Message from Montpelier - Colchester Sun - May 10th 2018

The End of The Session

Agriculture is gone! The statue, named Agriculture or Ceres, no longer graces the top of the capitol’s golden dome. It wasn’t a pack of thrill crazed youths that swiped her. Blame it instead on the Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS). They parked a crane next to the building and plucked her from her perch as part of a two-year, $1.7 million, dome renovation, new gold leaf and all.

With the recent improvements in the weather, BGS is anxious to continue the project. Except those legislators are still hanging around debating, bargaining and voting on the few remaining bills. Renovations and negotiations may overlap, but this should be the final week of the latter. The session is ending. We’re under pressure.

As always there are two important pieces of legislation yet to pass: the budget and the education funding bill. The budget, referred to as the Big Bill, details how all the money is spent. The education funding bill sets what’s called the Dollar Yields for the various property taxes. Those numbers are the final piece of the formula that exactly determines the property tax rates for all Vermont towns. Last year the governor vetoed both bills. There’s speculation he will do the same this year.

A governor’s veto places a bill, that so proudly passed the House and Senate, into suspended animation. The only way to get it moving again is with a two-thirds over-ride vote in both the House and Senate. That may not be difficult in the Senate where the governor’s party is outnumbered 23 to 7. In the House an over-ride is more difficult. There the governor has 53 members of his party out of the total 150 representatives. There are also seven unpredictable Independents. The veto is a blunt instrument that forces compromise. But it can also push Vermont close to the brink of a dangerous cliff.

What happens if those two bills stay comatose? No Big Bill means there is no way to pay the state’s bills after July 1st when the fiscal year starts. The state can limp along for a while, but it would not be pretty. No education funding bill means those Dollar Yield values are not set. There is a default non-homestead property tax rate, but there is no such default for the homestead rate. In fact, there would be no homestead property tax. Some might cheer, but a $400 million hole in the Education Fund would remain open. Also, not pretty.

So, this week, without the calm guidance of the Goddess of Agriculture to maintain sanity, the powers-that-be in Montpelier begin the bluffs, threats, parries, thrusts, gasps and compromises that seldom bring the session to a graceful conclusion.

Week 18 - May 1st to May 4th

Under Pressure

What's Wrong With This Picture?

No it wasn't some Thrill Crazed Youths that took the statue from the top of the dome. It was the lads from Building and General Services. A couple weeks ago they began the renovations of the Golden Dome: a new statue, new gold leaf and more. It's part of the Capital Bill we worked on last session and costs several million. The problem is that with the weather finally improving they're anxious to get started. And the darn legislators keep hanging around debating bills. There may be some overlap of renovation and negotiation but we're into the final week . . . supposedly.

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.

Week 17 - April 24th to April 27th

A Breath of Spring

A Sure Sign of Spring

Last week the weather finally warmed enough for the Sargent at Arms to open the front doors of the Statehouse and let the place breathe. We are The People's House. Anyone can walk in. Committee rooms are open to the public. There are only a couple places in the State House that are off limits to visitors. I like to think there is great transparency in our laws and the way the state conducts business. But somehow, the opening of those doors always makes me feel that we are really out in the open. It's also a sure sign of spring, and that has been too long in coming.

Ghosts from January - Marijuana

Starting July 1st the possession of a small amount of marijuana and the growing of several plants will not be against state law. Back in January we had that debate and part of the debate was a Tax and Regulate system. That idea failed. But now, two weeks before the end of the session, an effort was made to revive the scheme with an 80 page amendment to H.167 which was tabled about a year ago. Since it's tabling, H.511 which is the one that legalized small amounts, passed the House and Senate and was signed by he governor. Now a couple members wanted to give Tax and Regulate (T & R) another try.

The new marijuana bill came to the floor on Friday but action on the bill was quickly "postponed indefinitely." That means it's dead. The vote to postpone was a roll-call vote with 106 in favor and 28 opposed. There was little interest in taking up such a controversial issue this late in the session. However, there is enough interest in the scheme to bring it back next session and I'm sure we will see it again. I voted in favor of postponing even though I am a supporter of taxing and regulating marijuana in Vermont.

Minimum Wage in the Wings

S.40 is a bill to stage increases in Vermont's minimum wage (now $10.50 and hour) for the next 6 years in order to reach $15/hr by 2024. The bill is in the House Appropriations committee but should be coming out this week. There was been much talk.

The majority whip asked what my vote will be and I've hedged.  But I told him Friday that I would come up with a decision this weekend. There is a bunch of research I need to do on this. It's not easy. I plan to update the minimum wage page of my website before Tuesday and make a decision.

Attempt Bill

S.267 is referred to as the Attempt bill. It is in response to the Jack Sawyer incident in Fair Haven, VT. The bill wants to make it possible to arrest a person who is about to commit a crime, but has not yet done it. So, essentially, you are arresting a person who has not done anything wrong . . . yet. There are already crimes for Attempting Murder or Attempting Arson but to prove the attempt is not easy. If a person shoots another person, but the other person did not die, then it's possible to arrest them for attempting murder.

The bill uses what is called the Substantial Steps test of the attempt. Here's a recent draft of the bill. The bill allows for the arrest and conviction of Attempting crimes if the Substantial Steps test is proved true. There is a bit of controversy about this bill and it may not make it to the House floor this session. But there is also a growing frustration outside the State House. People think we are not doing anything to prevent a mass shooting in a school. So there's all kind of things mixed up in the discussion.

Reporting Out H.874

H.874 is the bill I've been shepherding through the process of becoming law. I didn't propose or sponsor the bill, but when it left our committee for the first time I was appointed by the chair as the one to report it and follow it along. The bill has to do with continuing prescriptions for those who enter a corrections facility while taking prescription medication prescribed by a doctor outside corrections. The bill passed the House and went to the Senate. The Senate made a couple small changes and sent it back. We agreed with those changes and added a couple more. Those new changes had to be approved by the House. So Thursday I gave a short speech describing all this. The House then voted to approve it all and send it back to the Senate to see what they think of our most recent amendments.There has been a lot of background talk between the committees in the House and Senate, so there is no doubt they will approve what we sent and the bill can finally go to the governor.

Elections Around the Corner

May 31st is the deadline for turning in petitions (with at least 50 signatures) for those who want to have their names on the August primary election ballot. As Chair of the Colchester Democrats I've been running around looking for candidates. Both Jim Condon and Maureen Dakin are not running again and I hope to find good candidates to replace them. There are a number of favorable possibilities. 

Weekly Summary

These weekly summaries are getting shorter. The committee is, indeed, dealing with fewer issues. There are only a couple bills that can get done by the end of the session, so we are concentrating on those. And we are taking testimony about a long range plan for Corrections and Mental Health facilities.

• Tuesday 
• 10:00 On the floor - announcements etc. Nothing too exciting
• 12:00 Recess for photos on the Capitol steps
• 12:36 Committee workgroup on Offender Files - This is work with DOC on which offender files are to be available to inmates. We're making progress.
• 1:30 Done with work group
• 1:50 Steve Howard of Vermont State Employee's Association in committee regarding the proposed changes in mental health facilities. He's concerned that State Employees will get the short end of the stick.
• 2:30 Brad Ferlin from the Agency of Administration on the $1.9 million that seemed to have slipped everyone's attention.  This is the Vermont Telecom  money left over from a $10 million grant for expanding broadband to rural areas. It's complicated and everyone wants a piece of it.
• 3:00 Back on the floor
• 3:30 Adjourn for caucuses for discussion of Miscellaneous Education bill.
• 4:10 Done for the day
• Wednesday
• 9:00 John Gorczyk, Former Commissioner, Department of Corrections testimony on the future of Corrections facilities. No one likes big prisons. No one like privately run prisons.
• 10:45 Brief talk with Legislative Council about Offender Files. Helena Gardner is working on drafts of the legislation.
• 11:05 Back in committee for Matthew Valerio, Defender General, Defender General's Office testimony on long term plan.
• 12:00 Lunch break
• 1:00 On the floor
• Some sparks with S.272, a miscellaneous transportation bill. There was a proposal by a fairly conservative member that changed the definition of "resident" in the Transportation law. The change is that if you register to vote you will be considered a resident when it comes to registration of vehicles, licenses etc.  The gist of this is that the member didn't like the idea of students who are not residents in terms of some fees but can registered to vote. It's interesting, but would be a sort of backwards poll-tax in that, if you register to vote, it can cost you money. This proposed change was voted down.
• 2:20 Short Recess
• 2:52 Veto vote. The governor has vetoed S.103 regarding toxic chemical. The Senate had the two-thirds vote needed to override the governor's veto. Now it was the House's turn. This was a roll-call vote. The House did not have the votes to over-ride so the veto stands. The vote was close: 94 to override, 53 not. I voted to over-ride.
• 4:00 In committee to hear Representative Kate Webb from the Education Committee to talk about providing capital funds for radon testing in school. The funds may also be used for mitigation efforts.
• 5:00 - Done for the day
• Thursday
• 8:00 Meeting with Legislative Counsel and Rep. Morrissey about offender files.
• 9:00 John Campbell, Executive  Director, Department of State's Attorneys & Sheriffs to talk about Corrections facilities
• 10:00 Chris Cole, Commissioner, Buildings and General Services about Windsor facility
• 10:15 Done with BGS - Break
• 10:25 Explanation of offender files bill details. 
• 10:35 Rebecca Ellis, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Environmental Conservation to talk about phosphorus extraction equipment for dairy farms. This is part of the Capital Bill which is now in the Senate. There was a line item of a million or so for this equipment and we zeroed it out. The Senate is putting it back in.
• 12:30 Voted on some changes to H.874 which I will be reporting out in about an hour.
• 1:00 On the floor
• 1:25 Reported H.874
• 1:35 Attempt bill (discussed above) .
• 2:44 - break for caucuses
• 3:47 - Back on the floor - Instead of more debate and votes on the Attempt Bill, leadership decided to postpone action for another day.
• 5:00 Met with others to discuss this Attempt Bill.
• 6:00 Done for the day.
• Friday
• 8:30 In committee for Offender Files discussion. We hope to be done with this Tuesday.
• 9:30 on the floor -  H.167 Marijuana Tax and Regulate roll-call vote to postpone indefinitely. The vote to postpone passed. I voted yes.
• There was also a strange vote on a resolution (H.R.20) to appose the proposed New Vistas project. The resolution passed. I voted against it. It's just a resolution, so there's no law against the project going forward.
• 11:05 In Committee with more on Offender files
• 12:15 Done for the week.
• 
  

Next Week? Who Know?

• Minimum Wage
• Clean Water Funding?
• Capital Bill comes back from the Senate
• Budget Bill comes back from the Senate ?

Week 16 - April 17th to April 20th

Colchester in the Spot Light

Well that title is a bit of an exaggeration, but this week there were a number of Colchester oriented actions in Montpelier. The resolution I had put together honoring out town manager Dawn Francis came to the floor. A similar resolution that Representative Pat Brennan put together for Karen Richard came to the floor that same day. And finally, the Colchester Charter Change bill I've been shepherding, cleared the House and is now in the Senate. Tuesday was a busy day.

Karen Richard, Me  and Dawn Francis

Wednesday my brother-in-law came up from Massachusetts for a couple-day visit, and Thursday Ruth came down to do some lobbying for climate change legislation.

Otherwise it was a slow, somewhat confusing, week. The Capital Bill, our big responsibility, is being reviewed and revised over in the Senate, as is the Budget. The window for bills to get out of the General Assembly and on to the Governor's desk is narrowing fast. We expect to be done in four weeks.

Making Bills Match

There are two bills (H.874 and S.166) working their way through the House and Senate that modify the same piece of current law.  Both bills add a definition of Medication-Assisted Treatment to Vermont Statutes and Acts Title 18 on Health. So, which one is will be the legal definition? This is particularly important as this definition is, and will be, used in other portions of law and in the general community. When people ask, "So what is Medication-Assisted Treatment?", this will be the official state definition that will be referenced. In fact, whichever bill is signed last by the governor will be the one that becomes the final law, but it's better to make the definitions match. The trick is to keep all the committees in the House and Senate that touch the bill from changing that definition. There was a good deal of running back and forth between committees to keep things in line until they both hit the House floor this coming week. I'll be reporting out the changes that the Senate and the House have made to H.874, the one dealing with Inmate Access to Prescription Drugs.

Long Range Planning

I continue to get letters from the Vermont inmates at the Camp Hill Corrections Facility in Pennsylvania. They remind me that we really haven't done anything about getting those out-of-state prisoners back to Vermont. There has been a lot of people saying that we should do it but nothing has been done. I cornered the Chair and Vice-Chair of the committee and told them I think we should do some long range planning while we have the time at the end of this session. In fact, I find myself getting a bit frustrated with the amount of time spent on things that have very little to do with what I think we should be doing. It may be just that spring is taking forever to get here. At any rate, this week we started taking testimony and talking about long term planning of Vermont's Prison population.

Near the beginning of the this session the Secretary of Human Services issued a report proposing a ten-year plan to build a 925 bed Corrections Campus in Northwest Vermont. We never really took a hard look at that. We are now.

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 
• 10:00 On the floor - announcements etc.
• 10:30 Start orders of the Day
• H.482 drew some attention. This is a bill designed to reduce the number of credit card debt cases going through the courts. The idea is to set up a process whereby debtor and debtee can meet and resolve differences without going to court. 
• 11:00 break for Caucus - Some discussion in caucus about the Jack Sawyer case and the need for an "intent" law. That would be charging someone with the "intent" to commit a crime. This is a tricky area because there are free speech issues and we don't want to charge people with a crime every time they say "I'd like to kill that guy." The Red Flag bill passed early in the session and signed by the governor involves the confiscation of weapons, not the charging of a crime.
• 12:00 back on the floor with more on credit card debt. That bill passed second reading and will be back on the floor Wednesday.
• 12:30 Done on the floor - Lunch
• 1:30 In committee with discussion of the definitions in H.874
• 2:15 or so - Long Range Corrections Planning discussion
• 3:00 - Testimony for Home Detention with legislative counsel. This is the one having to do with real-time electronic monitoring of inmates on home detention. It's confused by the Jack Sawyer case mentioned early as there are some people who do or do not want him on Home Detention. We're thinking of getting rid of the program entirely as it does not seem to be working. I believe I mentioned this last week.
• 4:00 Break - but back to the same afterward.
• 5:00 Done
• 7:00 School Board meeting in Colchester
• Wednesday
• 9:00 in Committee, though I'm not sure why. we really didn't start for half an hour. Some talk of that $1.9 million left over from Vermont Telecom that we want to use for Mental Health beds.
• 9:35 Offender Files - This issue drags on. Which parts of a prisoner's files should be made available to them. The decision was reached to have four members of the committee and Monica Weever from DOC and any advocates get together on Friday and pick through some of the details of this to decide which records should be made available.
• 10:29 Break
• 10:35 The room was suddenly crowded with people wanting to hear what the Secretary of Human Services had to say about a plan to increase the number of mental health beds at the Brattleboro Retreat.  We moved the meeting downstairs to Rm 11 for space.
• 11:37 Done in Room 11 - Back to Committee for discussion of the Retreat plan
• 12:00 Break
• 1:00 On the floor
• 1:30 Done with announcements etc.
• 2:45 Colchester Charter Change bill passed.
• 2:50 Adjourn
• 3:00 Back in committee for offender files and other cleanup things.
• 4:30 Done for the day
• Thursday
• 8:00 IT Advisory Committee meeting - These always seem to go well. Less wasted time. Senator Pierce runs the meeting well.
• 8:30 Done with IT. Back to Home Detention
• 10:00 Working on S.222. Sent Leg Counsel off to do another draft. Break for half hour.
• 10:27 Back in Committee for committee vote on S.222. Passed unanimously. I believe in the last two years we have not had a vote that was not unanimous.
• 11:00 Discussion of long term planning until noon.
• 12:00 Break
• 1:00 On the floor
• During announcements I introduced both brother-in-law Steph Bader from Concord, MA and Ruth to the House. Too nervous still. I referred to the Speaker as Madame Secretary for some reason instead of Madame Speaker.
• 2:00 - Back in Committee to go over H.874 which I will be reporting out next week
• We voted it out of committee  (10,0,1 that's 10 approve, 0 disapprove, and one absent.)
• 2:25 Testimony from BGS and the Retreat Option 
• 2:50 Tuning up language about relocating the Secure Residential facility now in Middlesex
• Testimony from State's Attorneys and Sheriffs (Campbell) about Long Range Planning. We're doing the pros and cons about a regional vs. centralized model for detention.
• 4:30 Done for the day
• Friday
• 9:00 In committee for discussion of Home Detention
• 9:30 On the floor
• 10:05 Adjourn
• 10:30 Workgroup on Offender Files in committee room. 
• 12:00 Done for the week.

Coming Up

Minimum Wage

A minimum wage bill (S.40S) came over from the Senate and is about to be reported out of committee to the House floor for a vote. I'm still doing some research on this one and have not really decided where I stand. I believe the bill brings the minimum up to $15/hr by 2024.

Message from Montpelier - Colchester Sun - April 19th 2018

Throw the bums out!! Every two years we get the opportunity to do just that. Every two years the governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, auditor, all state representatives and all the senators answer to the will of the people. By inking in a series of ovals on a sheet of paper, Vermonters can completely change the makeup of the institutions that govern us and write our laws. That’s an incredible power people in many countries are denied and would die for.

Though the election is in November, those of you that have mused about placing your hands on the reins of power must soon step up. Assuming you’re running as a Democrat or Republican, you cannot get your name on the November ballot without first winning the primary election in August. To get your name on THAT ballot you must turn in the proper petition by May 31st. Ask the town clerk about it. That petition requires signatures. A State Representative, like myself, must chase down and strong arm 50 registered voters into signing my petition. They must all be from my Colchester district (CH-9-1 The Village Side).

Any number of candidates can run in August’s primary. That election winnows the State Representative candidates down to two from each political party. At most, the names of two Democrats and two Republicans will move from the August primary election to the November general election. There might also be candidates from other parties.  In November, voters choose any two.

Getting your name on the primary ballot costs nothing. The cost of running is in the campaign. A lowkey campaign with yard signs, a thousand flyers to hand out and a few newspaper ads could easily cost $2,000. If you’re elected as a Representative your pay is about $700 for each week that the Legislature is in session. You get reimbursed for the commute and there is a per diem meal allowance of $74 a day. There’s also $125 for the cost of lodging if you spend the night. A prudent person might make $1000 for each of the roughly 20 weeks of the session, but it depends a lot on how you choose to live while in Montpelier.

A hot button issue or a commitment to a good cause may motivate you to run and get elected, but then there’s the actual job. Media grabbing floor votes happen only a few times a session. For a good idea of the daily work of a Representative see my weekly blog post. There’s a link to it near the top of my website: CT4VT.com.

Keep in mind that “Throw the bums out” has a new meaning when you’re the bum that might be thrown out.

Week 15 - April 10th to April 13th

Immigration ?

Governor Scott Signs Gun Related Legislation

Is was sunny the day Governor Scott signed gun-related legislation: S.55, H.422 and S.221. while on the steps of the capitol. That was Wednesday. The session on floor adjourned early so all members could attend the signing. My impression was that there were a good deal more of those in favor of the regulations than there were of those against it, a newspaper account I read said the opposite,

I've heard Governor Scott speak several times and he always seemed a bit wooden. This time he was much better . Though there was a continuous series of insults from the gun advocates, he continued unfazed. I did not stick around for Speaker Mitzi's speech.

Immigration

It took me by surprise. I didn't think there was a big controversy. With all the complaints about Vermont's dwindling population and difficulty finding and retaining workers I did not think immigration would be a controversial issue. Apparently, I was wrong.

S.237 began in the Senate. As introduced it had the following statement of purpose

This bill proposes to require that needy persons be provided with representation concerning immigration matters.

It was about six pages long and proposed several changes to Title 13 of the Vermont statutes. Basically it said that the law would not prohibit a Defender General attorney from defending needy people with regard to immigration issues.

The Senate trashed the whole thing and replaced it with a half page of text as follows:

[This chapter] does not prohibit the defender general Defender General, the deputy defender general Deputy Defender General, or public defenders from representing a needy person in a federal court of the United States, if:

• (1) The the matter arises out of or is related to an action pending or recently pending in a court of criminal jurisdiction of the state State; or
• (2) Representation representation is under a plan of the United States U.S. District Court as required by the Criminal Justice Act of 1964 (18 U.S.C.§ 3006A); or
• (3) representation is in or with respect to a matter arising out of or relating to immigration status.

Which basically says that if there is a state case already in the court then the attorney in the Defender General's office can take on any related immigration issues that come up. Apparently, these attorneys are already doing it, but on their own time and separate from the Defender General's office. Keep in mind that immigration is a federal issue. Immigration crimes are federal crimes tried in federal courts. Vermont's Defender General's office deal with state crimes. Without there being a charge of a state crime the Defender General does not get involved. If a person is picked up by federal officials and charged with being in the country illegally, the defender general would not be contacted. However, if a person is charged with petty theft and while defending that person the Defender General discovers that the charge will effect the person's immigration status then the Defender General is not prohibited from representing that person in federal court. I'm pretty sure I have that right. It all came up in the three hours of floor debate of that one paragraph.

There were plenty of misunderstandings. The Sixth Amendment of the  US Constitution was referred to as guaranteeing criminal defense to everyone which, I believe, is not necessarily true in immigration matters. Another member referred to Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution was also deals with criminal defense. And there were some pretty broad statements like "If you're not in the country legally, you have no constitutional rights" which runs contrary to my understanding of the law.

The debate ended with a roll-call vote: 97 in favor and 40 opposed. This was second reading of the bill in the House, so it would come up again, and did, on Wednesday.  An amendment was proposed clarifying that this change would not overburden the Defender General's office, The amendment and the bill passed by voice vote and was sent back to the Senate. The three hours of debate on Tuesday was interesting and informative.

Working toward the end-of-session

I'm told that, behind the scenes, leadership is looking to the end of the session. The target is now May 11th, which is only a month away. The leadership of both the House and the Senate along with various committee chairs go off somewhere and prioritize the bills that need work and might make it to the governor's desk. Committees look to find ways to get favored items attached to bills that are likely to move. This last month is when all the trading, shuffling, negotiating, speculation and rumors take place. Fortunately, as a freshman legislator, I am not an active participant. Similar to a year ago there will be a lot of waiting and idling and then feverish work, then waiting again. It may not be fun, but it is interesting.

Karen Richard, Me and Dawn Francis

Resolution for Dawn Francis and Karen Richard

This week the concurrent (that's House and Senate) resolution I was working on to honor our retiring town manager came to the floor and was read to the chamber. A resolution honoring our town clerk was also presented. During the announcements portion of the calendar I announced Dawn Francis. Colchester's Representative Pat Brennan announced Karen Richard. They came down from Colchester and witnessed the reading and received the applause of the House. Rep. Brennan did a better job than I on the announcement, but I'm still learning. It's not a lot of work to get a resolution done, but it does take some sustained effort.

The Colchester Charter Change bill

Me Testifying to Gov Ops

Friday was busy. There were the two resolutions just mentioned and H.926 which changes Colchester's charter to make the town clerk and treasurer positions appointed rather than elected. It had been read for the first time and assigned to the House Committee on Government Operations. Friday, that committee took testimony on the bill, so I got to sit in and make a few statements. I had submitted written testimony so didn't plan to say much. It also seemed like a pretty easy committee decision. As a result, my presentation was lacking. No one ever reads the testimony in advance. I should have known that. And any committee can make a simple bill more complicated.

There was some interest in changing the bill so that firing the appointed clerk would require just cause. After some discussion, they decided to do that elsewhere for all charters so the Colchester bill was not changes. H.926 received the unanimous support of the committee. It will go back to the House floor this coming week for second and third reading. Then on to the Senate. I may have a chance to improve my testimony there.

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 
• 10:00 Basically the three hours of debate on S.237 described above
• 1:00 break
• 1:45 Public caucus
• S.203 regarding mental health was presented and reviewed.
• 2:45 In room 11 for public discussion of a new proposal by UVM Health Network and the Secretary of Human Services. This is part of a plan to relieve the pressure of mental health issues in hospital emergency departments. 
• 4:15 Back in committee for discussion 
• 6:30 In Colchester for the Select Board meeting and public hearing on Green Play's proposed changes to Malletts Bay.
• 10:00 Done for the day.
• Wednesday
• 9:00 In committee with Leg Council attorney going over the problems of access to Offender Files; what should be made available to the inmate, to the public or only to the corrections people.
• 10:30 Quick discussion and committee vote on the H.551. This is the one from way back in January about flying a special flag one day a year.
• 10:40 Break - During this time I'm running around trying to get that resolution for Dawn Francis finalized. I showed it to Dawn during the Select Board meeting Tuesday and she suggested some small changes. So I had to chase down the lawyer in charge of resolutions and get him to change it. When he was finished I needed to get it to the House clerk's office so that it would be read in on Friday.
• 11:00 More on Offender Files.
• 12:00 Break
• 1:00 On the floor for nothing crucial
• 1:45 Adjourn for the day. Everyone was outside for the Governor's bill-signing on the capitol steps.
• 2:53 Back in committee for more talk and some Offender Files work. 
• 4:30 Done - A disjointed day.
• Thursday
• 8:00 - Arrived for IT Advisory Committee meeting. After about 15 minutes we were told that the meeting had been cancelled.
• 9:00 In committee. Going through S.234 having to do with Youthful Offenders. This is the bill that changes the age of those that can have a Youthful Offender status and thereby go though family court and avoid prisons and a criminal record. There was also some talk of the Essex Woodside facility.
• 9:52 Break
• 10:10 Back to S.179 and Restorative Justice Centers. This bill took an interesting turn. It began as just a cleanup, but the more questions we asked about how all this works the more it became apparent that more work needed to be done. A bit of re-thinking was in order. So everyone is talking about dumping the bill and starting over next session.
• 10:54 Done with Restorative Justice Centers. Looks like this will come up next session.
• 11:05 H.806 began as a request by the Windsor Select Board to have some sort of commission decide what happens to the now defunct Windsor Corrections Facility. It has morphed into a directive for Buildings and General Services to figure it out and report back to us. The discussion got a little heated as the Commission of Buildings and General Services resists too much meddling by our committee. Several members of our committee think the Commission needs more guidelines. 
• 12:05 Break
• 1:00 On the floor. H.R.23. That's House Resolution 23. It has been peculating in the background of the gun debate. It's a resolution directing the governor to "use available funds to examine the connection between excessive video game playing and the propensity to engage in gun violence and to propose restrictions on the rental or sale of violent video games to persons under a designated age." This issue has been studied a bit and, I believe, no connection found. But that seems counter-intuitive. The resolution was controversial because it mentioned Dave Grossman's book Assassination Generation and there are those that think this promotes the wrong approach to policing. An amendment was introduced to remove reference to the man and the book. The resolution passed without much trouble.
• 2:40 Back in Committee for discussion of Home Detention program in Corrections. Home detention combined with real-time electronic monitoring is something we instigated last year in hopes of saving about $700,000. It hasn't worked out that way and we're now thinking of ending the whole program. There are about 14 offenders now in the program and they are a group that committed serious crimes. We had hoped for about 50 and only those with low-risk crimes. We heard from a number of people including a victim advocate.
• 4:20 Done with Home Detention 
• 5:00 Discussion outside committee on H.260 regarding Clean Water Initiative funding. The House Committee on Natural Resources is proposing changing the bill. They want an added $2.00 a day room tax to raise money for Clean Water projects. The tax would not take effect for two years and would be the default funding mechanism if nothing else is approved by then.
• 6:00 Done for the day
• Friday
• 9:00 In committee for discussion of various bills
• 9:30 On the floor
• Dawn Francis and Karen Richard resolutions read to the House
• I introduced Dawn to the House
• Some back and forth on the fine points of a Judiciary bill.
• 10:25 Done on the floor
• 11:30 My testimony to House Government Operations about Colchester's Charter change.
• 12:00 Back to committee to find we're done for the week.

Wrap Up

Last week was a bit disjointed. We made some progress on a couple bills but, in general, things did not progress smoothly. I'm afraid next week will be more of the same. The closer we get to the end of the session the less predictable things are. We'll see.

Town Manager Dawn Francis Reolution

Here's the final version of the resolution I arranged for Dawn Francis, our retiring town manager.