Tuesday, March 21, 2017
“We will vote to increase compensation for these positions this year,” Sen. President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) told reporters at a briefing in his Statehouse office.
It’s a surprising pledge, coming when the legislature is struggling to fill a budget gap while meeting the governor’s request that it not raise taxes or fees.
Sen. Claire Ayer (D-Addison), who chairs the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, told the assembled reporters that uncompetitive pay is the “single biggest issue” contributing to a strained mental health system, which has left patients languishing in emergency rooms. She noted that there are currently about 400 vacancies across the designated agencies that provide community-based care for people who are mentally ill.
Last week, Ayer’s committee passed a bill that, among other things, would allocate $30 million to increase designated agency employees’ pay to at least $15 an hour, and to pay professional staff at least 85 percent of the market rate.
Tags: Affordable Care Act , mental health , Tim Ashe , Jane Kitchel , Claire Ayer , Image , Web Only
Saturday, March 18, 2017
The bill survived an onslaught of hypotheticals posed by lawmakers in the final hours before the deadline. Legislation had to be voted out of committee by the end of the week to make it to the other chamber this session — and therefore have a chance at making it into law.
The task put reporters in an awkward position as they had to lobby legislators to pass a bill prompted, in part, by the fallout from a criminal sexual assault case involving former state senator Norm McAllister.
Prosecutors in that case, which continues today, subpoenaed reporters from Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio who had interviewed McAllister. The situation drew attention to the lack of legal protection for journalists and their sources in Vermont, one of a handful of states that doesn’t have a shield law.
The argument goes that whistleblowers and others need to know their identities will be protected in order to feel comfortable confiding in reporters.
Tags: shield law , Vermont senate , Norm McAllister , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 17, 2017
By a 7-4 vote, the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee advanced the legislation. It’s unclear, however, whether the bill — strongly opposed by business organizations — will make it through the full legislature this year.
The legislation calls for a 0.93 percent mandatory tax on all employees in Vermont. That money would go into a pool to pay for up to 12 weeks time off for the birth of a child, a serious personal illness or caring for a seriously ill family member starting in 2019.
Tags: paid family leave , Helen Head , Heidi Scheuermann , Main Street Alliance , Vermont Legislature , Image , Web Only
The missed deadline doesn’t mean the bill is dead, though it does indicate a lack of vigorous support in the House.
House and Senate leaders agreed Friday to give the bill a one-week extension to emerge from the House Judiciary Committee while House leaders continue to count floor votes.
Tags: Cannabeat , Dick Sears , marijuana legalization , Mitzi Johnson , Phil Scott , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Two days after returning from a weeklong Town Meeting break, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) called a press conference to say the budget the Appropriations Committee is building would be better with more cooperation from the governor.
“It’s time for the governor to be a leader,” Johnson said.
“He’s shirking his responsibilities as governor,” said House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington).
Tags: Gov. Phil Scott , 2018 budget , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
The full Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on S.4, which requires ACO boards to warn their meetings ahead of time, hold them in public and post minutes after they take place.
As the state entrusts accountable care organizations with greater health care responsibilities, one of the key questions that has emerged is whether those private organizations’ internal discussions should be open to the public. Sen. Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said he introduced the bill after a constituent pointed out that the current law didn’t define when ACO boards had to meet in public.
“This provides the clarity that wasn’t there before about when the public has to be included,” Ashe said of the version that passed out of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare.
Tags: OneCare , accountable care organization , Vermont Senate , ACLU , Image , Web Only
The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously last month and has the backing of Republican Gov. Phil Scott, moved forward in the House with a 110-24 vote.
The legislation is intended to gird against President Donald Trump’s immigration-related executive orders. It would preclude Vermont police from being deputized to enforce federal immigration law without the governor’s permission and bar the state from knowingly providing information that could be used to establish a religious registry.
Rep. Ron Hubert (R-Milton) peppered Rep. Chip Conquest (D-Newbury), vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, with questions about possible unintended consequences.
Tags: immigration , Donald Trump , Ron Hubert , Chip Conquest , Oliver Olsen , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 2, 2017
The comments come after Scott failed to persuade legislators to force local communities to keep school budgets level-funded.
“I need Vermonters to get involved because change in Montpelier is sometimes difficult,” the governor said at a Statehouse press conference. “Montpelier needs to hear your voice.”
As next week’s Town Meeting Day approaches, proposed school spending is up an average of 3.25 percent across the state, according to the Agency of Education.
Scott fell short of encouraging Vermonters to vote against any budget that contains increased spending. “I’m not going to ask them to vote them down,” he said.
In fact, Scott said he didn’t know how he would vote on his own school budget in Berlin. “I haven’t looked at it yet,” he said.
Tags: Phil Scott , Vermont legislature , school spending , Town Meeting Day , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
The drug, which can be 100 times more potent than heroin, has been linked to an unprecedented number of overdose deaths in Vermont. Health officials cited the drug on approximately 50 death certificates in 2016 — compared to 29 in 2015.
A total of 105 people died of opiate overdoses last year.
While the synthetic drug is already illegal to possess without a prescription, the proposed bill establishes additional penalties.
“I think the important thing is we create a crime that our prosecutors can use when fentanyl is involved and someone knowingly does this,” said Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who chairs the judiciary committee and is leading the effort.
Heroin and other substances are often laced with fentanyl unbeknownst to the person who buys it. But Sears added: “The bill will distinguish between those who knowingly are cutting heroin with fentanyl versus those who are unknowingly selling heroin laced with fentanyl.”
Tags: Dick Sears , drug penalties , fentanyl , heroin , Opioid Crisis , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Freshman Rep. Brian Cina (P-Burlington) is fully aware of the potential for humor, but he’s completely serious: He’s proposed the formation of a state Artificial Intelligence Commission.
“If you keep track of what’s going on in artificial intelligence, it’s exponential change and it’s unpredictable,” he notes. “So I believe that it would be best to get ahead of the curve.”
Cina (pronounced “chee-na”) has introduced H.378, a House bill that outlines four responsibilities for a state commission. First, fashion a code of ethics for A.I. research. Second, work on a test to determine when an A.I. entity has reached consciousness. Third, explore how the state could increase government efficiency through A.I. And fourth, find ways to promote Vermont as “a haven for the ethical development of artificial intelligence,” he says.
Cina doesn’t expect legislative action this year; he’s just hoping to spark discussion.
Tags: Brian Cina , Artificial Intelligence Commission , Jeff Bartley , Josh Bongard , Image , Web Only