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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


4.30.2007

 

Countdown

It looks like the 2007 legislative session is down to its final two weeks, though one never knows for sure.

The Senate will be taking up the 2008 budget today (yes, they'll be working on a Monday). Then it goes to conference committee.

Some of what's also still to come:

- The energy bills, which will be rolled into one, with their controversial taxes (on Entergy's profits and on setting a way to tax wind turbines). They just might be controversial enough for a veto, if they make it that far.

- The big broadband/cell phone coverage bill, still working its way toward the Senate floor.

- Education funding has gone to conference committee, and it's hard to say what will come out of that, though no one expects huge tax relief to come of it.

- Next Generation money for college scholarships and workforce development. Also working its way toward the Senate floor.

- Instant runoff voting. Who knows if this one will make it through the House. It faces a fairly certain veto if it does.

- Pre-kindergarten. This compromise on how to allow for pre-K programs but not let them expand too much still awaits Senate action.

- Farm "viabilitity." We still don't know if restaurants will be able to serve uninspected poulty or if the legislature will manage to help farmers keep more of the money for their milk.

Those are some. Which legislation are you watching closely? What has to happen for this session to be measured a "success?"

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
I'm watching Instant Runoff Voting. We need new leadership, not Douglas, not another worthless Democrat. IRV has been floating around that building for years and it's high time they moved on it.
 
The Senate passed IRV as a favor to their old leader, Peter Welch. IRV means that Welch doesn't have to worry about Zuckerman or some other Prog pulling off enough of the pro-impeachment vote that a Repoublican squeezes through to win. Of course Douglas will veto IRV since it benefits the Dems and Progs much more than the GOP.

Will the Legislature be willing to have uninspected chickens served in the State House cafeteria?
 
If the choice is uninspected chickens raised in Vermont or birds raised thousands of miles away and fed god-knows-what then yeah, bring on the uninspecteds. I think we can trust our farmers.
 
This legislature has risked a lot in order to take on issues that matter to Vermonters in a responsible way. Who knows, maybe that's success. Of course, the press won't think so, and the Douglas negativity machine won't either. But isn't there a great deal of value in taking on difficult issues in a non-ideological way? Usually here in these posts are dueling ideologies (Progs/Right Wingers) trying to out-scream each other. What we real Vermonters want to know is that the legislature is tackling the difficult issues. Sometimes it takes more than a year (especially with all the ideologies screaming incoherently) or even more than a biennium to solve them. grnmtnboy
 
Burr Morse for Governor!
 
OK - So, putting aside Bill Loffy's waffle (above grnmtnboy), what exactly has the legislature accomplished this year?
 
The legislature accomplished exactly nothing, because of gross mismanagement by the leadership in both chambers. You wanna impeach somebody?
 
My mail yesterday included a fund-raising letter from Jim Douglas in which he asks for contributions so he can run for a fourth term against the big spending Democrats in the Legislature. Is this the earliest in Vermont history that a sitting governor has started to raise money for re-election?
 
To be a success they need to end this useless session on time and not waste a dime more. Hopefully in the off-season they are confronted by the reality that Vermonters need real tax relief. Not new taxes that masquerade as charges and the like. Maybe it will be a wake up call when constituents complain to their faces about nothing worthwhile getting done.......or not.
 
The session has been a waste! Coming from a voters perspective is
has been a dismal failure.
 
Can we put a tax on Shumlin's lies?
 
I love how quick to judge some of these posters are. The sessions are TWO-YEAR. For the constitutionally challenged, that means Vermont legislative sessions last two years. Get over your immediate gratification complex and learn how the system works. When your reps are home this summer, go out and lobby them as constituents on the issues that you so conviently ignore in your "nothing happened this session" whine fests. It's very easy to pint fingers and wah-wah, but there is still time to fix some of the important issues. Good things sometimes come to those who wait. AAs always, if you aren't pleased with this year's results, get off your butt, quit wasting time posting on blog sites and become a candidate. Vermont is a "citizens" legislature. Something else you probably didn't realize.
 
OK, I think people understand your point - so are we going to get that tax on Shumlin's lies next year?
 
That'd be a HUGE tax burden for one person to bare.
 
Yeah, the governor has been so productive what with all the ribbon cuttings. Let's not forget the "town meetings" he hosts all over the state where only Republicans are allowed to speak.

The guy earns a 6-figure salary for what? Sitting around sharpening scissors while his growing group of "Communications Directors" whittle out sound bites for him? Lovely....
 
Don't like what the legislature has done? Well, you get what you pay for.
 
Douglas has done a good job. Of course, the dims/progs did nothing, and that's good for Vermont. Now if the natives return to their senses and start voting the conservatives back in maybe the state will be one Vermonters can be proud of once again. Better do it quick before ENTERGY turns the lights out!
 
I love how Republicans ignore the fact that their elected leaders (Bush and Douglas) don't offer any new ways to fund the programs they've depleted over the years, mainly by granting huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy. No, it's much easier to chastize the Democrats for trying to find ways to fund these programs that the GOP has cut to the bone (programs many family farmers and poor Republicans have no problem utilizing). What's your funding proposal Blubber? Yeah, I didn't think so. You live in the same vacuum as the rest of your kind. What about that small government claim too (America now has the largest gov't EVER) or the reduce deficits claim (again, largest EVER). The Republican Party is a sham and a mere shell of what it purports to stand for. All talk and no action (except for the rich and corporations). Sooner or later, Blubber and his kind will wake the F up and quit voting against their own self interests. Like lemmings, these Republicans.
 
I think the energy bills are unfortunate. We should be taxing things that create carbon dioxide, like gas guzzlers and inefficient furnaces, not the nuclear plant. Shumlin caved.

I hope the property tax bill is strengthened in conference. We can't keep living with increases like we have had in recent years, when school population is dropping. Education is great, but so in the concept of a free lunch for everyone. We need to get real.
 
It is nonsensical to lump Douglas with Bush. Douglas isn't guilty of any of the things you attribute to Bush. Other than a Republican name tag, Douglas has almost nothing in common with Bush. Douglas hasn't given any tax breaks to "corporations" and "the wealthy." Get your facts straight. You don't like Douglas? That's fine -- explain the factual reasons why. Don't just lump him with other people you don't like that he has almost nothing to do with.
 
The Republican way is to encourage business even if it means giving tax breaks to corporations. Once Vt. regains a good business image workers will want to come back to Vermont, companies and the good jobs they create will flood Montpelier with new revenue, not to mention keeping young Vermonters in state. Look at what the leftists have done to the state in the last 20 years or so that they have had almost total control! This ALONE shows the total failure of liberal social engineering and Stalin-like 5-year plans that the left just loves to tinker with!
 
I don't know. Vermont rates high in just about every category pertaining to quality of life. If you like Republican control, might I suggest Mississipi, Alabama or Louisiana? They're waiting for you.
 
Jim Douglas brings absolutely NOTHING to the table in terms of bold policy intiatives or ideas. He clings to that "it's not the Vermont way" mantra like a lifeline, which to 10 percent of this state it is. Why isn't Douglas bringing green manufacturing plants to Vermont, which would seem a natural fit? Why doesn't he decry the GOP's cutting of vital social programs, which, I'm guessing, in Vermont benefit more Republicans than Democrats? Why doesn't he lash out against tax cuts for the wealthy, while his own constituents suffer under increased tax burden? Because he's lockstep with the Bush GOP. Wake up already. Douglas isn't tied to Bush? Gimme a break. He ran his freakin' campaign each year and sold this moron to lemming Vermonters. Vermonters who continue to put Douglas back in office have only themselves to blame, as they are voting against their own self interests. There's a reason why America is finally shifting back to Democrat principles. The question is, will stubborn Vermonters continue to turn a blind eye.
 
I repeat, everything the last "anon" critizes the REpublicans for NOT doing the liberals have attempted with the predictable disastrous results. If you want communism, go to Cuba or one of the other enlightened dictatorships; if you believe in the free enterprise system, bounce the lefties. The greatest sight imaginable in Vermont would be a long line of Volvos, birkenstocks, pot, and hippies inside, headed down I91 on a one-way trip back to Massachusetts!
 
Bubba. Move to the deep South already. You'll be like a pig in Sh*t. Seriously. You'll love it there. It's got all the political ideals you seek. Racism, corporate greed, low taxes with few services, poor education, bad air, etc. No one is forcing you to stay in a state you seem to loathe.
 
Vermont rates high in quality of life. However, that is only if you are a child molester, welfare parasite, state "employee", trust-fund baby, pothead, or one that has discovered how to "beat" the system. If you are a hard worker, have some morals, and don't want to be a slug dependant on the government all of your life, not so good!
 
I don't agree with Bubba's positions, but your response that he should move because the flatlanders have made Vt. a pot-smoking socialist paradise (not!) is ridiculous. The natives are entitled to stay here and continue to fight against the flatlander socialist invasion (although it's probably a lost cause).
 
Nothing wrong with Vermont - it's the garbage that invaded our state starting in the 70's. Sanders and his thieving bunch of hippies invaded Stannard and the surrounding area and all of a sudden camps were broken into, burned, etc. Natives, as usual, were welcoming to this invasion, never realizing at the time that these demogogic parasites would eventually transform a proud, independant state into a "workers paradise", at least for the welfare slugs. Result: look at Montpelier today! The offspring of these inbred hippies now control the state.
 
Vermont will be a welfare state
until we get some courageous politicians!
 
Anybody notice that "Rednalsi" (a.k.a. I Slander) has been MIA. Me thinks s/he has adopted the "anon" label s/he railed against so much.
 
Zuckerman for Governor - the Democrats haven't gotten anything done. Replace Symington.
 
Zuckerman??? P-shaw. How about Pearson? Zuckerman needs to put out to pasture already.
 
Zuckerman for Governor! Free marijuana for all citizens! All non-organic food banned! All meat banned! All private enterprise banned (except Volvo dealers)! Everybody in Vermont has to hold hands and sing Kumbaya and we'll all achieve enlightenment! Can't we all just get along here?!
 
That seems to be where we are headed!
 
That is kind of where we are.
 
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