Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The Senate Institutions Committee is expected to advance legislation later this week that would remove the time limit — currently set at 120 days — for how long inmates can receive treatment.
Last November, the Department of Corrections extended the limit from 30 days to 120 days shortly after Seven Days reported on the ramifications of terminating treatment for inmates. Now, legislators are pushing to remove time limits altogether.
The Senate committee, however, has stripped a provision from an earlier version of the bill that would have allowed inmates to get addiction medication — methadone or buprenorphine — regardless of whether they had a prescription before they were incarcerated. Currently, a prescription is a prerequisite. Staff from the Department of Health and the Department of Corrections have said they support this expansion but made the case that they aren't prepared to implement it right away.
The revised bill calls for a report on the topic and asks the DOC to develop a memorandum of understanding with local treatment providers by Dec. 31, 2018.
Tags: Department of Corrections , Department of Health , medication assisted treatment , Opioid Crisis , opioids , Vermont Senate , Image , Web Only
The demonstration came in reaction to a school shooting in Florida last week and an incident in Fair Haven in which authorities stopped a would-be school shooter before any violence took place.
“Fix this before my kid is texting me from under a desk,” read a sign held by a demonstrator standing in a light rain on the Statehouse steps.
Tags: gun control , firearms , guns , statehouse , GunSense , Miro Weinberger , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 16, 2018
If the House passes the proposal and Gov. Phil Scott signs it into law, employers would be required to increase hourly pay every year through 2024. The first increase would come January 1, 2019, when the minimum wage would rise from $10.50 to $11.50 an hour.
The legislation passed the Senate by voice vote Friday. It first cleared the body on a 20-10 procedural vote Thursday, indicating that supporters could override a gubernatorial veto — at least in the Senate.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Michael Sirotkin (D-Chittenden), said it would help reduce income inequality in Vermont.
“Despite whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent, I think everybody acknowledges and everybody agrees that we have great problems with income inequality in this state and in this country and in every corner of this state,” Sirotkin said.
Tags: minimum wage , legislature , Michael Sirotkin , Tim Ashe , Becca Balint , Richard Westman , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 15, 2018
"We’re fortunate we’re one of the safest states in the country, and I believe our gun laws are balanced," the first-term Republican said Thursday afternoon. "They balance public safety with our rights."
Rather than limiting access to firearms, Scott said the state should focus on providing more training and drills in schools so that staff and students can prepare for active-shooter situations.
"We should do more [training], and certainly we should be vigilant at this point in time," Scott said, citing concerns about "copycat" shootings in the wake of the Florida massacre.
Sen. Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden), an outspoken gun control proponent, saw it differently. He said the latest incident should "increase the shame" on the Vermont Senate, which he criticized for failing to address gun violence.
"We are doing jack shit about a problem that’s every bit as pressing nationwide as the opioid epidemic," Baruth said Thursday. "And the reason I say that is not to denigrate what’s happening with the opioid epidemic — people are dying — but the mass-shooting epidemic that we’re experiencing is decaying American life at its foundation."
Tags: firearms , guns , gun control , universal background checks , Phil Baruth , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , TJ Donovan , Florida shooting , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan posted hundreds of his office’s documents online in a transparency campaign launched this week. The goal, Donovan said Tuesday, is to publish every public records request received by the office, along with its responses.
“If we’re going to release it to somebody, let’s release it to everybody,” he said.
The system is already online, showing some requests from 2018. Donovan's office said Tuesday that all of the records from 2017 are posted.*
“On average last year, we did one [records request] every three days,” Donovan said. “We produced over 10,000 pages of records.”
Tags: TJ Donovan , transparency , Brady Toensing , Jay Diaz , ACLU , public records , Image , Web Only
The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has refused environmental groups' request for a key document related to the state's ongoing water quality efforts, even after officials shared the same document with Seven Days.
ANR's top attorney launched a review of the denial after a reporter pointed out the agency’s uneven application of state law.
The document in question — a 108-page draft of Vermont’s stormwater management rules, developed last fall — is full of dry, technical jargon. But to environmental advocates, it promises answers. The finalized rules were due by the end of 2017, but the agency missed its deadline.
Tags: Agency of Natural Resources , Conservation Law Foundation , Lake Champlain Committee , Vermont Natural Resources Council , Jared Carpenter , Rebekah Weber , Julie Moore , environment , water quality , public records , Lake Champlain , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
The group had already held its caucus earlier that afternoon inside the Statehouse — as it does every Tuesday — to discuss bills and hash out strategy in full public view.
Two Seven Days reporters caught wind of this second, unannounced and off-site caucus, and followed lawmakers to the basement. The Dems reluctantly granted the reporters entrance to a locked, windowless conference room.
This is not the first time lawmakers have tried to escape public scrutiny by meeting in secret.
Tags: Vermont Senate , Vermont Statehouse , Democrats , Becca Balint , Dick Sears , Jane Kitchel , Michael Sirotkin , Phil Scott , governor , Chris Pearson , Ann Cummings , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 2, 2018
"If we do nothing, the effect is a $30 million tax increase," Tax Commissioner Kaj Samsom said during a Friday press briefing at the governor's office. "This plan is intended to insulate Vermonters from an inadvertent tax increase."
The administration presented charts showing that the biggest state tax hikes would fall on middle and upper-middle income households — those with taxable incomes between $50,000 and $300,000 a year. Those in very low and very high tax brackets would, on average, see slight reductions in state income tax.
Tags: Kaj Samsom , Janet Ancel , Phil Scott , Susanne Young , Tom Kavet , Jeff Carr , Christine Hallquist , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 1, 2018
“It’s just not true,” Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) told reporters Thursday. He handed out a memo from the legislature’s economist, Tom Kavet, that showed the labor force actually grew by an average of 2.3 workers per day from January 2016 to December 2017.
Citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Kavet wrote, “While the state labor force had declined for a number of years as a result of the recent severe recession, it has exhibited slight growth since early 2016.” And, Kavet noted, the labor force is “likely to continue to grow slightly, despite expected declines in prime working age population cohorts.”
Tags: Phil Scott , Tim Ashe , labor force , Vermont , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
The proposal earned him praise from liberals and conservatives; a Rutland Herald editorial hailed it as an example of Scott’s fiscal discipline.
The only catch? It’s not true.
Each year, the state's independent actuary determines how much money is required for the state to fulfill its pension obligations, but the governor can decide whether to follow that guidance. Scott’s budget this year sets aside precisely the required amount.
Tags: Phil Scott , Susanne Young , 2019 budget , governor , Jane Kitchel , state pension funds , Image , Web Only