Half the free world, it seemed, was at the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce breakfast this morning at the Sheraton in South Burlington. Gov. Jim Douglas spoke.
If you've been reading the newspaper not much of it would have been news to you, and I have to believe that not much of it was news to anyone in the crowd, unless there was some poor lost soul from Omaha who'd been staying at the Sheraton, went down for breakfast and accidentally got caught in the hoopla.
Those of us not from Omaha were listening for nuances.
- No new funding sources for transportation, other than a little bonding.
- He's going to stick with the lottery leasing idea. He's standing by finishing the Circ.
- He'll consider incentives to help schools consolidate.
- He's intent on reminding people that the 38 recommendations from the Governor's Climate Change Commission came from the larger plenary group, not the actual six-member commission.
- He'll tweak the housing proposal that went nowhere last year but not in a major way.
- People might just be stuck with the one-year pre-existing condition clause in Catamount Health.
Aside from the fictional tourist from Omaha I mentioned, the chamber breakfast attracted somebody who has not attended these things in recent years: Anthony Pollina. The Prog who's running for governor needed to do some circulating. There are no subtleties intended in his use of tenses, he said. Friday, after Pollina said he will be a candidate for governor, Democratic Party Chairman Ian Carleton questioned his use of the future tense. Pollina said he used the future tense because he hasn't held a formal campaign announcement yet, but he's running.
- Terri Hallenbeck
