Friday, May 11, 2018
Jared Carpenter, a water policy advocate for the Lake Champlain Committee, said the legislation will not put the state on a path to pay for clean water in the long term.
“S.260 was a funding bill,” he said. “S.260 is dead. That’s not a funding bill.”
Tags: water quality , Lake Champlain , Lake Carmi , funding , environmental protection agency , Agency of Natural Resources , Julie Moore , Image , Web Only
The Senate gave final approval to the minimum wage bill, which includes a provision that would allow employers to pay students $3 less than the state-mandated $15 per hour.
The House, meanwhile, voted 90 to 53 to give final approval to H.196, the paid family leave bill. It would increase taxes for employees, who would pay into a state fund that would compensate workers 80 percent of their normal salary during qualifying leave.
Tags: paid leave , paid family leave , family leave , minimum wage , economy , Phil Scott , Vermont , governor , Statehouse , legislature , Elise Greaves , Image , Web Only
Brenda Churchill, the Statehouse liaison for the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont, said the new law is a big step forward.
“Every Vermonter will now have more opportunity to be able to use a bathroom,” Churchill said.
Tags: bathroom bill , transgender , gender-neutral , public restroom , Brenda Churchill , Phil Scott , Image , Web Only
Thursday, May 10, 2018
He asserted that the legislature is on track to raise taxes by as much as $83 million, including a projected $58 million increase in property taxes. "This approach is not acceptable to me," he said.
The legislature, in truth, is doing nothing to enact the property tax increase. That was the result of voters approving more than 95 percent of school budgets on Town Meeting Day. Those votes determined the property tax rate, which by law must be set to provide enough money for all those local budgets.
Scott dismissed the overwhelming approval of school budgets, arguing that people don't realize the property tax consequences of their votes.
"I don’t believe voters went into the booth and considered that their property taxes were going to increase next year and voted for their budgets," he said. "I just don’t believe that."
When pressed on whether voters might realize that approving higher budgets would mean higher taxes, he stuck to his guns. "I just don’t think that people do that kind of math," he said.
This, despite the fact that state law requires school ballots to clearly indicate the full dollar amount of the budget, the per-pupil amount, whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous year's and by what percentage. Voters actually have quite a bit of information.
Tags: Phil Scott , Jason Gibbs , education funding , Image , Web Only
The garden takes advantage of the dramatic topography provided by the base of Hubbard Hill, which rises directly behind the Statehouse. "This garden really, really helps make good policy in Vermont," said House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero), whose office windows look out on the garden. "It’s a huge gift, to have this right in our backyard."
The sculpture,"Trillium," was created by Randolph artist and mathematician Paul Calter, who wielded three wooden hoops to explain how the design came to be.
Tags: David Schütz , Paul Calter , George Aiken , Jean Vissering , Loring Starr , Image , Web Only
Michael Schirling, the secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said the magazine’s finances were trending in the right direction until this spring. Schirling said the publication’s problems were similar to those faced by privately owned newspapers and magazines.
“Advertising revenue and subscription rates,” Schirling said. “We haven’t been able to recover advertisers from what was an upturn for several quarters. We started to see a downturn earlier this year, but we expected that to turn back to a more positive number, and we were just unable to do that.”
Tags: Vermont Life , magazine , Michael Schirling , Jane Kitchel , publishing , closure , Vermont , Statehouse , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Bennington lawmakers pushed for the bill, which the House passed last week, in response to PFOA contamination that has affected hundreds of that town’s residents.
The legislation would allow affected residents to sue polluters for the cost of medical monitoring without first having to prove that the pollution made them sick.
The American Insurance Association warned that this change could result in an “avalanche of claims,” and other business groups have expressed opposition.
Gov. Phil Scott has also expressed concerns about the bill, making its fate uncertain.
The legislation was originally far more sweeping, and would have held companies liable for chemical contamination regardless of whether they were negligent. The House removed this more controversial provision, attaching it to another bill that has yet to get a vote.
Tags: Vermont House , PFOA , Bennington , Phil Scott , Image , Web Only
Scott's plan involves using $58 million in one-time money to keep property tax rates level in the new fiscal year, and enacting a five-year plan to trim school costs. The administration estimates the savings at $300 million over five years.
But on Tuesday, the legislature's Joint Fiscal Office issued an analysis that said Scott's plan dramatically overstated the potential savings — and none of the savings could be counted on with certainty.
Tags: Kaj Samsom , Phil Scott , Janet Ancel , Kurt Wright , George Till , Vermont , governor , budget , funding , education , Image , Web Only
Confirmations are typically perfunctory affairs in the Statehouse, but the Vermont State Employees' Association had been campaigning strenuously against the appointment of retired lawyer Karen O’Neill, who joined the quasi-judicial board that handles labor disputes earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs voted 4-1 not to confirm O’Neill. The panel's lone Republican, Sen. David Soucy (R-Rutland), cast the dissenting vote. The entire Senate is expected to vote on the matter later this week.
The dispute centers around whether O'Neill is qualified to serve as a neutral arbiter. State law requires that the Labor Relations Board consist of two members with management experience, two members with a background in labor and two neutral members. A separate hiring panel reviews labor board applicants and forwards nominees to the governor, who makes an appointment from among them.
Scott selected O’Neill to fill a vacant neutral seat in time for her to vote on stalled contract negotiations between his administration and the state employees' union. In late March, she voted with the majority to set a contract that raises health care costs for state workers and limits their access to certain prescription drugs.
Tags: Vermont State Employees' Association , Vermont Senate , Vermont Labor Relations Board , Phil Scott , Karen O'Neill , Michael Sirotkin , Image , Web Only
“It’s a celebration of the First Amendment, which covers freedom of speech,” she said.
MacKenzie was in Concord, N.H., Tuesday and Albany, N.Y. before that. Her one-woman journey through state capitals follows days of picketing outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., in April.
“I’m going to go on a little tour,” she said. “A free speech party.”
Tags: Alia MacKenzie , free speech , Montpelier , anal sex , sign , Statehouse , Vermont , Image , Web Only