Tuesday, September 28, 2021
They should have slowed down and taken more care last spring when creating the benefits program that was later rejected by the feds, Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said Tuesday.
"The legislature moved extremely quickly on this," Harrington said at a legislative hearing. "It was all based on theory, and not fact. No due diligence was taken to make sure the law that resulted actually conformed with the federal requirements."
Vermont’s legislative leaders have asked the U.S. Department of Labor to reconsider a decision that blocks a $25 increase for about 4,000 Vermonters who are receiving unemployment insurance. Vermont lawmakers last spring tucked the additional benefit into state legislation related to the unemployment insurance trust fund, the source of benefits for out-of-work Vermonters.
Federal labor officials later ruled that the Vermont Department of Labor didn’t have to follow lawmakers’ intent to award the extra money. On Tuesday, Harrington said the only way to make the money available is to rewrite the law in the coming session.
Tags: unemployment , MIchael Sirotkin , Michael Harrington , Kesha Ram Hinsdale , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
In a report released Wednesday, Hoffer said the Agency of Commerce and Community Development paid $117 million in federal money to 2,278 businesses in the first year of the pandemic.
The agency processed most general business applications, as well as applications for women- and minority-owned businesses with no employees.
Private businesses received up to $300,000 through the program, part of a $600 million COVID-19 relief package that Gov. Phil Scott signed into law in early 2020 using funds from the $2 trillion federal emergency stimulus measure. (Hoffer's report doesn’t cover grants from a separate program administered by the state Tax Department, which processed applications for businesses such as restaurants, bars, lodging, retail and entertainment.)
Tags: Agency of Commerce and Community Development , COVID-19 , grants , Doug Hoffer , Lindsay Kurrle , Web Only , Image
Thursday, September 16, 2021
The workshops that qualify for credit at the October 2 conference include "The Case Against Proposal 5," "The Impact of Abortion on Women’s Mental Health" and "Abortion Survivors: Not a Myth."
Tags: Vermont Right to Life Committee , Larner School of Medicine at the University of Vermont , Proposal 5 , reproductive rights , women's health , abortion , continuing education , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Louis Porter, commissioner of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, is stepping down to become the general manager of the Washington Electric Cooperative.
Porter, 45, will take charge of the East Montpelier-based electric utility, which serves nearly 11,000 customers in 41 towns in north-central Vermont. His last day with the state will be October 29, and he expects to start at the coop sometime in November.
Porter and his family live in Adamant and have long been customers of the member-owned utility, which was founded in 1939.
“Choosing someone to lead the co-op who has a long history in the community, and a demonstrated commitment to public service in Vermont makes sense,” Stephen Knowlton, the utility's board president, said in a press release.
Porter, a lifelong outdoorsman, said in an interview that he loves working for Fish & Wildlife but looks forward to the opportunity to learn about a dynamic industry providing a very different, but important, service to Vermonters.
“It’s always a good thing to learn something new and do something new,” Porter said.
Tags: louis porter , fish and wildlife , Vermont , Washington Electric Co-op , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Workers who don’t will be required to wear masks on the job, and will have to undergo a COVID-19 test every week, Scott said at his regular weekly press conference. The order covers about 8,000 state government employees, excluding those who work for the legislature and the judiciary.
There are signs that Vermont’s COVID case rate, which started rising in July, may have hit a peak. The rate among vaccinated people rose just 1 percent in the last seven days, officials said. The case rate among unvaccinated people rose 11 percent, according to the state Department of Health.
“We feel it’s the best way to put this pandemic behind us,” Scott said of requiring vaccinations. “I continue to urge other employers to follow suit.”
The move was expected, said Steve Howard, the executive director of the Vermont State Employees' Association. Scott in mid-August issued a similar mandate for people who work in Vermont’s prisons, psychiatric hospitals and in the state veterans' home. But Howard said in order to keep state employees safe, members of the public who enter state office buildings should be required to wear masks and show they’re vaccinated.
“It’s not just the employees who are in these buildings,” he said.
COVID has killed 282 Vermonters since March 2020. Thirty-two people were hospitalized with the virus Wednesday, seven of them in intensive care.
Officials announced Wednesday that they are amending guidance for schools. To encourage students to get vaccinated, the state initially issued a recommendation that all students remain masked until 80 percent of eligible students were fully vaccinated. After that, only students under the age of 12 — who are not yet eligible for vaccines — would have to wear masks.
That guidance is voluntary, yet only one school district has chosen not to follow it, according to state officials. The town of Canaan voted in late August against a mask mandate.
Some parents and administrators have been pushing Scott to require masks in school. He has stayed firm on a refusal to renew the state of emergency needed for that requirement. But on Wednesday, he announced the state will now advise schools to require masks of all students and staff, regardless of their vaccination status, until October 4.
“We will continue to adjust our recommendations based on conditions for the virus in our schools and our communities,” said Education Secretary Dan French. He noted that 80,000 students started school in September; 81 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students.
“I can’t help but reflect and draw a comparison from where we were last year,” he said. “It’s important to acknowledge we have 80,000 students in person right now in schools.”
About 77 percent Vermonters eligible for vaccinations — 440,000 people — have completed the shots, a rate that puts the state near the top nationwide. On Wednesday, the administration announced it will set aside $2 million in grant money for schools with higher vaccination rates.
Schools can apply, with student input, when they reach certain benchmarks. Grants will focus on priority areas such as academic, social and emotional support and recovery, said French.
The proposal was immediately lambasted on social media as a giveaway for more affluent, liberal schools.
“Wouldn’t schools with the lowest rates require more assistance?” tweeted one critic.
Next up are booster shots, which could be available as early as this month. They’ll be administered to Vermonters on the same schedule the first shots were, starting last December: Health care workers will get them first, followed by people at long-term care facilities. After that, older Vermonters will get in line. The booster shots are available already for people who have health conditions that compromise their immunity.
There are still many details to be worked out with the booster shots, cautioned Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine. It’s not yet clear what shots will be recommended for people who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, for example.
“I encourage your patience for the next 10 days,” he said. “By then we’ll have answers for some of these questions.”
Tags: vaccine mandates , vaccination , Gov. Phil Scott , Mark Levine , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) pressed Gov. Phil Scott to take further steps to protect Vermonters, including raising the prospect of a temporary indoor mask mandate.
“Vermonters have consistently asked why we aren’t doing more to prevent the spread of the virus,” Krowinski said in a release. “We have the tools available to protect ourselves, and any step we can take to prevent someone from being hospitalized or succumbing to this virus is worth taking.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint (D-Windham) echoed her colleague’s remarks. As the mother of a child under 12 who is ineligible for vaccination, Balint said she understands the anxiety parents feel about sending their unvaccinated kids back to the classroom as the virus surges.
Tags: COVID-19 , Phil Scott , Jill Krowinski , Becca Balint , Web Only , Image
Monday, July 12, 2021
Hallquist will be the first executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, a new entity created by lawmakers to coordinate and accelerate the rollout of high-speed internet services to the 23 percent of Vermont households that lack it.
A veteran of the electric utility industry, Hallquist ran against Scott in 2018. She made history as the first transgender major party gubernatorial candidate in the country. She won just 40 percent of the vote to Scott’s 55 percent.
Hallquist made broadband a major platform in her campaign. She argued that her experience as CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative positioned her well to help expand the service. She currently works for two communications union districts rolling out broadband in Lamoille County and the Northeast Kingdom.
In a press release, Scott framed broadband as an economic equity issue and praised Hallquist for her years of work advancing the issue.
“I cannot think of a better person to lead this important effort than Christine,” Scott said. “Her experience as a cooperative executive and most recent experience with two CUDs as well as her long-standing commitment to expanding broadband in Vermont will be valuable to this work.”
Communications union districts are a type of municipal entity designed to bridge the digital divide in the state. There are now nine such districts, which can build broadband infrastructure themselves or work with private internet providers to expand service. They cover more than 200 towns and are managed mostly by volunteer boards.
The five-member Vermont Community Broadband Board was formed to help these fledgling districts design, fund and manage the rollout of broadband networks. Future state grants will flow almost exclusively through such districts. Board members have yet to be appointed.
Hallquist compares the challenge of expanding broadband to the rural electrification effort of the 1930s and 1940s that gave birth to the electric co-op that she headed from 2005 to 2018.
In an interview Monday, Hallquist said she was honored to be appointed and learned she'd been selected during a “gracious” call from Scott last week. She said she’s been impressed with Scott’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and told him so.
"I think he did a better job than I could have done,” Hallquist said.
Hallquist will work in the Department of Public Service. Her first order of business will be to get the five board members appointed and ready for the board’s first meeting on August 9, she said.
The state has set aside $150 million for broadband expansion, and Hallquist will be largely responsible for helping the board direct those dollars to fiber-optic projects serving all residents, she said.
“I’m very excited and looking to get to work helping CUDs maximize the value of those grant funds,” Hallquist said.
Tags: Christin Hallquist , Phil Scott , broadband , Web Only , Image
Friday, July 2, 2021
Continuing his post-session showdown with the legislature, Gov. Phil Scott on Friday vetoed a bill that aims to improve and expand the state’s rental housing stock.
The bill, S.79, would require landlords of both short- and long-term rentals to register with the state and pay a $35-per-unit annual fee to fund a new team of housing safety inspectors.
The measure didn’t get over the finish line during the regular session, but lawmakers took it up during a veto session last week. It squeaked by in the 30-member Senate, receiving the exact number of votes — 20 — needed to override the governor's veto. Three moderate Democrats joined all seven Republicans in opposition.
“Most agree we suffer from a critical housing shortage for middle income, low income and homeless Vermonters, but the solution is not more regulation,” Scott wrote.
Tags: rental registry , Vermont , Statehouse , lawmakers , Phil Scott , governor , veto , override , Web Only , Image
Thursday, June 24, 2021
As expected, the Senate followed their House colleagues in overriding Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes of two bills that will allow nonresidents in Montpelier and Winooski to vote in local elections.
Less expected was just how close those votes would be, with the 30-member chamber just mustering the 20 votes needed to override a veto.
Three Democratic senators joined the chamber’s seven Republicans in the 20-10 votes. Sens. Dick Mazza (D-Grand Isle), Bobby Starr (D-Essex/Orleans) and Alice Nitka (D-Windsor) all opposed the overrides. None explained their opposition.
Tags: housing registry , contractor registry , noncitizen voting , Gov Scott. , Becca Balint , Randy brock , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
By a vote of 103 to 47, representatives mustered the two-thirds vote necessary to force the bills into law over the governor’s objections. The 30-member Senate is expected to follow suit later this week.
The residents of the two cities had already voted overwhelmingly to change their charters to allow noncitizens to vote in local — but not statewide or national — elections. The Vermont legislature must approve all proposed local charter changes, and it did so in these cases. But Scott vetoed both measures earlier this month.
“This is the local control that Vermont champions,” Rep. Hal Colston (D-Winooski) said. “This is the local democracy that other states covet.”
Tags: noncitizen voting , Gov. Phil Scott , veto , override , legislature , Montpelier , Winooski , Web Only , Image