vt.Buzz ~ a political blog

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

4.16.2008

Unusual process

Wednesday morning, four legislators and two members of the Douglas administration sat around a conference table while a financial analyst from the Legislature's Joint Fiscal Office went over a list of 90 items that could help the state dig out of a financial hole.

The list included $7.5 million in new revenues, most transferred from special purpose funds plus $1.8 million raised from fees that would be increased a year early. (The original list had $7.8 million in revenues, but one item was off the list by afternoon.)

The proposed cuts -- $38.4 million -- drew more frowns. Cut another 200 jobs, bringing the total by July 1, 2009 to 600. Close the St. Albans prison and send all the inmates out of state where their stays are cheaper.

Sen. Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, said the administration and legislative leaders wanted a lot of choices. "We really felt it was important for everything to be on the table."

Or most everything. Rep. Steve Howard, D-Rutland asked later in the day at the House Democratic caucus if anything had been taken off the list before it was made public.

Yes, replied Rep. Martha Heath, D-Westford. She offered an example. Not giving a cost of living increase to an aged and blind program was scratched.

The four heads of the Legislature's money committees will join the finance commissioner and secretary of administration again today to see if they can reach consensus on what part of the list to use to fill the $24.5 million hole in General Fund revnues.

It will be a strange give and take -- an experiment in bipartisan cooperation conducted in public rather than behind closed doors, which is where most deals are hatched.

If they agree -- by Friday, then the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to incorporate the changes into its budget, vote it and send it to the Senate floor.

Once approved, the Senate version of the budget returns to the House, which is expected to concur with some changes -- to give House members a chance to debate the big changes made because of the revenue shortfall.

Will there be the usual two weeks of budget negotiations between the House and Senate? That's not what seems to be planned -- not if lawmakers want to leave May 2.

Any bets on whether this process will work?

-- Nancy Remsen

posted by vt.Buzz | 7:58 PM |

Comments:

If the Legislature can't finish its work by May 2, they should work without pay until they pass a budget that Douglas will sign.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:04 PM, April 16, 2008

And everyone in the Douglas administration should do the same.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:42 PM, April 16, 2008

And yet in this day and age we still have a "Governor's Commission on the Status of Women"! How sexist can you get? Or wasteful.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:22 AM, April 17, 2008

So close the St. Albans jail and send all the inmates out of state? To where? Oh yeah, jails run by Corrections Corporation of America, which has a bunch of lobbyists in Montpelier, right? Why would we want to send Vermont tax dollars to other states? Vermont jobs to other states? Oh yeah, because this corrections group gives big money to Douglas and some legislators. Something smells rotten to this Vermonter.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:09 AM, April 17, 2008

It would be great to keep the jobs in state but it's too expensive. Reduce the cost of the prision system. Be competitive with other States. Quit whining. We have a state that is going broke and you don't want to reduce expenses. If you have more money to kick-in tax-wise, please do. I don't.

Captain America

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:19 AM, April 17, 2008

Jim = Jobs (In Other States)

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:32 AM, April 17, 2008

It's foolish to lay off Vermonters in order to pay for the same service in another state.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:44 AM, April 17, 2008

You don't get it do you. It is too expensive even for the state to do business here! They have to outsource. Haven't you been paying attention to the business issues in the state?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:58 AM, April 17, 2008

Why is it that it costs double or more to warehouse criminals in Vermont? Why do we care if some criminal doesn't like his "nutriloaf"? If you want to keep the little darlings here, cut the cost of doing it! To hell with the ACLU.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:06 AM, April 17, 2008

Pollina "We can do better"

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:20 AM, April 17, 2008

"Why is it that it costs double or more to warehouse criminals in Vermont?"

They don't. Get your facts straight.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:27 AM, April 17, 2008

Diddohead says:

It's okay to pay a Blackwater thug more than a United States soldier.

But it isn't okay to pay a Vermont corrections officer more than a rent-a-cop in Kentucky.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:43 AM, April 17, 2008

I had to laugh when I read in the Argus that Douglas is proposing a $100 million stimulus at the same time he's whacking all kinds of jobs and programs. He'd be better served trying to figure out how unemployed Vermonters with no public services are going to be able to utilize an economic stimulus in the first place. No one will ever accuse Douglas or his staffers of being Einsteins, that much is for sure. Pure political whoring on their part. A stimulus? Puh-lease.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:08 AM, April 17, 2008

I didn't know Vermont hired any Blackwater thugs- If (some)Vermonters had their way we wouldn't even pay the soldiers because we would use love and kisses to stop the terrorists!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:14 AM, April 17, 2008

Only in return for the flowers and candy Cheney said they would greet us with.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:27 AM, April 17, 2008

A Republican Congress & Republican President build a $300 million bridge to nowhere ... and somehow the Republicans still think that they are the party of fiscal responsibility.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:53 AM, April 17, 2008

Anon of 11:08 should take a refresher course in EC101. The hard facts of owning a business is when sales, profits/income decline one place to offset that loss is your employees. If you cannot afford to pay them they have to go. You are suggesting keep all state employees and maybe hire more to keep all programs fully funded- that means we have to borrow to keep things running instead of trying to make do with what we have. If the private sector has to be efficient in hard times- shouldn't the public sector share the same values?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 11:55 AM, April 17, 2008

nek, you should take a refresher course on basic math.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:10 PM, April 17, 2008

Take a sociology course while you're at it NEK. If public employees are cut and so are services, where are these unemployed Vermonters supposed to go for help? Public assistance and related programs are drying up fast as well. You favor having more people sucking at the public trough, as I read your comments. Our governor cwertainly isn't creating any new jobs is he? And he's had six years now to propose new ways to attract businesses to Vermont, but he's failed at that too. Maybe he should start publicly calling for and end to his party's trillon+ war so we can start putting some taxpayer money back into the U.S.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:17 PM, April 17, 2008

NEK said...

"I didn't know Vermont hired any Blackwater thugs- If (some)Vermonters had their way we wouldn't even pay the soldiers because we would use love and kisses to stop the terrorists!"

And just who would these Vermonters be, little factually-challenged fella, and what evidence to you have that they wouldn't pay these soldiers because they allegedly think, "we could use can use love and kisses to stop the terrorists!", little factually-challenged fella?

Furthermore, just what terrorists are they protecting us from and what evidence do you have that their current mission is giving us the most effective bang for the buck?

That's what I thought.

You're ignorant trash with bupkis, schmuck. Ya haven't got a case or a clue and ya never do.

Get one or get used to it.

Disappear.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 12:39 PM, April 17, 2008

The only terrorists in Vermont are you libs. Notice how 12:17 PM is concerned about unemployed public workers and how are they going to survive-pardon me- but do you have any concern for the private sector employees who get laid off because of lack of work! Probably not- you and dittohead JW.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:18 PM, April 17, 2008

Douglas is incapable of creating either public or private sector jobs. The guy's a joke. He's had 6 years now to come up with something but the crickets are still chirpping. I love how he complains about unsustainable growth in state government when it's his people doing the hiring and making it unsustainable. At least it has been for the past 6 years.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 3:49 PM, April 17, 2008

Anonymous said...

Douglas is incapable of creating either public or private sector jobs. The guy's a joke. He's had 6 years now to come up with something but the crickets are still chirpping. I love how he complains about unsustainable growth in state government when it's his people doing the hiring and making it unsustainable. At least it has been for the past 6 years."

Clearly, there is nothing Doogie the Dim is incapable of being incapable of.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:48 PM, April 17, 2008

"n said..."

Gee, what's the deal, little fella. They spot ya the "n" and your ignorant ass still can't remember the e and the k?

Oy, Gevalt, what a putz.

You're at Scum Central. It's an open-book test and you've got the "sharpest minds" of nameless-nitwit nation at your disposal and ya still find "nek" too taxing for your ignorant ass

"The only terrorists in Vermont are you libs. Notice how 12:17 PM is concerned about unemployed public workers and how are they going to survive-pardon me- but do you have any concern for the private sector employees who get laid off because of lack of work! Probably not- you and dittohead JW."

Ah, so now that you've failed to provide any evidence to support your factually-challenged, lunatic-fringe contention that there are some nameless Vermonters who won't pay for Soldiers to protect us because hugs and kisses will do, your ignorant-trash with with bupkis ass launches a fresh round of factually-challenged, delusional-dreck charges you can neither substantiate or spell.

It's ditto-head, deducebag.

You're welcome.

Ya gonna tell me what a great paytriot you are now, nitwit.

Just what evidence do you have of "liberal terrorists" in Vermont and why are the Soldiers some Vermonters won't pay for best and most cost-effectively stationed in Iraq to protect Vermont from these terrorists when they're/we're already here, little fella?

That's what I thought.

You're dumb, you're scum and ya got bupkis, bozo.

Disappear.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 11:39 PM, April 17, 2008

Anonymous said...

"It would be great to keep the jobs in state but it's too expensive. Reduce the cost of the prision system. Be competitive with other States. Quit whining. We have a state that is going broke and you don't want to reduce expenses. If you have more money to kick-in tax-wise, please do. I don't."

Nice try, Cap'n Un-American.

What evidence do you have that he/she or anyone who disagrees with you is not trying to keep costs down and run the State of Vermont in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible as Doogie the Dim has spent the past six years proving he's incapable of doing?

That's what I thought.

You've dumb, you're scum and ya got bupkis, cap'n crunch.

Disappear.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 12:13 AM, April 18, 2008

Yawn.

It is ponderous that at 12:13AM you have nothing better to do with your life than sit on the BFP blog and insult people.

It speaks volumes to your mental stability.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 6:56 AM, April 18, 2008

Wouldn't it be a hoot to know what "jw"'s employment history was/is? If any?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:42 AM, April 18, 2008

You mean besides his current counter boy job at Ben and Jerry's?

I believe before that he raked yards in the fall and had a newspaper route.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:50 AM, April 18, 2008

JW- If you need evidence that some people aren't trying to economize you should spend more time reading the bills introduced in the Legislature and put away the Loony-Tunes comic books.
S.350 energy bill has massive hidden costs including, the creation of a Vermont Resource Council (the Green Police) to establish building codes pave bicycle lanes, inventory emissions (including you wood heat)and much more; S.304 require everyone to record and report all ground water usage over 20,000 per day- next step will be to tax that usage- it also wants to make the water on your property a state asset (public trust);H.359 a buffer zone bill that would cost ANR $270,000 just to write the regulations and ? # of employees to enforce; H.863 adds additional costs to landlords but wants them to absorb these costs; S.373 would require VT Yankee to add $400 million to the $430 million they already have in reserve for decommissioning fund, all an attempt by Shumlin & assoc to boot Entergy out of VT and increase our electrical rates by 40%. Should I go on- there are plenty more.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 7:53 AM, April 18, 2008

NEK has left a new comment on the post "Unusual process":

"JW- If you need evidence..."

Nice try, nitwit. I don't. You do.

Furthermore, I'm commenting on your evidence. You don't have any. You never do.

Given the fact that I'm commenting on your consistent lack of absence to support your lunatic-fringe slop, your continuing absence of evidence is all the evidence I need.

Thanks, as always, for taking care of all the heavy lifting, little factually-challenged fella

"..that some people aren't trying to economize you should spend more time reading the bills introduced in the Legislature and put away the Loony-Tunes comic books.
S.350 energy bill has massive hidden costs including, the creation of a Vermont Resource Council (the Green Police) to establish building codes pave bicycle lanes, inventory emissions (including you wood heat)and much more; S.304 require everyone to record and report all ground water usage over 20,000 per day- next step will be to tax that usage- it also wants to make the water on your property a state asset (public trust);H.359 a buffer zone bill that would cost ANR $270,000 just to write the regulations and ? # of employees to enforce; H.863 adds additional costs to landlords but wants them to absorb these costs; S.373 would require VT Yankee to add $400 million to the $430 million they already have in reserve for decommissioning fund, all an attempt by Shumlin & assoc to boot Entergy out of VT and increase our electrical rates by 40%. Should I go on- there are plenty more."

And your evidence of that is....?

That's what I thought.

Your ignorant trash with bupkis opinion of the piece of legislation you've cited is not evidence, little fella. It's merely your ignorant trash opinion.

It always is.

Dismissed.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 8:50 AM, April 18, 2008

Who did you inherit that mindset from- was it Kunin, Dean or Bernie?

You obviously can't read these bills if you don't see the hidden cost. Why do you think they are stalled- it's because of there cost. Put away those comics!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:58 AM, April 18, 2008

Just incredible! A blogger details what is in spending proposals and all jw can reply with is "no evidence" followed by his usual cut-and-paste "comments". Probably still searching for those elusive plans by JFK to immediately end the Vietnam War.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:03 AM, April 18, 2008

JW's dream job is counting all the milk money his idol Tony P. "borrowed" from the farmers who sent their milk to his milk company

Actually JW doesn't have enough fingers and toes to do that job, even with the extra toe he has on each foot....to shallow a gene poll eh?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:58 AM, April 18, 2008

JW is a counter boy at the Montpelier Ben and Jerry's

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 10:27 AM, April 18, 2008

Anonymous said...

"WOW another JW post full of insults and lacking in facts and value."

No, that would be the ignorant slop coughed up by the ignorant-trash likes of you and the rest of nameless-nitwit nation, little factually-challenged fella.

Content, eh? That's a good one, little fella.

You're ignorant trash with bupkis.

You have no ideas. You have no content. You have no substance.

You clowns aren't even conservatives. You're just ignorant bigots with bupkis and no evidence to support your lunatic-fringe slop.

There is nothing legitimate about you or your pathetic POV.

You're dumb, you're scum and you're wasting the oxygen of dogs the world over.

Disappear

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:34 AM, April 18, 2008

JW how is your boy Tony P. using his milk money........as a campaign contribution ???

Your Mom must be so proud of you, top apologist for a real life political star like Tony P.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:17 PM, April 18, 2008

Coopy spews: "You clowns aren't even conservatives."

So you finally got something right. I grew up in a solidly Democratic state and never thought there was another solution. The Dems fought for Civil Right. The Dems fought for the downtrodden. The Dems represented the broad cross-section of the 'common man'.

I voted for Johnson, Humphrey, McGovern and Carter but by then it was clear that something was changing. Populist party issues were being replaced by the interest of very vocal, very intolerant special interest groups that were very effective in convincing the Party Elite they needed to apologize to them and support them or be represented and viewed as a bigot, a racist, a Nazi..... The Party turned its back on its roots….middle class America, the blue collar worker trying to build a better life for his family. It began embracing the radical liberal fringe at the expense of the ‘regular guy’. Today if you have an opposing view you are a Nazi. Hollywood has drunk the new party ‘Kool-aid’. It is fashionable to hate our country and to call our leaders Nazis, Fascists, War Criminals. Just 50 years ago it was fashionable to be a Patriot…to work for a better country. Now it is better to tear it down.

The Party I once belonged to, admired and supported to the end has chased me away. They have lost sight of what is important to me and my family. The loud mouths …the Bill Maher’s, the Rosie O’Donnell’s, the Michael Moore’s claim to be the enlightened, the open-minded, the progressive thinking, the accepting and tolerant set but they are not. They have become what they claim to hate. They are the intolerant set.

In 2000 I couldn’t take it any more. I dropped my Party affiliation. It was better to walk away from a long time conviction than to align with a party of hypocrisy and intolerance.

Captain America

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 8:09 AM, April 19, 2008

Amen, brother! I run into dozens and dozens of ex-Vermonters around the country and have yet to find ONE that isn't NOW a conservative!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 9:38 AM, April 19, 2008

"bubba said...
Just incredible! A blogger details what is in spending proposals and all jw can reply with is "no evidence" followed by his usual cut-and-paste "comments". Probably still searching for those elusive plans by JFK to immediately end the Vietnam War."

Bubba, have mercy on JW. NEK threw him a curve and confronted Coopy with facts. Poopster knew he had to reply but when he looked in his archive of pre-written responses to cut and paste he couldn't find one that really applied so he tried to overcome with volume.

He is playing with the best material that he has(as trite as it has become). I suspect his absence in the last days is to confer with his He-man Woman Hater clubmates to work on some new witty repsonses.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:18 PM, April 19, 2008

He'll be back, but it will be the same collection of "bupkis", "schmuk", and all of his clever cut-and-paste paragraphs about using his dog's air, "go Cheney yourself", etc. Probably at a DailyKos or Moveon.org seminar on improving your "communication" skills where they dig up dirt on McCain's grandmother or maybe Cheney's wife and daughter. Or maybe he's helping to raise funds for his hero Al Franken to pay his back taxes in California and New York so he won't have to campaign for Minnesota Senator from jail! (What an ultimate carpetbagger!)

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:50 PM, April 20, 2008

So much gop-slop nonsense, so little time.

Every time I take a couple of days off from this joint, you clueless cretins spend the bulk of your time whining about me.

Evidently, that's easier than coming up with some evidence to support your ignorant slop.

Of course, given the fact that no evidence in support of your ignorant slop exists, it'd kinda have to be.

Once again, bubbles, I hate to confuse your ignorant ass with the facts but Franken was born and raised in Minnesota. St Louis Park, MN, to be precise.

How does that make him "an ultimate carpetbagger!"

That's what I thought.

You're ignorant trash with bupkis, little bigot boy. You always were. You always are. You always will be.

Disappear.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 9:41 AM, April 21, 2008

Coopy,

You think too highly of yourself. No one was missing you.

While we can quibble over whether Al is a carpetbagger, he is soon to be a convicted tax evader....far more honorable a claim.

So out of curiousity, did you and the He-man Woman Haters club come up with any new material? From your posting it doesn't look like you did.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 12:42 PM, April 21, 2008

jw, did I tell you the one about Al and Billo and the judge?

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 2:58 PM, April 21, 2008

Nice try, iggy slop.

I don't give a damn if your ignorant asses missed me or not, schmuck. Ya had nothin' to say when I got here and ya got nothin' to say now.

I just give you loons a subject for your factually-challenged slop.

You're still dumb, you're still scum and ya still got bupkis.

Disappear.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 3:38 PM, April 21, 2008

bubba said...

"jw, did I tell you the one about Al and Billo and the judge?"

Well, little bigot boy, seein' how it would have been the first, provable, factually-sound, accurate and intelligent thing your ignorant ass has said since ya got here, I would've remembered, so no, you didn't.

Then again, outside of constantly demonstrating that you're ignorant trash with bupkis in the best of circumstances, ya haven't told me anything else, either.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 3:46 PM, April 21, 2008

You are just a ray of sunshine, Dr. Bupkis.

We were hoping you and the Woman-haters would have come up with some new material during your hiatus.

Please cut and paste a reply as soon as you can.

Mom

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 4:08 PM, April 21, 2008

Anonymous said...

"It was good that the Governor failed to budget any money for November's election.

We don't need elections anymore. We have Zogby.

(privatize, privatize, privatize ...)"

Yeah, let's privatize the cops and the fire department.

If everyone's on the take, there's no corruption. If there's no corruption, there's no need to investigate it.

The cops can investigate themselves. Just like the White House.

If putting out fires is unprofitable, hey, burn, baby, burn.

Ya gotta love conservative "ideas" and that conservative "thought" process.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:18 PM, April 21, 2008

bubba said...

"Amen, brother! I run into dozens and dozens of ex-Vermonters around the country and have yet to find ONE that isn't NOW a conservative!"

Sure, ya do, little bigot boy. Sure, ya do.

The important thing is that they're "ex-Vermonters"

Feel free to join them in Tuscaloosa, schmuck.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.

9:38 AM, April 19, 2008

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:22 PM, April 21, 2008

Anonymous said...
Coopy spews: "You clowns aren't even conservatives."

Colonel Klink, retorts:

So you finally got something right. I grew up in a solidly Democratic state and never thought there was another solution. The Dems fought for Civil Right. The Dems fought for the downtrodden. The Dems represented the broad cross-section of the 'common man'."

Ah, so that's what drove your ignorant ass to become a gop.

Thanks, as always, for that ignorant-trash with bupkis perspective, Colonel Klink.

Dismissed.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:32 PM, April 21, 2008

Thanks for the insults Coopy. You represent your cause so eloquently and are a constant reminder of why I left the Dems.

...and just so you get it right, I didn't say I was a GOPer. You did with no facts. Again no surprise.

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 6:42 AM, April 22, 2008

There are still a few responsible democrats left in the country (Zell Miller, Tennessee Gov. Bredeson, NC Rep. Heath Shuler, to name three)but their numbers are dwindling fast. The rabid, drooling hyenas of the left led by Michael Moore, George Soros, Huffington, MediaMatters, DailyKos, MoveOn.org savage people like Joe Lieberman for deviating even slightly from the required "party" line of hatred for anything that represents traditional values in this country. Who would of ever thought that even Hillary is now the target for MoveOn just because she dares challenge an empty suit like Obama, who dispenses his radical far-left kool-aid like a present-day Jim Jones!

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 6:56 AM, April 22, 2008

"Thanks for the insults Coopy. You represent your cause so eloquently and are a constant reminder of why I left the Dems."

Yeah, you're ignorant trash with bupkis and they wouldn't have ya.

You've been spewin' your delusional "loyal dues-paying Dem" dreck for 6 months, schmuck when you kept claiming you voted for Jeffords over Flanagan in 2006 when that match up was in 2000.

I didn't buy your dimwitted, delusional dreck then any more than I'm buyin' it now, iggy slop.

You were ignorant, anonymous trash with bupkis who couldn't tell 2006 from 2000, fact from fiction or your ass from your elbow then and you've done nothing but reinforce your rep and pad your resume ever since, schmuck.

And when did I say I was a Dem, deducebag?

That's what I thought.

I'm not a Dem, dim. I just detest gops and Dems are the best available disinfectant.

Dismissed.

# Posted by:

JWCoop10 | 10:54 PM, April 22, 2008

yawn

# Posted by:

Anonymous | 6:47 AM, April 23, 2008