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"I have reservations about it — and they're pretty strong," Smith said. 

The proposal, which Shumlin first outlined in his second inaugural address last Thursday, was panned earlier this week by a group of Progressive and Democratic lawmakers. But until now, Smith has kept quiet about his reaction.

"The governor and I are in agreement that it's important to put more money into child care subsidies and that it certainly will help young families — particularly single moms — in their effort to get into the workforce," Smith said. "My question is should it be taken away from a program that encourages people to go back to work and makes work make more sense for a lot of people."

Shumlin and his Secretary of Human Services, Doug Racine, have proposed spending $17 million to expand the availability of child-care subsidies and raise the rates the state pays to child-care providers. The program currently serves 5900 families and 8400 children and could reach 900 additional families if its funding is increased, VTDigger.org reported Thursday.

That's a goal Smith and other lawmakers share — but they're concerned about Shumlin's plan to finance it: namely to cut the state's match to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit by $17 million. That $25 million program provides a tax break — and often a lump-sum payment — to some 44,000 low-income Vermonters. The average tax credit recipient could lose $376 a year, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reported earlier this week.

Updated with comment from Gov. Peter Shumlin

Former representative Eldred French of Shrewsbury has been selected to replace Bill Carris in the Vermont Senate, Seven Days has learned.

First elected to the House in 2008, French lost a close reelection race last year to fellow incumbent Rep. Dennis Devereux (R-Mount Holly) after decennial redistricting merged portions of their two House districts into one.

"One window closes and another door opens," French, a Democrat, said Friday morning. "I did not want to go out the way I did, so this opportunity is great for me."

A month after winning reelection to a two-year term representing Rutland County, former Democratic majority leader Bill Carris announced his resignation from the Senate in December, citing health reasons. Two weeks ago, Rutland County Democrats selected a list of three potential replacements — French, former senator Cheryl Hooker and former senate candidate Bob Baird — from which Gov. Peter Shumlin could choose.

Shumlin informed French of his decision Thursday and plans to make a formal announcement later Friday. A Shumlin spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Thanks to a disruption in the space-time continuum, the Cedar Creek Room of the Statehouse was briefly transported to Bizarro World Thursday morning.

At the podium stood a crew of mostly House Republicans calling for new campaign finance disclosure rules meant to make it easier for voters to know who's funding political campaigns, political action committees and so-called "super PACs."

Their recommendations closely mirrored those offered up in recent months by several liberal groups, including the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and Vermont Priorities.

"This is all about transparency and disclosure. Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure," said Rep. Tom Koch (R-Barre). "The people of this state have a right to know who was contributing to campaigns — how much, how the money is being spent. What they do with that information is their business."

Republican candidates, you'll remember, benefited from a million dollars in campaign expenditures made by the conservative Vermonters First super PAC during the 2012 election.

After a public backlash that may have contributed to many of those candidates losing, the GOP appears to be trying to get out in front of the issue.

Bill Sorrell and Allen Gilbert found themselves in familiar territory Thursday morning: disagreeing about how much access the public should have to police records.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee began work on a bill to increase access to law enforcement records, the attorney general and head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont gave conflicting advice about how far to extend the public's right to know.

Vermont's public records laws are among the country's weakest, allowing some 250 exemptions. But a string of reports about actual and alleged police misconduct have spurred calls for greater police transparency.

Gilbert urged the committee to adopt the federal Freedom of Information standard, which presumes public access to criminal investigative records absent a specific harm that might be caused by their release. He noted that 21 other states and the District of Columbia have already adopted that standard. He said some Vermont police agencies have become "overzealous" in their secrecy, giving the impression that they have something to hide. And that, he said, has eroded trust in police overall.

"How can people trust what police are doing if they can’t even the see the records of something they did five, 10, 25 years ago?" Gilbert asked. "That's really extreme."

The Shumlin administration has also proposed adopting the federal open-records standard, but wants an exemption for any records that could "reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" — a provision that could leave law enforcment agencies with broad discretion.

Sorrell (pictured) countered with a less sweeping proposal: He wants the law to say criminal case files become public only when they involve alleged wrongdoing by a police officer while on duty. Files relating to investigations of private citizens should remain off-limits, he said.

News and politics stories in this week's issue of Seven Days...

• In this week's cover story, Ken Picard takes a deep dive into the state auditor's race between Republican Vince Illuzzi and Democrat/Progressive Doug Hoffer — a battle between the "King of the Kingdom" and the "Data Man."
• What's up with Burlington Telecom? Three years after its troubles first surfaced, the municipally-owned, deep-in-debt utility is still stuck on pause, writes Kevin J. Kelley.
• Kathryn Flagg writes about Burlington's big plans for its King Street neighborhood — without leaving its low-income residents behind.
• This week in Fair Game: Gov. Peter Shumlin talks a big game against corporate money in politics, but he's lining his campaign coffers with cash from special-interest groups. Plus, updates on super PAC backer Lenore Broughton, an Obama fundraiser with James Taylor in Vermont and more changes for the Burlington Free Press.

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Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) largely endorsed the president's plan, saying the Newtown school massacre "had a big impact on me, and it's had a big impact on Vermonters."

"It's hard to tell, but I would think there are a couple things people ought to be able to agree on. One is to close the gun show loophole," Leahy said in a phone interview from his Washington, D.C. office. "I would hope that most people would think whatever the rules are, they should be the same for everybody."

Leahy (pictured at the Statehouse last week with wife Marcelle Leahy) was more restrained in his reaction to Obama's proposed ban on assault weapons.

"I haven't seen how he describes it," Leahy said. "I'd like to see what it is. It's like if someone came to you and said, 'I have a car to sell you. Do you want to buy it?' You might say, 'Is it four-wheel drive? What kind of car is it?'"

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy will play a key role in designing any new gun-control laws. He announced earlier Wednesday that he'll hold hearings starting January 30 to consider legislation in response to last month's deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn. 

Leahy voted for a previous assault weapons ban in 1994 and for an unsuccessful attempt to extend it in 2004. He said a focus of his hearings would be to examine whether the expired ban worked.

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UPDATED below with comment from Councilor Max Tracy, who says Progressives will contest the seat.

Citing a new job and family obligations, Burlington City Councilor Bram Kranichfeld (D-Ward 2) said Wednesday he will not run for reelection in March.

Currently a deputy state's attorney in Chittenden County, Kranichfeld was hired last week to serve as executive director of the Department of State's Attorneys' and Sheriffs' Association. He and his wife, Erin, are expecting their first child in July. 

"It really has been an honor and a privilege to serve the residents of Ward 2 for years on the council," Kranichfeld said, during a brief break from meeting and greeting lawmakers Wednesday at the Statehouse. "I'm saddened to leave the council."

Kranichfeld said he spent the weekend agonizing over the decision, but ultimately decided he couldn't juggle all the responsibilities he was facing.

The new gig, he said, "is going to require a time commitment that I think is not going to be compatible with the time the council and Ward 2 demands."

With a child on the way, he said it would be "irresponsible" to re-up for another two-year term in March.

This just in: the Norwich University Regimental Band will perform in the 57th presidential inauguration parade in Washingon, D.C., on Monday, January 21.

The band was chosen from a field of 2800 applicants, with one group from each state in the Union selected to appear in the parade. This is the seventh time the private military academy's band — the oldest collegiate band in the country, BTW — has been invited to appear in the inauguration parade, having previously garnered invites for the inaugurations of JFK, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and both Bushes.

Seven Days has discovered a copy of what we believe to be the band's audition tape. Well done, cadets. 

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Barely a week before, he and the Burlington City Council were reminded of the strength of Vermont's gun rights community when nearly 100 activists showed up at City Hall to oppose a proposed assault weapons ban.

Apparently, that wasn't enough to dissuade Weinberger from pushing the issue further.

"As the father of a first-grader and as a mayor who gets one of the first calls when someone is shot in this city, I feel a deep responsibility to join the loud call for action now to protect our children and communities from illegal guns," Weinberger said during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Burlington Police Department's North Avenue headquarters.

Standing beside the mayors of Montpelier and Barre, Weinberger announced that he'd joined a national gun control group founded by New York's Michael Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and embraced three of its legislative priorities: to improve the federal background check system, to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and to crack down on gun trafficking.

While hardly breaking new ground in the national debate over gun laws, Weinberger's move was notable in this gun-loving state simply for the contrast it painted with other prominent Vermont politicians, who have mostly sought to avoid discussing gun laws in the wake of last month's deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

By raising the issue himself, Burlington's mayor stood out from the crowd. And for a local politician who clearly harbors statewide political ambitions, that's a risky move.

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got something newsworthy for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, January 14

• At 8:30 a.m., ex-Vermont State Police Sgt. James Deeghan will appear in a Burlington courtroom for a change of plea hearing in his fraud case. As the Burlington Free Press' Mike Donoghue reported on Saturday, prosecutors allege Deeghan padded his salary by $213,000 with phony time sheets. 
• At 10 a.m., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will hear the state's appeal in the case of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee v. Gov. Peter Shumlin et al. in a New York City courtroom. Vermont lost round one, you'll recall, when Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled the legislature overstepped its authority trying to shut down the nuke plant.
• At noon, Vermont Public Radio tackles the state economy on "Vermont Edition" with that dynamic duo, Paul Cillo from the Public Assets Institute and University of Vermont economics professor Art Woolf.
• At 1 p.m., Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger will join Montpelier Mayor John Hollar at the Burlington Police Department for a press conference "demanding an end to gun violence." Rutland Mayor Chris Louras is part of the effort, too, but won't be there.
• At 3 p.m., Doug Hoffer makes his first appearance before a legislative committee (House Appropriations) as the newly sworn-in state auditor.

Rest of the week after the jump...