Vermont Democratic House Campaign

From the CitizenThe defining characteristic of Vermont is its rural nature and the connection Vermonters have to their environment. The Working Lands Enterprise Investment Bill, H.496, recently passed by the House, recognizes this relationship and provides support to stimulate a concerted economic development effort on behalf of Vermont’s agriculture and forest products sectors. It will assist entrepreneurism, business development, and job creation in these sectors.
Vermont is currently in the midst of an agricultural renaissance and is at the forefront of the local foods movement. Much of this activity takes place in our own communities of Charlotte, Hinesburg, and surrounding towns. The conversion of agricultural and forest products into value-added products within Vermont’s borders represents further economic and employment opportunities. About 7,000 jobs exist in the forest products sector and about 57,000 are related to the food system.
H.496 makes an investment in Vermont’s working landscape by creating the Working Lands Enterprise Fund and a Working Lands Enterprise Board.

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            Advances in technology are changing the way we do business.  From purchasing products to accessing information, we are increasingly reliant on commerce conducted on the internet, in the ‘Cloud’.  Vermont has a growing high tech business sector, not just in Burlington, but all over the state.  These businesses are essential to Vermont’s future and it is important that we foster their growth in a strategic and thoughtful way.  At the same time, we need to figure out how to fairly integrate this new wave of high tech business into our future revenue system.  To that end, we are considering a bill H.757 titled “An act relating to the sales and use tax on pre-written software”.  

            Pre-written software accessed remotely from the internet, or the ‘Cloud’, has been taxed in Vermont since 2006.  This is a tax NOT on the vendor or software company, but, in the normal manner of sales tax, is assessed on the consumer/the purchaser.  This is not a tax on customized software.  When the tax department renewed efforts to increase tax compliance in 2010 it became evident that many businesses were unclear that they were required to collect this sales tax.  As a result, the House Ways and Means Committee was asked to review this tax.  [...]

From Rep. Wilson's email list (wilson4rep@gmail.com to join)

Last week, there was limited activity on the House floor, with committees pushing hard to complete their review of the bills that are still in play. It’s not quite crunch time, but we are getting there.

Redistricting – After receiving a second round of input and ideas from local officials concerning how some House districts were redrawn, the Government Operations Committee trotted out some redistricting revisions this past Thursday (4/6). In our area, the newest twist to the Browning (Arlington) and Miller (Shaftsbury) districts included a revamp that revised the boundary lines in those districts, but retained the one member format in each. The original plan approved a few weeks back called for a two-member district that brought in Stratton, in addition to Shafstbury, Arlington, Sunderland and Sandgate. The newest revision drops Stratton from the district, and to make the numbers work, the Shafstbury district was expanded into Arlington a bit, while the Arlington district made a more significant incursion into Rupert (a domino effect where one change necessitates another). Fortunately, the Manchester district stays as-is, in one piece, with one member. Although the chances are between slim and none of crafting a perfect redistricting plan, there was fairly broad based support for the final House product. The proposal received a second reading roll call endorsement of 123 – 9 (Wilson voting with the majority).

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From Rep. Bohi's email list: clbohi@sover.net

    After we get theTransportation Bill out of the House things
generally get less hectic.  This year, however, we have gotten a
coupleof really complex issues that should keep us very busy for the
rest of thesession.  Last week I commented on thecomplex private
railroad crossing issue.
    This week we’ve been looking at S-238, an act setting up a study
committee to make it possible for migrant farm workers to get drivers’
licenses.  Testimony fromfarm sources and migrant worker advocates
indicates that the lack of mobilityof these workers hinders farm
operations and makes it impossible for them toget things like groceries
and medical care. Other testimony made it clear that these migrant
workers are absolutelyessential if the dairy industry is going to
survive.  At the root of this problem is the failure ofthe Federal
government to deal effectively with the immigration issues facingthe US.

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From Rep. Partidge's website

As the House Agriculture Committee continues to take testimony on H.722, an act relating to the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering, we have heard more interesting information.

During testimony a few weeks ago, a representative of the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association testified that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does extensive testing on food produced with genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. This was directly contradicted by Dr. Michael Hansen, the Senior Staff Scientist at Consumer Reports who asserted that the FDA does no testing but rather relies on the testing done by independent third party laboratories that are paid by the developers of the products. This sounds a little like the fox guarding the henhouse so we wanted to research and verify this assertion. [...]

Included below is my latest op-ed followed by some more current news. If you're keeping track at home you can get all the information and schedules, including committee hearings and floor debate, on the Legislature's home page, listen live on VPR when the House is in session (http://www.vpr.net/listen/stream), and get news and commentary at VTdigger.org

The 2012 legislative session is drawing closer to an anticipated adjournment date of April 27^th, and it’s been a landmark session by all accounts. Budgeting in the wake of Irene, healthcare restructuring (including a long-overdue mental health overhaul), energy planning, education policy changes, and a wide variety of miscellaneous bills will be going into effect over the next few years.

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From Rep. Yantachka's website

Last year the legislature enacted an energy bill that continued a policy of supporting the renewable energy industry in Vermont.  This year our House Natural Resources & Energy committee spent a good deal of time working on another energy bill (H.468) that creates a roadmap for the next 20 years to extend Vermont's leadership in energy policy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote job growth in the renewable energy industry.  It sets a goal of achieving 75% of Vermont's total electric energy from renewable sources by 2032 and includes a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) of 35% new renewables by 2032, including 10% from small-scale, distributed projects.

Up to now the renewable energy goals were only goals.  Vermont utilities have been making good progress increasing their renewable portfolios so that Vermont can today count almost 50% of the electric energy we consume as renewable

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Over the past week, the House tackled three significant pieces of legislation, and one of my bills made the final grade in the Senate. Miscellaneous Tax Bill – Passage of a tax bill of this nature is typically an annual event; one that truly includes a miscellaneous mix of tax provisions ranging from the technically mundane, to eye-popping changes in tax policy. This year, the changes called for in the bill are a little more on the mundane side of the equation, as evidenced by the 11- 0 Ways and Means Committee vote and Wednesday’s (3/28) 125 - 14 roll call on the bill.

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From Rep. Partridge's website

As we continue our work on H.722, an act relating to the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering, some interesting developments have revealed themselves.

It is clear from the amount of correspondence that many of us have received from our constituents that there is a strong desire to know if food is produced with genetic engineering. Some people have expressed that they have sensitivities to food with genetically engineered (GE) ingredients – allergic-like reactions or the feeling of illness, or both. Laboratory tests have shown that these people are not imagining their symptoms and the assumption that GE food is the same as conventionally grown food is not true.

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From Rep. Bohi's email list: clbohi@sover.net

We finished our 12th week today.  That meant saying good-bye to our
secondgroup of pages. “ As the Vermont League of Cities and Towns
observed, In starkcontrast to the depressing circus around
transportation legislation in the U.S.House of Representatives, the
Vermont transportation capital bill passed‘second reading’ in the
Vermont House on a vote of 139 to 0, and ‘thirdreading’ on a voice vote.”
 It is awonderful to serve in a legislative body with this kind of
atmosphere.
We are now in our home stretch and the annual guessing gameon when the
Session will end has begun. Right now, the smart money is guessing about
four weeks from now at theend of April.  However, as the sessionwinds
down things will get more hectic and all manner of things can crop
todelay, or speed up the end of the biennium. I’ve included a sampling
of the issues we will be dealing with in thenext few weeks.

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