Thursday, February 4, 2016
“It was surprising and disappointing,” Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor) said of Doyle’s request. “He certainly let down a lot of employees.”
The House passed a paid sick leave bill last year by a vote of 72-63 and Gov. Peter Shumlin has already signaled his support. Wednesday the Senate embraced the bill as well, voting 21-8 to pass its tweaked version of legislation requiring all employers to offer paid time off for sickness or to care for family members who are ill. The next step was expected to be quick negotiations with the House over minor differences before sending the measure to the governor to be signed into law.
Now it appears the Senate version could exempt tiny businesses. That’s because the exemption amendment on which Doyle wants another vote had failed to win inclusion in the bill — by a single vote. Doyle, one of the 15 who originally voted against the amendment, wants to switch sides.
Tags: Sen. Bill Doyle , Sen. John Campbell , Sen. Kevin Mullin , Sen. Brian Campion , Sen. Dick Mazza , Paid Sick Days Coalition , Gov. Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
The committee is working on a bill that would create an enhanced penalty when people in the family services division of DCF are assaulted, and would also establish a new offense — criminal threatening.
“I personally have been threatened to be killed,” said Patricia Casanova, who has worked at DCF for a dozen years. And she said she had found people waiting at her car for her.
Casanova and two other state workers urged the committee to expand the proposed enhanced penalty to cover all state workers. Margaret Crowley, chair of the Vermont State Employees' Association’s legislative committee, said people under stress because of government actions often lash out at the first state worker they run into.
Crowley recounted how a man threatened her when she handed him paperwork concerning his court case. He called her “a cog in the machine” that had wronged him.
Tags: Sen. Dick Sears , Vermont State Employees' Association , Lara Sobel , DCF , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
The House has already passed a paid sick leave bill, and Gov. Peter Shumlin has indicated his support. The Senate is expected to debate amendments Wednesday and then take its final vote.
“Why didn’t you exempt small employers with five or fewer employees?” Sen. Brian Campion (D-Bennington) asked during debate Tuesday. “That is the part I am truly struggling with.”
Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee, which unanimously recommended the bill, defended the mandate that would affect all employers. Most of the Vermont workers who are without paid sick leave work for small businesses, he said.
Tags: health , labor , statehouse , Vermont Senate , legislature , Sen. Kevin Mullin , Sen. Brian Campion , Sen. Joe Benning , Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility , Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas , Image , Web Only
Saturday, January 30, 2016
The House voted 92-32 at about 1 a.m. to pass a measure that eases the impact of school spending caps that lawmakers had approved last year. Gov. Peter Shumlin planned to sign the bill Saturday, pending a review by his staff.
What brought on the odd-hour session? Political muscle-flexing between minority Republicans and majority Democrats. Republicans tried to delay action on a bill they claimed doesn’t contain costs sufficiently, but other than depriving members of a few hours of sleep, Democrats ensured Republicans ultimately had no impact on the outcome.
The bill, which the Senate approved Thursday, raises last year’s spending caps by 0.9 percent to account for increases in school districts’ health insurance costs, exempts districts that spend less than the state per-pupil average from penalties for going over the caps and eases penalties for others. The measure removes the caps for 2018, a particular sticking point for House Republicans.
Tags: Vermont House , Shap Smith , education spending , Don Turner , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 29, 2016
After spending more than 11 years in Washington, D.C., Graff moved to Burlington last fall and said he'd explore a run for the state's second-in-command. Just one catch: The Vermont Constitution states that candidates for the position must have lived in the state for four years before the election.
Graff made his case that he should be eligible for the position before a legislative committee Wednesday, stating that though he'd moved away, Vermont has always been his "mental home."
The denizens of Twitter seized on that phrase, asking the big questions: How do you get food delivered to #mymentalhome? What are the taxes like there? And, most importantly — it's Vermont, after all — what is #mymentalhome's carbon footprint?
The hashtag originated with Shay Totten (who, full disclosure, is a former Seven Days political columnist). But others jumped in on the action, too.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction,” said Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham), a legalization supporter. She acknowledged the bill does not go as far as she would like. It would not, she noted, legalize home growing of marijuana.
The bill would allow Vermont residents to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and for out-of-staters to have a quarter of an ounce. The state would issue permits to up to 30 growers of varying sizes and to 20 to 40 marijuana stores.* Revenue raised would go entirely to drug treatment and prevention, law enforcement and implementation of legalization.
The bill, which still has to clear the Senate's Finance and Appropriations committees, appears headed for a vote on the Senate floor.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
The Senate voted late Thursday afternoon for a compromise plan, and the House is expected to follow suit on Friday morning.
The two chambers were at odds over how to fix a school spending cap they enacted last year but that ended up hitting some low-spending districts harder than higher-spenders. The Senate wanted to ditch the caps. The House wanted some spending control in place.
The deal reached Thursday raises the cap by 0.9 percent for 2017, as the House wanted, but exempts districts that spend below the state per-pupil average from any penalties for going over the cap. Penalties for others that go over the limit will be 40 cents for every $1 over, instead of 25 cents as the House had sought.
The plan repeals these caps for 2018, though House Education Committee chair David Sharpe (D-Bristol) said he's committed to crafting some sort of new cost controls for 2018 before the session ends in May.
Lawmakers are still likely to get an earful at town meetings in March about how they left local school boards hanging, but the deal gives school boards some clarity as they pitch their budgets to voters. "We would at least like to let all the schools know what the rules are," said Senate Education Committee chair Ann Cummings (D-Washington).
Tags: Vermont legislature , Act 46 , education spending , Image , Web Only
Two years after Burlington residents voted for three gun-control measures — and a year after state lawmakers dismissed the charter changes as unconstitutional — Mayor Miro Weinberger tried to make the case to legislators that there’s nothing outlandish about what the city wants to do. He argued that the three gun-control measures the voters approved are legal, doable and accepted elsewhere.
“I think we made a stronger case this year,” Weinberger said after speaking at the Statehouse. “I sense it’s being treated differently.”
Earlier, Weinberger told the House Government Operations Committee, as about a dozen gun-rights activists waited to counter his arguments: "Gun safety is not an area where Burlington is trying to chart some new path. Today, we are trying to catch up with laws in Texas, Montana, and Alaska."
Sixteen states ban firearms in bars and restaurants, according to information Burlington city attorney Eileen Blackwood supplied the committee.
Tags: Senator , gun control , Miro Weinberger , Shap Smith , Peter Shumlin , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Problem is, the Senate chose an entirely different path last week — to repeal the thresholds altogether — and its leaders aren't budging.
"We're standing strong," Senate Education Committee Chair Ann Cummings (D-Washington) said Wednesday.
Though he characterized himself as "eternally optimistic" that the two bodies could reach accord, House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) conceded late Wednesday that he had no idea how they would.
"If I knew the path forward right now, we would be on it," he said. "But I think it's going to take a fair amount of work — the next couple days and maybe a week."
Time is not on their side. The uncertainty has left local school boards wondering how much money they can spend, even as they race to complete their budgets ahead of Town Meeting Day.
Tags: Act 46 , education , property taxes , spending threshold , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
The Montpelier native spent more than 11 years in Washington, D.C., before moving to Burlington last fall. He argued Wednesday that he meets the constitutional residency requirement for a lieutenant gubernatorial candidate: One must have lived in the state for four years prior to the election.
“Residency is always a mix of physical presence and intent to return,” Graff told the Senate Government Operations Committee. “Physical presence alone is a poor measurement of where someone might consider home.”
A better measure, Graff argued, is one based on where a person is registered to vote or drive a car, something a person can legally do in only one state at a time.
The 34-year-old former editor of Politico Magazine announced in November that he was moving from Washington to Burlington and considering running for lieutenant governor as a Democrat. Secretary of State Jim Condos and Assistant Attorney General Michael Duane have indicated they don’t think Graff meets the constitution's four-year residency requirement.
Tags: Garrett Graff , lieutenant governor , Vermont Constitution , Vermont legislature , Jeanette K. White , Image , Web Only