Tuesday, December 22, 2015
It is up to Obuchowski to decide whether to allow a wintertime outdoor skating rink to be assembled on that special place. “The Statehouse lawn is a public forum. It’s a place where people can come and express themselves,” Obuchowski said. “To me, that almost makes it sacred ground in terms of small ‘d’ democracy.”
A group called “Put a Rink On It” has proposed setting up a 50-by-100-foot rink on the east side of the lawn near State Street. Organizers have the support of the city of Montpelier and have raised about half of the $20,000 they think they’ll need to erect and operate the rink, said Nate Hausman of Montpelier, who, along with Kim McKee, is championing the effort.
“It’s a space we thought doesn’t get a lot of use in the winter,” Hausman said, describing the idea as starting off half-baked, before it began whetting appetites around town.
Tags: Montpecular , Vermont Statehouse , Montpelier , Image , Web Only
Thursday, December 17, 2015
More than 90 percent of hotel patrons come from out of state, said Christopher Curtis, a Vermont Legal Aid attorney and co-chair of the 30-member Council on Pathways from Poverty. The fee would raise $12 million a year.
“It wouldn’t hurt anybody. It is a cup of coffee,” said Linda Ryan, the other co-chair for the council, which Gov. Peter Shumlin set up two years ago. She added, “If we are serious about ending homelessness, we have to raise new revenue.”
The council also recommended a cap on the state’s mortgage interest deduction, which would generate about $1 million. That, too, would be earmarked for affordable housing. Currently, deductions are allowed on mortgages valued up to $1 million. The council suggests reducing the upper limit to $500,000.
Tags: Council on Pathways from Poverty , Christopher Curtis , Linda Ryan , Image , Web Only
Reporter Mark Davis, political editor Paul Heintz and news editor Matthew Roy were subpoenaed on November 19. Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler directed the three to appear December 23 in Franklin County Superior Court with notes and recordings they collected in reporting on the case.
That appearance has since been delayed at Seven Days' request, Wheeler said.
Davis and Heintz wrote news articles that included material from interviews with the senator, and Heintz interviewed one of his alleged victims. Heintz has also written political columns about McAllister.
McAllister, who was arrested May 7 at the Statehouse in Montpelier, has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanor counts of prohibited acts.
Seven Days is seeking to have the subpoenas quashed in court.
“As the founders recognized, democracy requires a free and vibrant press. That freedom is threatened when lawyers demand to put reporters on the witness stand, peer into their notebooks and otherwise deputize them as agents of law enforcement," Paula Routly, the paper’s publisher and coeditor, said in a written statement. "Seven Days is serving its readers by reporting this story — and standing up for the First Amendment by challenging these subpoenas."
Tags: Norm McAllister , Seven Days , Vermont Senate , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
A powerful panel voted 3-2 Wednesday to recommend suspending Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) from the Vermont Senate. The resolution, if approved by the full Senate in January, would bar him from serving until the conclusion of criminal sexual assault proceedings against him.
The Senate Rules Committee made its decision at a dramatic Statehouse hearing during which McAllister himself made a surprise appearance. He told his colleagues he was “not guilty of any of the charges” and warned against stripping him of his powers.
“I’ve had constituents tell me that they will bring a lawsuit if I’m not allowed to represent them,” the 64-year-old Highgate farmer said.
McAllister, who sat alone through much of the two-hour meeting, addressed the panel for five minutes before its members voted on his fate. He told them he had been “bullied, threatened” by some of his colleagues and “financially ruined” by the legal proceedings.
“I understand you feel you have to do something,” he concluded. “But it’s kinda like — I see it as, you’ve got somebody down on their knees, so kick ’em in the head.”
Tags: Norm McAllister , Senate Rules Committee , Image , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
The Vermont legislature will return to Montpelier next month, but its most famous facial hair will not. Seven Days can confirm: House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) has shaved his goatee.
"I just decided, I'm turning 50 on Wednesday and I said, 'You know what? I've had the goatee basically for 17 years,'" Smith said. "I just decided I was going to go with a little something new."
According to Wikipedia, the goatee dates back to Ancient Greece, and according to pogonologist Allan Peterkin, it's been out of style since the mid-1990s.
Without it, Smith claimed, "I look 10 years younger." He quickly backpedaled: "Maybe four."
(Factcheck: The speaker now looks about 14 years old.)
Tags: Shap Smith , goatee , Image , Web Only
Shumlin said he met with legislators Monday, and they agreed to pass legislation promptly that would either put a one-year moratorium on the caps or repeal them. “We should do one of the two and have a bill on my desk before the hard-working school boards send their budgets to the printer,” Shumlin said.
That’s a tight time frame, as the legislature convenes January 5, and school boards typically set budgets by late January for Town Meeting Day votes in March.
The cap, or spending threshold, was a late-in-the-session compromise last spring. It was an attempt to provide immediate property tax relief in a bill that also calls for longer-term school district consolidation.
Tags: Gov. Peter Shumlin , education spending , Act 46 , Shap Smith , Don Turner , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 14, 2015
"No, I'm not resigning," he said Monday evening.
McAllister, who was charged with sexual assault last May, said he plans to show up at the Statehouse when the legislature reconvenes January 5 and take his seat on the Senate floor.
"I'm just going to do the job that I've done for the last 13 years. That's my intention," McAllister said. "I just go and do, you know, try to do the job I have been doing."
Whether McAllister will be permitted to do that job remains to be seen. As Seven Days reported Saturday, the Senate Rules Committee plans to meet Wednesday to take up a resolution penned by Senate Majority Leader Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden) to suspend McAllister with pay pending the resolution of a criminal trial scheduled for February. Such a resolution would require a majority vote of the full Senate.
McAllister said he doesn't plan to attend Wednesday's meeting because he has not been invited and isn't a member of the Rules Committee. He acknowledged that his return to the Senate in January would be "uncomfortable" and that he faces a "tough year." But he argued that he has an obligation to continue representing his constituents in the legislature's upper chamber.
"I don't know how many times I've had people come up to me in the last few months and tell me ... 'Hang in there. This isn't right what they're doin' to ya,'" McAllister said. "You know, they've looked at the charges and the things and they're sittin' there: 'No, no, we've known who you are and your history and this doesn't match up and hang in there. Don't let 'em beatcha down.' The majority of the people that I know have said that."
Tags: Norm McAllister , Image , Web Only
White, chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee, unveiled her bill Saturday at a meeting of Senate Democrats. Senate committees are expected to work on the legislation next month, though political leaders have made clear there’s no guarantee legalization will pass in 2016.
White’s committee has been meeting throughout the summer and fall to discuss how to go about legalizing marijuana in Vermont. What White came up with is a 41-page bill she is sponsoring herself, as committee members lacked consensus on the issue.
Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor), who opposes legalization, said he won’t stop work on the bill, but he’s prepared to limit the amount of time the Senate spends on the issue.
Tags: Cannabeat , Gov. Peter Shumlin , Jeanette White , John Campbell , marijuana legalization , Vermont Senate , Image , Web Only
Saturday, December 12, 2015
At a meeting Saturday, Senate Democrats debated the issue without coming to a consensus, though it appeared Baruth’s plan might be the most likely compromise.
Baruth said he plans to ask the five-member Senate Rules Committee to send to the Senate floor on January 5 a resolution suspending Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) while criminal charges are pending against McAllister. If the committee agrees, the resolution will be the chamber’s first order of business and would require a majority vote by the Senate to pass.
“I know we’re never going to be unanimous on this,” Baruth said as he started the discussion. But Baruth said he hopes that by the first day of the 2016 legislative session in January, the Senate can come together and speak with one voice.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Vermont Senate , Phil Baruth , Image , Web Only
Friday, December 4, 2015
The leader of a statewide gun-control organization says she doesn't expect her group to fight for tougher gun laws during next year's legislative session, but she does expect to push the issue during Vermont's 2016 campaign season.
"We're definitely expecting to be involved in the election, supporting candidates who take a stand in support of gun violence prevention," Gun Sense Vermont founder Ann Braden said Friday.
That could prompt the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, which supports gun rights, to make its first foray into electoral politics, according to vice president Evan Hughes.
"We're watching and observing what's going on with great interest," Hughes said of a burgeoning debate between Vermont's gubernatorial candidates about the state's gun laws. "The Federation has historically neither rated nor endorsed candidates. What happens in the 2016 election cycle remains to be seen."
Following last week's shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter and Republican candidate Bruce Lisman expressed support for requiring that those who buy firearms in private sales and at gun shows undergo the same background checks as do those buying such weapons at gun stores. Democratic candidate Matt Dunne and Republican candidate Phil Scott, the lieutenant governor, said they don't support such measures.
Minter, a former state representative and transportation secretary, has since doubled down on her position. In an op-ed her campaign released Thursday, she cited Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., which killed 14 people, as further evidence that Vermont should make background checks universal.
Tags: Senator , Vermont , gun control , Ann Braden , Evan Hughes , Matt Dunne , Sue Minter , Bernie Sanders , Peter Shumlin , Miro Weinberger , gun control , Image , Web Only