Thursday, January 22, 2015
Members of the centrist coalition said Vermont should follow the lead of Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico in transitioning Vermont Health Connect to what's known as a federally supported, state-based marketplace. Such arrangements leave the states largely in charge of their health exchanges, but take advantage of federal information technology systems.
"What we have here today is a viable alternative," Rep. Patti Komline (R-Dorset) said at a Statehouse press conference. "We're not just playing political games with it."
Joining Komline in proposing the idea were Reps. Jim Condon (D-Colchester), Adam Greshin (I-Warren) and Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe). They said they were fed up with ongoing technical problems plaguing Vermont Health Connect, a state-based exchange originally built by contractor CGI and now operated by Optum.
"Vermonters deserve a functioning insurance portal," Condon said. "And they don't have that yet."
Tags: Health care reform , Vermont , Image , Web Only
“It’s not a fight that’s going to go away,” former Gov. Madeleine Kunin told those attending the gathering, which was organized by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
In the nearby Statehouse cafeteria, tables were littered with fliers emphasizing the value of adoption and offering testimonials from women who regretted abortions. The Vermont Right to Life Committee spent $20,000 to put copies of the fliers in 21 publications around Vermont and will be airing a pro-adoption television ad, executive director Mary Hahn Beerworth said.
“This is going to be a big agenda item for us,” Beerworth said.
By Thursday afternoon, the abortion issue hit the House floor, even though there is no active legislation in Vermont to change state abortion law. Pro-choice activists insisted on a roll-call vote on a resolution recognizing the Roe v. Wade anniversary. The resolution comes up virtually every year, but it's rare for lawmakers to insist on putting members on-record with a roll-call vote.
Tags: abortion , Roe v. Wade , Vermont House , Vermont Right to Life Committee , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The bad news: That’s bigger than any raise you’ve likely seen in years. As a result, your and other Vermonters’ incomes continue to suffer, and so do the state’s revenues.
With that news in hand, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the legislative leaders who compose the state's Emergency Board signed off Tuesday on an $18 million reduction in anticipated revenues for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.
The move comes days after Shumlin unveiled his fiscal year 2016 budget. Shumlin said that means that with other anticipated changes, he and legislators will have to cut $14 million to $16 million more from the budget. He suggested, however, that he’s expecting the news to improve by the time lawmakers sign off on the budget in May.
“We’re going to manage to the money we have. It’s possible we’ll see some growth coming forward,” Shumlin said afterward. “It’s not an insurmountable challenge.”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Vermont state revenues , Tom Kavet , Jeff Carr , oil prices , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Mark Larson, who led the rocky rollout of the state's health insurance exchange, is leaving his job as commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access in March, Gov. Peter Shumlin's office announced Tuesday.
Both the governor and his outgoing commissioner said Larson made the choice himself to leave.
“Mark led the department through some challenging times, but no one cared more or tried harder to overcome those challenges so Vermonters could access affordable health care than Mark," the governor said in a written statement. "Thanks to the work of Mark and others, tens of thousands more Vermonters are now insured. I appreciate his service and understand his desire to take some time to step back and explore new opportunities."
Larson didn’t return a call seeking comment, but in a text message, he said it was “my choice to step down” and the “right time for me to move on.”
“I don’t currently have any specific plans to announce for what I plan to do next,” he said.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , health insurance exchange , Mark Larson , Lawrence Miller , Doug Racine , Image , Web Only
That has advocates in Vermont hoping the president's push will provide momentum for a long-stalled state initiative.
"I'm optimistic that this will help us get it over the finish line," says Lindsay DesLauriers, director of Main Street Alliance of Vermont.
Last year, DesLauriers — then a lobbyist for the nonprofit Voices for Vermont's Children — waged a high-profile campaign to mandate paid sick leave in Vermont. Legislation introduced last January would have required employers to provide up to 56 hours of accrued time off for those who are ill, taking care of a family member, or recovering from domestic or sexual violence.
But the bill died halfway through the legislative session, following serious pushback from Vermont's business community, when House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) said his caucus was not unified behind the issue — and Gov. Peter Shumlin said he'd prefer to raise the minimum wage.
Tags: Vermont paid sick leave , earned sick leave , Sarah Copeland Hanzas , Peter Shumlin , Shap Smith , Lindsay DesLauriers , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 16, 2015
Should state government tap into that money by making pot legal? The report, written by the RAND Corporation, makes no attempt to offer recommendations but instead pulls together a heap of information lawmakers might use in answering that question.
“It’s there to inform our conversation around this issue,” Administration Secretary Justin Johnson said at a Statehouse briefing Friday afternoon. “It says, essentially, it’s not something you just switch on, switch off. It’s a decision you make carefully.”
The estimated tax revenues represent a wide range because there are so many unknowns, the report's authors said.
Beau Kilmer, RAND's project leader, presented it to roughly 50 legislators, administration officials, prosecutors and others interested in the issue. Supporters were anxiously awaiting the report, hoping it would help kick off a legalization debate this year in the legislature.
Tags: Cannabeat , Justin Johnson , Marijuana legalization , Peter Shumlin , RAND Corporation , Vermont , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Calling it “the toughest budget I’ve put together,” Gov. Peter Shumlin on Thursday called for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to close a projected $94 million gap in next year’s general fund.
In an unusually long, hour-and-twelve-minute budget address, the third-term Democrat challenged lawmakers assembled in the House chamber to balance the state's books without relying too heavily on tax hikes. But just moments later, Shumlin proposed a significant new payroll tax on employers in order to increase Medicaid payments to providers and drive down the cost of health insurance premiums.
“I know that we will debate these and other parts of the budget throughout the session, but I ask critics of my proposals for restructuring to follow one simple rule — one simple rule,” he said. “If you don’t like my recommendations, propose your own to achieve equal, ongoing savings.”
Shumlin’s proposed $5.66 billion budget includes $1.47 billion in general fund spending. That represents a 4.4 percent increase over the current budget, assuming a package of mid-year cuts is approved later this winter.
To balance next year’s budget, the governor outlined nearly $63 million in spending cuts, including $22 million from the massive Agency of Human Services — $6 million of which would come from a home-heating assistance program. Throughout state government, he would eliminate 72 jobs, but add another 61 — and find another $5 million in unspecified labor savings.
Shumlin also called for $20 million in new revenue to balance the budget, nearly $16 million of which would be raised by scrapping a tax deduction filers can take from their last state tax bill. Roughly 30 percent of taxpayers currently take advantage of the deduction, saving an average of $175.
Most significantly, the governor proposed raising $41 million from businesses over five-and-a-half months by levying a new, 0.7 percent tax on their payrolls. Those funds would leverage another $44.5 million in federal dollars, he said, all of which would be dedicated to reducing the so-called Medicaid cost-shift and funding his other health care initiatives.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , budget address , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Now two Republican House members say they're hoping to ban the practice.
Individual legislators are currently barred from raising money from registered lobbyists and the companies that employ them until after the legislature adjourns at the end of the two-year biennium. But Vermont Democrats and Republicans alike have long exploited a loophole allowing them to raise lobbyist cash through the PACs they control — even while the legislature is in session. Those PACs then spend the money on electoral activities.
Reps. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) and Patti Komline (R-Dorset) say they plan to introduce legislation later this week that would extend the restrictions to political parties and PACs.
"We think that practice ought to be banned," Wright says.
Tags: Kurt Wright , Patti Komline , Shap Smith , lobbyists , fundraisers , Image , Web Only
In this week's Fair Game, we wrote about Gov. Peter Shumlin's pledge last month to waive executive privilege and release all documents related to his decision to end his long quest for single-payer health care.
Shumlin made the commitment after WCAX-TV's Kyle Midura asked at a crowded Statehouse press conference, "Will you waive executive privilege for all backdated documents at this point related to this question so we can see what you knew when?"
In response, the governor said, "There is nothing to hide on what we knew when, so we'd be happy to show you any documents you wish to look at."
Turns out Shumlin might have something to hide, after all. As we wrote in Fair Game, Seven Days and other news outlets took the governor up on his offer, filing records requests seeking health care-related communications between him and his advisers. Last week, his office provided 57 emails (see below), but withheld the rest — invoking executive privilege. (Shumlin did release a separate tranche of documents in December, including 1,000 pages of memos and briefing documents.)
Why the flip-flop? Shumlin's legal counsel, Sarah London, explained in an email to Seven Days Monday night:
Regarding the Governor’s statements on December 17, 2014, the Governor was asked about waiving executive privilege on documents related to the specific question of Medicaid reimbursement rates. We feel that is reflected in the recording of the event.As this week's Seven Days went to press Tuesday evening, Vermont Public Radio broadcast a story by Statehouse reporter Peter Hirschfeld on the same topic. VPR filed a similar records request and was also told by the Shumlin administration that it had invoked executive privilege.
But according to Hirschfeld, Shumlin himself provided a markedly different explanation than London.
Tags: Peter Hirschfeld , Peter Shumlin , single-payer health care , Vermont Public Radio , Image , Video , Web Only
The Vermont House is expected to appoint its first-ever ethics committee this week, according to House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown).
The panel will be charged with investigating complaints of ethical violations committed by House members and will be empowered to recommend disciplinary actions to the body as a whole. The five-member committee will also oversee the creation of a new, online database disclosing members' employment and board service.
"This is a pretty big departure from the past," Smith says. "It's not everything that people wanted, but I think it's a good first step."
The panel, which is to be appointed by the House Rules Committee, will include Reps. Donna Sweaney (D-Windsor), David Deen (D-Westminster), Linda Martin (D-Wolcott), Larry Cupoli (R-Rutland) and Sandy Haas (P-Rochester), according to Smith. The tri-partisan committee could be formally named as soon as Wednesday afternoon.
Tags: Vermont House , ethics committee , Shap Smith , Donna Sweaney , Image , Web Only