Under Pressure
 |
| What's Wrong With This Picture? |
Minimum Wage
The Minimum Wage bill (S.40) came over from the Senate and is now in House Appropriation after a time in House General, Housing and Military Affairs. I put together a page on my website about it. When I ask constituents about it they generally say "It's complicated." and they're right. There a many potential side effects when you start messing with economics, particularly when you mess with something as complex as wages.
The bill proposes to raise the state minimum wage to $15 and hour over the next six years. It's now $10.50. The legislature's economic wizards sat that Vermont's "livable wage" is $13.03 for a single person working 40 hours per week who has no children and lives in a 2-person household. The federal minimum wage is $7.25. Nationally, wages are going up by about 2.6% a year. At that rate I figure we'll hit a $15/hr minimum wage in 2032. And of course, by then the cost of living will have gone up.
Many of the arguments for and against an increase in the minimum wage are on the website page so I won't go into them here. Suffice it to say that when Leadership asked me how I might vote, I said I could not support it the way it is currently written. The bill seems unable to come out of committee so I suspect there are other Democrats who are having difficulty with it. We hear that the governor will veto it anyway.
Education Funding
Rumors abound on what has, and will, happen with the Education Funding bill (H.911). We sent it over to the Senate back near the end of March. It has been in Senate Appropriations and then Finance since then. It should come to the House, with changes, this coming week. One of those changes is taking out the portion that moves some of the funding from the homestead property tax to a income tax surcharge. That's the part I liked.
The governor doesn't seem to like this bill either and may veto it depending on what we do with it when it gets back from the Senate. Education funding is always part of the session end games.
The Capital Budget Adjustment Bill
H.923 is the one I've been most involved with. It came back from the Senate this week with some changes. We've been going over those changes in committee, deciding which we agree with and which we don't. There are three options:
- Agree with all the Senate changes. In which case we urge the House to "Concur with the Senate proposal of amendments." Which will send it on to the governor.
- Make some changes ourselves. Then we ask the House to "Concur with Senate proposal of amendments, with further amendments." Sending it back to the Senate with our changes.
- Ask for a conference committee. "Do not concur and request that a committee of conference be formed." Then a couple member of our committee will sit down with a couple members of the Senate Institutions committee and come up with agreements. Those agreements have to be approved by both the House and Senate with an up or down vote, no more amendments.
We're hoping to avoid the committee of conference and just sent the bill back to the Senate with a few changes. Our chair has been talking with the Senate Institutions chair so that any changes will be agreed upon by them. So this is sort of an informal conference committee.
The Big Bill
H.924 is the budget, referred to as "The Big Bill." It's gone back and forth between the House and Senate and is now in a committee of conference with the two Chairs of Appropriations (they are also sisters) working out the differences. The results should come back to us for a vote this coming week.
Vetoes
Last year the governor vetoed both the budget and the education funding bill. That was no fun. We came back in June for a short veto session. That could well happen this year.
There are actually two types of Veto Sessions: one called by the Legislature, the other called by the governor.
- Legislature Veto Session - Leadership has already scheduled June 13th for a possible veto session. We can do about anything in a veto session, but generally we just vote to see if the House and Senate can override the veto. It takes a two-thirds vote of each to override.
- Governor's Special Session - If Leadership decides not to call a veto session and just let the vetoes stand, then the governor can, if he wants, call a special session and ask the General Assemble to work on something.
This whole process is confused when the budget is the bill being vetoed. If the governor vetoed a bill on making assault rifles illegal we could skip the veto session and assault rifles would not be illegal. But if the governor vetoes the budget or the ed funding bill then the state government comes to a grinding halt on July 1st when the new fiscal year begins. Those two bills are must pass bills. The government and the public schools do not function without them. All this is a classic battle of the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch of the state government. Thank god the judiciary doesn't get into it.
Weekly Summary
We're spending a lot of committee time cleaning up the Capital Bill. Floor times are getting longer as the controversial bills are finally coming out of committee.
- Tuesday
- 10:00 On the floor - S.267 , the "Attempt" bill, mentioned last week, was supposed to come up for consideration. But instead, it was ordered to lie. Its fate is unknown. I suppose there just weren't enough votes to bring it to the floor.
- 11:57 - Break for lunch
- 12:45 Public caucuses - Discussed minimum wage bill, H.25 which creates a Domestic Terrorism crime, and S.260 regarding Clean Water funding.
- 1:50 Back in Committee - to work on Capital Bill adjustment
- 2:00 Secretary of Commerce and Community Development – to talk about use of state building space for maker spaces to enable others to develop products or work remotely.
- 2:30 Commissioner of BGS to talk about maker spaces and remote work places.
- 3:05 Committee vote on Restorative Justice bill H.718. We agreed to the Senate changes.
- 3:15 Back to Capital Bill
- 4:15 On the floor for a couple bill
- 4:52 Adjourned
- Wednesday
- 9:00 - In committee for Capital Bill - Commissioner of BGS is to go over all the projects again.
- 10:10 - Short break
- 10:15 Going over Offender Files bill language with Legislative Counsel. We're close to done with this.
- 10:50 Back to Capital Bill
- 11:07 UVM - Tom Gustafson, Vice President of University Relations and Administration, and Robert Vaughan, Director of Campus Planning, University of Vermont to talk about the couple million we give them for major maintenance projects.
- 11:45 break for lunch - warm sunny day
- 1:00 On the floor -
- 1:36 Prescription Drugs - S.175 allows for the wholesale importation of prescription drugs in order to make them cheaper for Vermonters. This will require a federal waiver which is a bit unlikely. There was a roll-call vote on this. It passed 141 to 2. I voted Yes. There was also a roll-call vote on J.R.H.17 , a joint resolution opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rollback of federal motor vehicle emission standards. It passed 128 to 14. I voted Yes.
- 4:37 Adjourn
- Thursday
- 9:00 In committee for Department of Corrections discussion of the Capital Bill and the use of various facilities throughout the state.
- 9:50 Break
- 10:00 Back in committee for more capital bill discussion
- 12:05 Break
- 1:00 Back in Committee for more capital bill
- 1:30 On the floor
- 2:43 In caucus for S.197. This bill deal with toxic substances. Basically, it gives an individual a slightly greater ability to sue for the cost of health monitoring. It's still a long involved court process, so I voted for it. There was a roll-call vote and it passed 92 to 45 with me voting Yes. It's in the Senate now.
- 6:03 Roll-call on S.105. This bill caused a lot of problems this week. It's about contracts. It's trying to make it so it's not so easy to put some things in those contracts we all agree to by clicking a button or buying a lift ticket. There was a lot of push-back from members thinking it will kill the recreation industry because it relies on waivers. I'm not convinced many of the House members really understood the bill (myself included). The roll-call vote was to move the bill to another committee and essentially kill it. The motion failed 73 to 54 and I voted against moving it, which was a vote to keep it alive.
- 6:00 Vote to approve S.105 for a third reading passed 67 to 56 by divison, which is really pretty close. I vote No this time which was against the party recommendation. I just didn't like parts of it, and wasn't sure I understood the implications.
- 6:37 Adjourn
- Friday
- 9:00 In Committee for discussion of Capital Bill and Agency of Education weanting to give out grants for design of construction changes for schools that merge.
- 10:40 On the floor for S.260 having to do with Clean Water Funding. The bill sets up some fees and taxes to begin in 2020 if no other funding mechanism is put in place. There's more about it here.
- 1:15 Roll-call vote on S.260. There was actually some interesting parliamentary questions regarding amendments, but the end result was two roll-calls one was an 84 to 55 vote. I voted Yes and then a 92 to 48 vote that passed the bill. I voted Yes. The bill will come up again for third reading.
- 1:28 Break for lunch - during lunch and while the House met on the floor, we were in committee talking more about the capital bill. The chair and vice-chair are about to go negotiate with their counterparts from the Senate and they want to be sure they know how we feel about important part.
- 2:24 Back on the floor - more back and forth on that contract related bill (S.105). Several amendments, divisions and substitute amendments and general confusion. In the end (about 4:50) there was a 72 to 59 roll-call vote that passed the bill.
- 5:05 Adjourn for the week
Next Week
Next week starts on Monday, though we usually start on Tuesday. We're really trying to get done. The minimum wage bill should come out of committee Monday. Then there's the paid family leave bill to make things interesting later in the week. We'll see.
