First chance she had to rebut statements made, Gaye Symington took Jim Douglas on over the housing bill that passed last session.

His proposal wouldn't focus growth in village centers, she charged. Nor would the houses it fostered be affordable to middle class Vermonters, if 15 percent could be sold for $275,000, as proposed, she said.

Douglas fought back at his next chance, calling the legislature's choice as not New Neighborhoods but No Neighborhoods.

- TH