condos and newly sworn-in Attorney General T.J. Donovan.
Simply making it clear to candidates and contributors what the rules are is part of the goal, Condos said. “Print off a copy of the candidates for 2016 election, go down the list and see who filed campaign finance reports,” he said. “How do we get more people to do compliance?”
Tags: campaign finance reform , T.J. Donovan , Brady Toensing , Bill Sorrell , Josh Wronski , Jake Perkinson , Natalie Silver , Image , Web Only
In a motion filed Monday, McAllister sought to withdraw the plea agreement that he signed January 10 on the eve of his second trial for sexual assault.
According to the motion written by his new defense attorney Robert Katims, McAllister is innocent and his attorneys pressured him to sign the deal after a long day in court.
Tags: Norm McAllister , sex assualt , politics , Image , Web Only
Earlier this month, the council solicited help from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to put pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration. They want the FAA to run and pay for a noise study this year to predict what the sound levels will be like upon the arrival of the F-35s in 2019.
The council has also crafted a resolution to be voted on Monday night that will be delivered to the FAA with a long list of requests. Councilors want buyouts halted immediately. They want advance warning of noise mitigation studies that will affect the city. And they want to allow a cluster of already bought-out homes on Lily Lane to be transferred to Champlain Housing Trust.
Tags: South Burlington City Council , Meaghan Emery , Helen Riehle , Champlain Housing Trust , Kevin Dorn , Senator , Patrick Leahy , FAA , airport buyouts , Gene Richards , Image , Web Only
“It was a learning experience for everyone,” Batchelor says. “We had a wonderful, wonderful, eye-opening experience.”
The event was called the Convention of States, and it was meant to be a model of what’s called an Article V Convention. There are two ways to amend the Constitution: the first begins with Congress adopting an amendment. But under the Constitution’s Article V, the states may also initiate a convention. This has never happened in American history and legal scholars disagree over some key aspects of the process.
The COS took place in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was organized by a group called Citizens for Self-Governance — which, according to the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy, has ties to the Tea Party movement, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch.
Tags: Convention of States , American Legislative Exchange Council , Koch brothers , Bob Helm , Lynn Batchelor , Vicki Strong , Citizens for Self-Governance , Fair Game Extra , Image , Web Only