Tuesday, September 22, 2020
The Senate voted 23-6 to accept the report of a legislative committee that hammered out long-standing differences between the House and Senate over the best way to tax and regulate cannabis in the state.
“This has been a long, winding road to get to this point,” Sen. Dick Sears (D- Bennington) told his colleagues before the vote.
Sears said he would be the first to admit “this bill is not perfect,” but he felt it was a good compromise that he hoped Gov. Phil Scott would sign into law.
“I would be surprised if he didn’t, quite frankly,” Sears said. “In many cases, the conference committee kept his positions in mind.”
Tags: cannabis , legal , tax and regulate , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Monday, September 21, 2020
The polls will still be open for residents who want to vote in person or drop off their ballots on Election Day. But Secretary of State Jim Condos said in a statement Monday he hoped that people would vote early to prevent town clerks from being deluged with last-minute absentee ballots.
“Seal, sign, and send!’ Condos said in a press release. “I am encouraging Vermont voters to help ‘flatten the absentee ballot curve’ by voting and returning their ballots as early as they feel comfortable.”
The start of the vote-by-mail process follows an extraordinary partisan tussle that mirrored the national debate over the wisdom of changing election processes during the public health emergency.
Supporters call voting by mail the best way to ensure people can cast a ballot without risking their health or that of poll workers. Critics charge, with little evidence, that such an expansion may increase the risk of voter fraud.
Gov. Phil Scott and Condos could not agree earlier this year on how or when to best roll out such a dramatic overhaul of the state’s system. Scott favored waiting until after the August primary to make a decision, and hoped that by November, people could safely vote in person. Condos insisted the wheels needed to start turning on such a large effort well before the primary. The legislature in June stripped Scott of a role in the decision.
Condos said voters should expect to receive their ballot between this week and early October.
Anyone who doesn’t get one by October 7 should contact their town clerk.
Election officials do not expect as much confusion with mail-in ballots as people experienced during the August primary.
In that contest, voters had three ballots to choose from — one for each major party — and needed to follow several steps to fill in, sign and return ballots.
This time around, voters will receive just one ballot, but Condos nevertheless urged people to pay attention.
“When Vermonters receive their ballots, it’s important that they follow the included instructions, such as placing their ballot in the voted ballot envelope, filling out the certificate on the envelope completely, and making sure to sign that certificate, for their vote to be counted,” he said.
Tags: mail-in voting , Gov. Phil Scott , Jim Condos , COVID-19 , Web Only , Image
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) warned her colleagues and the public, however, to brace for far more painful cuts ahead as revenues dry up and more difficult choices loom.
“The pandemic has hammered our revenues, and this year’ budget does not fully reflect that revenue loss,” Kitchel said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said it had been “amazingly difficult” for Kitchel’s appropriations committee to juggle the budget interests of the governor and the House and Senate committees in the current climate.
The final tally was 103-47, surpassing the 100 votes needed for a veto override in the House. The Senate is virtually assured to do the same in the coming days, meaning the bill, H.688, will soon become the law of the land.
“A vision without a plan is a hallucination,” Rep. Tim Briglin (D-Thetford), a bill sponsor and chair of the House Energy and Technology Committee, said after the vote. “H.688 moves us from aspiration to accountability.”
Tags: climate change , global warming solutions act , greenhouse gas emissions , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
The bill, which also called for clarification of rules for the development of recreational trails, was far more limited than the comprehensive reform bill passed earlier this year by the House.
That narrower scope of the Senate version of H.926 has disappointed some who had hoped for a sweeping reform of the state's seminal land-use law.
The measure nevertheless won wide support in the chamber. The portion of the bill requiring large development projects to avoid fragmenting forestland and blocking wildlife corridors passed 24-6. The trails piece passed unanimously.
“Act 250 has helped us live in greater harmony with nature and with each other,” Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison) said. “But Act 250 is not a relic. As we change, and as our use of land changes, so too does Act 250 need to change with it.”
Tags: Act 250 , forest fragmentation , wildlife corridors , recreational trails , Web Only , Image
House and Senate members of the S.54 conference committee signed off on their compromise proposal late Tuesday after settling two outstanding issues related to local funding and advertising, according to Rep. John Gannon (D-Wilmington).
They agreed to provide towns a share of the state's cannabis licensing fees instead of the tax revenue model preferred by the Senate. In exchange, the House dropped a controversial — and constitutionally dubious — all-out ban on weed advertising. Terms of the deal were first reported in the Bennington Banner.
Tags: Cannabeat , cannabis , retail , Dick Sears , John Gannon , S.54 , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
The nation’s top infectious disease official praised Vermont’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic but urged residents to remain vigilant as children go back to school and cooler weather sends more people indoors.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared via live video feed at Gov. Phil Scott’s Tuesday press conference and said he wished he “could bottle” Vermont’s recipe for success and communicate it effectively to other states.
“Please, you’ve done so well, don’t let your guard down,” Fauci said. “This virus is a formidable foe — you give it an opportunity to reemerge its ugly head, whether you are in the beautiful rural areas of Vermont or the middle of Manhattan or the Bronx, the virus is going to take advantage of that.”
Fauci, the most trusted member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, praised state leaders for their “prudent” response to the virus. Heading into the fall, the state’s low infection rate means “you are starting the game on your side.”
Tags: Dr. Anthony Fauci , Gov. Phil Scott , COVID-19 , Vermont , coronavirus , response , pandemic , Web Only , Image
Friday, September 11, 2020
The two cannabis-related measures were included in a miscellaneous judiciary bill that passed the chamber by an overwhelming margin. Final action is expected next week before it then heads to the Senate, where lawmakers passed a similar decriminalization bill in May and have expressed support for the expungement concept.
"We have approximately 10,000 Vermonters who continue to struggle to live, work, find a house, raise their families and be productive members of society with that cloud of a past nonviolent low-level marijuana conviction hanging over their heads," Rep. Tom Burditt (R-Rutland) said prior to Friday's virtual House vote, which was 113 to 10.
The bill is "also a critical component of the movement towards racial justice in cannabis policy," he added, referencing how marijuana charges have disproportionately impacted people of color throughout the United States for decades.
Tags: cannabis , expungement , marijuana , Web Only , Image
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Rep. Kitty Toll (D-Danville), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers that her panel had endeavored to make minimal changes to state government operations as Vermont navigates its way through the coronavirus crisis. "It is a steady state budget in an uncertain time," she said during a debate on the virtual House floor.
Still, Toll described the bill as "massive" — largely because, in addition to funding the normal functions of state government, it allocates a portion of the $1.25 billion in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund aid the state received earlier this year.
The bill also provides another major tranche of funding to the embattled Vermont State Colleges System, which proposed closing three campuses — in Lyndon, Johnson and Randolph — earlier this year as it reckoned with a structural deficit worsened by the pandemic. The budget includes $23.8 million worth of bridge funding to keep those campuses open for another year as the system seeks a long-term solution to its financial woes. The latest cash infusion would bring the total state investment in the system this year to more than $98 million.
The budget bill, H.969, cleared the House by a vote of 140 to 4. Final passage is expected Friday, after which it would go to the Senate and then Gov. Phil Scott for his signature.
Tags: Kitty Toll , Phil Scott , Peter Fagan , Selene Colburn , Randall Szott , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
The House passed H.688, the Global Warming Solutions Act, by a 102-45 vote, sending it to Gov. Phil Scott’s desk in the coming days. The Senate had approved the bill in June by a wide margin.
During an emotionally charged vote, supportive lawmakers lined up to laud the bill as vital to ensuring that the state meets its greenhouse gas emission targets, while critics called it foolhardy to allow residents to sue the state should it miss those goals.
“I want to look my daughter in the eye and tell her this vote is for her and the children she may have,” Rep. Mary Sullivan (D-Burlington) said. “The time to act was decades ago, but better late than never.”
Tags: Global Warming Solutions Act , Phil Scott , governor , veto , passed , House , override , Web Only , Image