Thursday, January 24, 2019
Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday outlined a state budget proposal he said would boost Vermont's economy and grow its stagnant workforce. “It’s the root of every problem we face,” he told a joint assembly of the House and Senate, referring to the state’s demographic challenges.
In a striking departure for the tax-averse governor, Scott said he would fund his budget, in part, with an array of new taxes and fees his administration had previously eschewed. If approved as proposed, Scott’s $6.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year would represent a 4 percent increase over this year’s.
While part of the budget boost would be made possible by an uptick in revenues from existing sources, Scott’s plan also relies on approximately $18 million worth of additional taxes and fees. Those include a new tax on e-cigarettes, enhanced collection of online hotel room taxes, and increased fees on stockbrokers, clean-energy developers and others.
The proposal represents a break from Scott’s 2016 campaign pledge to avoid new taxes. In recent months, he and members of his administration had telegraphed that they were open to the prospect. Even as he changed his tune, Scott reiterated his belief that “we need more taxpayers, not more taxes.”
Tags: Phil Scott , budget address , legislature , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
The Vermont Statehouse has tightened up its credentialing process for journalists ahead of Gov. Phil Scott’s budget address Thursday. The stricter requirements come after an activist posed as a reporter and disrupted the governor’s inaugural speech earlier this month.
Media members who wanted to cover Scott’s address from the press gallery were required to email the sergeant at arms by noon Wednesday. Previously, reporters could sign in on the day of the event.
The governor's communications office detailed the new process in an email sent Tuesday to members of the media.
Reporters and photographers must show photo ID to pick up their yellow press badges ahead of the speech. Only those who follow the new registration rules will get access to the House balcony for the event, Sergeant at Arms Janet Miller said.
Tags: Statehouse , media , Phil Scott , governor , legislature , inaugural address , protest , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
A Seven Days analysis of legislative ethics disclosures found that 46 percent of Vermont lawmakers are retired or otherwise unemployed. Another 25 percent of state reps and senators are self-employed. Only 29 percent work for organizations they don't own. That's not to say legislators aren't industrious. The disclosures show that more than one-third of the Vermont Senate belongs to the landlord class. Twelve of the chamber's 30 senators reported owning rental properties or real estate companies.
Those are among the data points that jump out of a new database Seven Days assembled from the disclosure forms, which lawmakers were required to file this week. (Scroll down to peruse the database yourself.)
Tags: legislature , financial disclosure , Image , Web Only , Video
Guard leaders presented the reports Tuesday as evidence that the organization is doing everything in its power to understand and stamp out sexist attitudes and behavior. “Our service members don’t want to work in a sexist culture,” Maj. Gen. Steven Cray told a joint legislative committee.
Cray, adjutant general of the state’s 3,500-strong Air and Army National Guard units, presented the reports against a backdrop of intense media scrutiny. Recent stories by VTDigger.org have outlined alleged instances of alcohol abuse, cronyism, sexual harassment and retaliation against a whistleblower.
Cray said he was in “complete disagreement” with such characterizations as “the Guard is stuck in the 1950s” or “the leadership is in denial,” calling them hurtful.
“The men and women of the Vermont National Guard take exception to those accusations,” Cray said.
Tags: Steven Cray , Vermont National Guard , Diana González , Alison Clarkson , Image , Web Only
Gov. Phil Scott announced Tuesday that he will appoint Winooski City Councilor Hal Colston to fill the vacant Chittenden 6-7 House seat.
Colston will be sworn in Wednesday to represent all of Winooski and a small portion of Burlington. He'll replace Clem Bissonnette, who announced his resignation last month.
"Hal has dedicated much of his life to public service and improving the lives of people in his community,” Scott said in a statement. “As a city councilor and executive director of SerVermont, Hal has made it his mission to advocate for equity and justice for all, and I look forward to working with him in the Legislature.”
Tags: Hal Colston , Vermont , House , legislature , Phil Scott , governor , Winooski , Clem Bissonnette , Image , Web Only
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Commission chair Madeline Motta and executive director Larry Novins presented the panel's first annual report to the Senate Government Operations Committee Thursday afternoon and laid out their case for expanded authority.
The mostly powerless ethics commission was created by the legislature in 2017. It was given no investigative authority and a single, part-time executive director. The panel's primary function is to receive ethics complaints and refer them to the appropriate enforcement agency, such as the Attorney General's Office or the Department of Human Resources.
At Thursday's hearing, Motta and Novins argued for the power to investigate allegations of conflicts-of-interest. "We should have the authority to reach out to all parties," Novins said. "It's difficult to weigh a complaint without hearing from all those involved, and the subject of a complaint should have the opportunity to respond."
Tags: Madeline Motta , Larry Novins , Jeanette White , Jaye Pershing Johnson , Phil Scott , Eric LaMontagne , Image , Web Only
A tripartisan group of more than two dozen lawmakers plans to advance legislation that would delay school district mergers that are required by Act 46.
The 2015 law created property tax incentives for communities that opted to merge school districts, and also set a deadline after which districts could be forced to consolidate. Last year, after the deadline passed and the Vermont Board of Education ordered mergers, more than 30 school boards sued to stop the process.
The coalition of House and Senate lawmakers, led by Rep. Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) and Rep. Mike Mrowicki (D-Putney) said the state should delay the forced mergers until those legal cases are decided.
“We need more time,” Mrowicki said.
Tags: Heidi Scheuermann , Mike Mrowicki , Tim Briglin , Janet Ancel , Carolyn Partridge , Phil Scott , Corey Parent , Richard Westman , Randy Brock , Joe Benning , Act 46 , school merger , school district , school board , school consolidation , property tax , Image , Web Only
At a Statehouse press conference Thursday, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) characterized their plan as a better way to protect those helping a sick or injured relative, becoming new parents or recovering from an illness themselves.
“When that happens, a maybe secure financial situation becomes insecure lightning fast,” Ashe said.
The Democratic proposal, which is expected to be introduced soon in the Vermont House, would provide 12 weeks of leave with full pay, according to Ashley Moore, the state director of the Main Street Alliance and co-chair of the Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Coalition. It would be funded by a 0.93-percent payroll tax, split evenly between employers and employees.
Tags: paid leave , paid family leave , Mitzi Johnson , Tim Ashe , Phil Scott , Ashley Moore , Main Street Alliance , Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Coalition , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
The Republican governors presented their plan Wednesday at the Schilling Beer Company in Littleton, N.H.
The proposal would allow covered employees to take up to six weeks of paid family leave while receiving 60 percent of their usual salaries. Businesses enrolling their entire staff would get a discount on premiums, Scott said, but the insurance would be available on an employee-by-employee basis as well. Workers at businesses that don’t opt in to the program could sign up individually, Scott said.
Last year, Scott vetoed a bill to create a family leave program because it was not optional, and it would have been funded by a payroll tax on Vermont businesses.
“I said last year ... that I share the goal of providing this type of benefit,” Scott said in a taproom overlooking the icy Ammonoosuc River. “I just thought we should be doing it on a volunteer basis, but I didn’t have a plan together at that point. Now we have a plan, and we have details as well.”
Tags: Phil Scott , Chris Sununu , paid family leave , Vermont , New Hampshire , Image , Web Only
Monday, January 14, 2019
A self-proclaimed white nationalist accused of harassing former state representative Kiah Morris strode into the Congregation Beth El synagogue in Bennington during a press conference held Monday to announce the findings of a state probe into alleged racist acts against the ex-lawmaker.
Morris, a Bennington Democrat who is African American, cited years of racial harassment when she resigned from her position last fall before the end of her term.
The press conference went off the rails when Bennington resident Max Misch entered the room as Morris answered a television reporter's question about the AG's probe. Misch had been subject to a yearlong protective order in 2016 prohibiting him from contacting Morris over a series of racist tweets, messages and online comments he aimed at her.
Tags: Kiah Morris , Max Misch , T.J. Donovan , Pepe the Frog , Kevin Hoyt , Image , Web Only