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Latest News

May9
VTDigger Op-ed: Schneider: Vermont House opts to respond to Vermonters’ decisions
Vermont Digger

Full Op-ed at Vermont Digger

Editor’s note: This op-ed by Rama Schneider was originally posted in ConnectedVermont, a blog for discussion of education, with an emphasis on school board-related issues hosted by the author. Schneider is a member of the Williamstown School Board.

Back in March I reported on one important piece of legislation, H.521, wending its way through the process. This bill “proposes to make miscellaneous amendments to education law, including provisions related to union school district formation; career technical education; Child Protection Registry checks; attendance registers; training for school board chairs and superintendents; a salary adjustment for the Secretary of Education; independent school creation; and teacher advisory groups. It also updates or deletes miscellaneous archaic sections of Title 16.”

My problem with H.521 revolved around the parts that dealt with independent school creation, and I commend the House for withdrawing those provisions that limited the ability of local districts to self-determine how they were going to handle their local school district’s infrastructure. (Special thanks to Reps. Branagan of Georgia and Donovan of Burlington — see the House journal for April 11th, 2013 for more.)

The offending passages (sections 16 through 18 of H.521 – scroll down to page 14) have been replaced with a willingness to stop, listen, look — and then maybe decide. The truth is we need a better understanding of our education system, and the Legislature’s willingness to seriously study these issues such as the above and student/teacher ratios and small school efficacy is important to better informed decisions.

It is important we all stay on top of these studies, and it is equally important that actual decisions resulting in actual action result from these studies. Most important, however, is that good decisions are made based upon good input — we don’t need garbage in/garbage out.

[...]

Apr18
Times Argus: Taking Hits
Barre-Montpelier Times Argus

Read the full article

A bill making its way through the House ought to help save high school athletes from long-lasting injury and save the sport of football from self-destruction.

The bill lays out procedures and standards for the treatment of concussions suffered by athletes in what are called collision sports — football, boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, boys’ and girls’ hockey and wrestling. The bill makes explicit the need for attention by a health care provider who has received recent training in the diagnosis and treatment of concussions and requires that a qualified provider must be present at sporting events.

Football has received the most attention because of the high-profile cases of former NFL players who have suffered serious physical deterioration because of brain injury, sometimes leading to suicide. Also, football is a game that celebrates violence and encourages aggressive, hard-hitting, potentially dangerous contact.

[...]

Apr15
Free Press: vt.Buzz: What bills are going to make it? Pot, yes. GMOs, no.
Burlington Free Press
Read the full article at the Burlington Free Press
Written by Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff Writer

MONTPELIER— On the blackboard in the Senate Appropriations Committee room are the words:

“April 19th

budget out”

Just above the words sits a drawing of happy/sad faces, which could be construed to show that maybe the 2014 budget bill will be out by this Friday and maybe it won’t. That’s the goal, but committee Chairwoman Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, on Monday termed it “ambitious” and “questionable.”

The committee’s deadline is all part of an overall goal of finishing the 2013 legislative session by May 11. There are those who doubt lawmakers will meet it, but if not then, it will be soon thereafter. “I cannot imagine with all the budget problems and taxes that we would get out by the 18th,” said Sen. Bob Hartwell, D-Bennington.

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, was sticking to the party line. “I think that it’s doable,” he said of a May 11 finish.

Predicting the end of the session is always a bit of a crapshoot, but with four weeks to go before the goal, it’s becoming slightly clearer what might become of some legislation.

[...]

Apr12
Free Press: Vermont House backs marijuana decriminalization
Burlington Free Press

Full article at the Burlington Free Press

[...] The House voted 98-44 for the bill, which faces another vote — and likely attempts to amend the bill — in the House on Tuesday before going to the Senate.

“If you had told me a month ago that I would be voting for this bill,” Koch said on the House floor, “… I would have looked you in the eye and told you, ‘You’re out of your mind.’”

He said he came around because of changes made to the bill during the committee process, which cut down the amount of marijuana being decriminalized and increased the fine from the original proposal.

The bill would make it a civil offense, like a traffic ticket, for someone caught possessing an ounce or less of marijuana. Some offenders ticketed would be subject to a fine of up to $300. Under current law, that amount could yield a criminal charge with a possible $500 fine and six months in jail.

The bill also specifies that smoking marijuana while driving is prohibited and subject to a $500 fine and creates a task force to study how to better detect drugged driving.

Supporters of the bill say those caught with less than an ounce should not face a criminal record that can bar them from federal student loans, housing and some jobs. Fourteen other states similarly treat possession of small amounts of marijuana as a civil offense. [...]

 

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Member Columns

May17

Rep. Waite-Simpson: A not-quite-final rundown of new laws

From the Essex Reporter

I was hoping by now to have adjourned so I could deliver a final report of the Legislature’s bills for 2013. Due to differences, however, between the Senate, House and Governor, we don’t yet have a budget or tax bill for the year, though we are very close.

Many of you will be happy to hear we are not considering the tax increases proposed earlier this year. Revenue forecasts for April and May show the state in much better fiscal position than predicted in January. We are closing a near $10 million budget deficit by reducing discretionary spending, but details are not yet agreed upon by the Appropriations Committee members. The Ways and Means Committee members are also working on changes to the tax code. I am told they will be revenue neutral.

A controversial bill still under consideration but likely to pass this year is S.77, a bill that allows a person under very defined circumstances to request a prescription for a lethal dose of medicine at the end stage of a terminal disease. I support giving Vermonters this choice as part of end of life care. Although hospice is a wonderful choice for many people, there are circumstances where palliative care is ineffective. I understand and respect concerns about this bill, but we have been very careful to scrutinize 15 years of data from Oregon and almost five years from Washington in order to build safeguards into the statute. Health care professionals are not required to participate if they so choose. Many people will find this statute on the wrong side of their religious convictions, but I know it is a bill that many Vermonters want.

[...]

May11

Rep. Jeff Wilson: Week 17

Week 17 (5/6-5/10)

 Well, we didn’t quite make it to the finish line by the end of Week 17, but we got pretty close. The game-plan, as I write this on May 11th, is to finish-up on Tuesday, May 14th  -- so when Journal readers peruse this column, the session should be wrapped-up. As always, when the Legislature starts winding down, the drama, suspense and the sheer flurry of activity in the State House markedly ramps-up. Everything ranging from GMO labeling requirements, to “death with dignity”, to campaign finance reform, were subjects for extensive debate on the House and/or Senate floors. But it will be the meat and potato money issues of the budget and taxes that will dictate when and how the final curtain will come down.

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May9

Rep. Debbie Evans: The legislative home stretch

Things happen very quickly this time of year in the Legislature. We are in the home stretch, so to speak. Bills that have made it from one chamber to the other are being heard, voted out of that particular committee and passed by the second chamber. If both chambers pass identical versions of the bill, it goes to the governor for his signature. If the two chambers pass different versions of a bill, three representatives and three senators are assigned to a conference committee, which is what is presently happening.

This is the first year of a biennium. Even though a bill may have gone nowhere this year, it can be taken up next session by the committee.

H.510, the Transportation Bill, passed all final stages and was signed into law by the governor.

The following is a timetable of the funding work: On May 1, A new 2  percent assessment on the price of gasoline took effect. The tax per gallon decreases by 8 cents, for a net increase of 5.9 cents per gallon at the pump. The price of diesel increases by 2 cents on July 1. Beginning July 1, 2014, the tax on diesel increases by another cent for a total increase of 3 cents. A second 2 percent assessment is added to the price of gasoline, and the tax per gallon drops 6.9 cents, for a cumulative net increase in the tax on gasoline of 6.5 cents at the pump.

The much needed increase to the Transportation Fund allows Vermont to fully access our share of federal funds in 2014. It fully supports the town highway aid programs and continues the much needed repair to our roads and bridges.

[...]

May8

Rep. Kate Webb: Death with dignity

From Shelburne News

There are no issues more moving than those tied to deeply-held personal values. The debate on spending and taxes is decidedly different from debate as personal as our wishes on how our lives draw to a close. Last week, the House passed S.77, an act relating to patient choices and control at end of life. As of this writing on Monday, May 6, it is in the Senate where its future lies in the hands of one or two senators and the use of senate rules to either move it into law or stop action. My hope is that it has moved forward.

Modern medicine is good at staving off death with aggressive interventions—and not always so good at listening to the patient and knowing when to focus, instead, on improving the days that terminal patients have left. This does seem to be improving with advances in palliative and hospice care, and I was proud to vote for increasing access to these services in 2010. Without hospice and palliative care in place, any discussion on S.77 would have been premature.

I have long been a supporter of “Death with Dignity” and have listened to many people, both for and against this end of life option. Everyone knows someone who has died and most of us have stories that describe peaceful deaths as well as tortured ones—families brought together and families torn apart. While death itself is no surprise, the timing and uncertainty around it is, requiring us to make conscious our deeply held moral, cultural, and religious values. This was evident in the Vermont House of Representatives last week, as many legislators made these views explicit either through personal stories or their interpretation of law, ethics, and government’s role.

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