Rep. Peter Perley, a Republican from Enosburg Falls, was charged last week with drunken driving and resisting arrest.

"I certainly made a mistake — a very serious one,” Perley said Monday. “I am just so sorry that it happened. I’m quite frankly embarrassed.”

Perley, a first-term lawmaker who serves on the House Education Committee, wouldn’t discuss details of what happened, but according to the news reports, Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies were alerted about an intoxicated man by a clerk at the Mobil station on Vermont 105 about 10:30 p.m. March 15. Perley allegedly tried to pull away as a deputy sought to handcuff him.

Perley is a sponsor of “Nick’s Law” legislation that seeks tougher penalties for drunk-driving offenders following the 2007 death of Nick Fournier of Swanton. Asked whether the charge affects his standing on that, Perley said Monday he continues to support the legislation. Supporters of Nick’s Law plan their annual rally at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Rep. Peter Perley, vermont legislature

Most of last week, as the Vermont Senate conducted business, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie was not at the front of the room, where it’s his job to preside. That meant senators had to fill in for him at the podium. There were grumbles through the Statehouse about whether Dubie was off campaigning for governor or what.

Here’s what Dubie said he was up to last week:

Monday, he was chairing the meeting of the Aerospace States Association meeting, a group of lieutenant governor and other state officials focused on aerospace issues. Tuesday, he attended his farewell National Lieutenant Governor’s Association meeting in Washington. Wednesday, he met with the Canadian and Mexican ambassadors.

On Thursday, Gov. Jim Douglas was out of state (in Boston, meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick), making Dubie the acting governor which means he can’t preside over the Senate. Friday, Dubie presided over the Senate at the start of the day, but stepped away mid-morning for a previously scheduled meeting with former Republican Rep. Michael Bernhardt, who was delivering Dubie the good news that he wouldn’t mount an independent campaign for governor.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, vermont legislature

Looking for something to do this week? How about a trip to the Statehouse to watch some debate? There will be plenty of action. Check out the daily House and Senate calendars at the Legislature’s Web site.

The House takes up a bill today that would restructure the court system. It has upset probate judges because it shrinks their numbers and upset assistant judges because it strips them of some responsibilities.

Two of three money bills come up in the House, too. By money bills, we mean legislation outlining transportation work and the House version of the budget to run state government. These bills don’t always produce partisan bickering, but they usually prompt questions.

The House also takes up a miscellaneous tax bill that includes some changes in how the education tax will be assessed on certain homeowners.

In the Senate, a bill that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries comes up for consideration later in the week. No controversy there, right?

- Nancy Remsen

Labels: vermont legislature

While Washington wiggles its way through health care, the debate goes on in Vermont too.

William Hsiao, a Harvard economist who specializes in health care, will speak to Senate and House health committees at 2 p.m. Thursday in Room 11 of the Statehouse. Hsiao helped design Taiwan’s universal health-care system, based on the Canadian system.

“Dr. Hsiao has the skills to redesign
our health care system and I am hopeful that legislation will be passed
this year that will begin that process,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, a candidate for governor.

In a November New York Times interview, Hsiao said, “You can have universal coverage and good quality health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a single-payer system to do it.” To see the interview, visit HERE.


Meanwhile, Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, another gubernatorial candidate, is drumming up support for his legislation to create a panel to come up with three detailed options for universal coverage. He asked supporters to sign on to the bill as “citizen co-sponsors” on his campaign Web site.

Before it can reach the Senate floor, Racine’s bill has to go to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Chairwoman Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, is also a candidate for governor.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature

What’s that, you ask?

Each year, legislative leaders set a deadline for committees to complete work on bills they would like their counterparts in the other body to take up. The idea is to give roughly equal time for the House and Senate to review bills.

This year, the magic date is Friday. Of course, there are exceptions. The House gets a few more weeks on the money bills because the Senate works on these bills without having them in their possession.

One of the biggest bills moving this week to make the crossover deadline will be a judicial restructuring proposal that the House Judiciary Committee has labored over since the beginning of the session.

The House Education Committee expects to vote Friday on a bill that would give school districts new incentives to consider consolidation. Prior to the vote, members of the House and Senate education committees will hold a rescheduled (weather did in the first date) hearing Wednesday night to give the public a chance to weigh in on an array of consolidation proposals – including some that mandate shrinkage in the number of school districts.

There could be a few final decisions on legislation this week.

Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, said the Senate, for example, could endorse the revised version of a bill moving the primary election to the last week of August. The Senate approved the change last year, but the House didn’t take up the bill until this session. The House recently endorsed the new primary date, but rewrote the bill – which means the Senate gets another bite at the apple.

The House seems poised to wrap up work on an $8 million job-creation bill the Senate already passed. It includes aid to farmers, help for Addison County businesses affected by the closure of the Champlain Bridge and job training money.

Lawmakers won’t act soon, however, on any bill addressing the bankrupt unemployment compensation fund. Despite a year and a half of discussion, lawmakers, the administration, workers and employers can’t agree on a remedy.

"Unemployment will need the committed attention of the speaker, governor, myself and the committee chairs to come up with a solution," Shumlin said.

"There are continuing conversations," said House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown. "We’ve got to do something."

-- Nancy Remsen

Labels: judicial restructuring, politics, school consolidation, vermont legislature

The New York Times takes a national view of the Vermont Senate's vote yesterday. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/us/25nuke.html

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

Because we're always looking out for you, The Burlington Free Press will carry live coverage of the Senate’s vote on Vermont Yankee’s future Wednesday at www.burlingtonfreepress.com.

The debate is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.

That's legislative time, so be flexible.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

Nothing has happened regarding Vermont Yankee in recent weeks to improve the nuclear power plant’s chances of winning legislators’ support for its continued operation after March 2012.

If anything, more lawmakers are becoming more comfortable with the idea of voting against letting the Public Service Board decide on continued operation.

“If the vote was today, I’d vote against it,” Rep. Joe Krawczyk, R-Bennington, vice chairman of the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee, said Thursday.

Don’t be surprised if there is a vote by the end of the month, before the Legislature breaks for Town Meeting.

— Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, announced last week that his Senate Judiciary Committee would not consider legislation addressing crimes against fetuses this year.

The topic came up after an August car crash in which a Bennington woman lost twin six-month fetuses and the discovery that the other driver could not be charged in connection with the loss of the fetuses. Two bills were proposed in response.

As a sign of just how sensitive this issue is, Sears took the unusual step of explaining his decision in a three-page written statement.

He said there was “a great deal of pressure” from several constituents, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood not to take up any of the proposed legislation. At the same time, he said rhetoric from anti-abortion advocates “has, in my view, made any reasonable attempt at compromise more difficult, if not impossible.”

Sears concluded that a thoughtful conversation on the issue is not possible at this time. “I have little choice but to stop further consideration of both bills by the Senate Judiciary Committee,” he wrote.

Credit Sears with explaining himself. Around the Statehouse, this issue is more radioactive than Vermont Yankee.

Patricia Blair, the mother of the twin fetuses, was in the building lobbying for a bill a couple weeks ago. She said she had a meeting scheduled with Sears, but hadn’t met House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg. Somehow, even though the bill she supports has 55 legislative sponsors, none of them had managed to help her stop Lippert in the halls of the Statehouse.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Shap Smith told the Bennington Banner that the House committee’s agenda had been set in November, so it could not fit in this new, complicated issue. What he really means is the majority in the House doesn’t want to take up the bill because agendas have been known to change. Otherwise, no committees would be taking testimony on the tritium leak at Vermont Yankee, which wasn’t revealed until January.

— Terri Hallenbeck



Labels: House Speaker Shap Smith, Sen. Richard Sears, vermont legislature

When the Senate Economic Development Committee voted out a bill last week that outlines spending of $8.6 million in federal stimulus money on various economic development measures, it included a repeal of last year’s changes to the estate tax.

Changing the estate tax is and will continue to be controversial in the Legislature. That piece eked its way into the bill by a 3-2 vote. Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, was among those who voted for it, putting him in line with his nemesis, outgoing Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, and at odds with at least one of his fellow Democratic candidates for governor.

This is the same Doug Racine who in his campaign for governor is arguing that the state should raise income taxes temporarily to help fill the budget gap that the recession brought on. He said he believes the estate tax was hastily changed last legislative session (lowering the size of the estate from $3.5 million to $2 million for taxes to kick in). He said he objected then and favors repealing the change this year.

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, is not keen on erasing the changes, saying that with a $150 million budget gap, the state can’t afford to lose the revenue. Changing the estate tax would cost an estimated $3 million.

What’s not in that same bill is a repeal of the capital gains tax that Douglas wanted. Committee Chairman Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, said he couldn’t find a way to replace the $25 million it brings in. He’s counting on an improved economy to make up the $3 million from the estate tax.

— Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Sen. Doug Racine, Sen. Peter Shumlin, vermont legislature

More than 50 nonprofit organizations will be at the Statehouse on Thursday to meet with legislators and discuss the impact of budget cuts.

They’re scheduled to meet with the candidates for governor at 8:30 a.m. in the Cedar Creek Room and to meet with Gov. Jim Douglas at 2 p.m.

From noon-1 p.m. in Room 11, there will be a discussion of the future of Vermont’s nonprofits, moderated by businessman Bill Schubart and featuring panelists Stuart Comstock-Gaye of the Vermont Community Foundation, Tim Shea of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Bartlett and House Human Service Committee Chairwoman Ann Pugh.

For a list of the day’s activities, visit: http://www.cctv.org/news/vermont-nonprofits-go-montpelier-211.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature

All the talk about Vermont Yankee this legislative session has taken the $150 million budget gap out of the limelight. The issue will start to peek out from behind the curtains this week.

"Challenges for Change," the method by which the Legislature and the Douglas administration propose to save $38 million through changes in the way government does business, makes its way to the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

The method essentially tells those who are providing the services to figure out how to achieve better outcomes with less money while providing them more leeway to make that happen.

Behind the scenes, plenty of people are scratching their heads over how this will work _ or whether it will work. The best selling point the plan has going for it is that quite of few prominent people have bought into it: legislative leaders, the governor and his under-study, the lieutenant governor, to name a few.

One of them is Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille. She’s one of five Democratic candidates for governor. She sent an e-mail to supporters Sunday talking up the Challenges for Change idea as a key to solving the state’s budget problems and an example of how she does business.

"I find this entire idea really exciting and am looking forward to working with folks over the session to further develop the ideas of developing more challenges for each agency,” Bartlett, the candidate, said.

At least she’s not in it alone.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Sen. Susan Bartlett, vermont legislature

Vermont Yankee’s troubles with tritium and other issues have certainly raised the specter that the plant might not be give permission by the state to operate for another 20 years after March 2012.

Even if it’s not the Legislature or the Public Service Board that pulls the plug on the plant, Entergy Corp. Chief Executive Officer Wayne Leonard suggested last week the company might not be interested in keeping the plant. Leonard said last week during a corporate earnings conference call that Vermont Yankee "is simply not covering its cost of capital."

So then what would happen to that parcel of land alongside the Connecticut River in Vernon if Vermont Yankee opponents got their wish and the plant shut down in 2012? Last we knew, the company had 60 years to mothball the plant in a process called Safstor (CQ: No e’s) while letting the decommissioning fund accumulate interest. Plenty of people don’t feel good about leaving things hanging that long.

Twice, the governor has vetoed legislation that would make Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. sock more money away for decommissioning the plant. This Legislature has had noted success in overriding other vetoes by the governor, but not this one.

A new bill has been introduced this year that would require a nuclear power plant to create two trust funds _ one to restore the site to greenfield status, the other to pay for long-term management of spent nuclear fuel.

One of its sponsors, Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, said he doesn’t think the Legislature will pass the bill this year, declining to specify why, but he said he plans to bring it back next year.

"Safstor would be off the table, absolutely," Klein said. "It would set a date certain that greenfielding would have to occur by."

The state Public Service Department has opposed the Legislature’s decommissioning bills, but Commissioner David O’Brien has also said he’s not comfortable with Safstor.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Wark said the department hasn’t taken a stance on Klein’s new bill, but he said it "could be appropriate" for the state to zero in on setting requirements for greenfield status and managing spent fuel in the absence of a federal solution to that issue.

Vermont Yankee opponent Bob Stannard, a lobbyist for Citizens Action Network, has not lined up behind decommissioning legislation so far for fear that lawmakers would see it as assurance that the plant can continue to operate. Now he’s ready for such legislation. "Some sort of decommissioning bill has to pass the Legislature that says Entergy Corp. is responsible," Stannard said.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

There was physical evidence Wednesday that the Statehouse has become a hostile environment for Entergy Corp., owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

The Senate Finance Committee was holding a meeting about Entergy's power price offer to the state's largest utilities. Marc Potkin, an Entergy Nuclear vice president for price marketing, was testifying.

The committee room was packed, as if often if for Vermont Yankee matters. This time, the crowd included an independent film producer who is working on a documentary, with a video camera on a tripod and a large boom mic hanging overhead.

Not long into Potkin's testimony, the film guy went to move a mic on the table in front of Potkin. In the process, he knocked Sen. Dick McCormack's coffee over and onto Potkin. It was not a highlight of hospitality in the Vermont Legislature, but Entergy these days isn't quite in a position to raise a stink. Potkin said the coffee wasn't hot.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

VY vote this year? Maybe

Once upon a time, the Legislature was balking at voting on Vermont Yankee’s future and the governor who was pushing for a vote. Now that tritium is leaking into groundwater at the plant from pipes that company officials said didn’t exist, things appear different.


Gov. Jim Douglas, a longtime supporter of the plant, for the first time last week said the Legislature should hold off on a vote.


Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Legislature to vote sooner rather than later, against the Vernon plant’s continued operation after 2012.


Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Dunne on Jan. 21 called for a vote. Fellow candidate Deb Markowitz chimed in last week. So did the Washington Electric Cooperative board.

House Natural Resources and Energy Committee Chairman Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, said Monday he wants the state Public Service Board to turn Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. down on its corporate restructuring plan and indicate it plans to turn the plant down on continued operation.

"If they don’t I believe the Legislature will take action before adjourning for the summer," Klein said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, said in December that the Senate might be ready to vote on Vermont Yankee this year, and it’s beginning to look like that could happen.

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, said legislators are awaiting a revised report from the public oversight panel on the plant’s reliability. The panel has re-formed to look at corrected information following Entergy’s admission last month that the plant does have underground pipes with radioactive material that it had previously denied.

That report is due back Feb. 16, though panel member Arnie Gundersen told Klein’s committee last week it might take longer.

Smith said he did think the Public Service Board has enough information to reject the corporate restructuring plan.

VY and the election

No matter what happens with a vote this year on Vermont Yankee, last week’s surprise announcement by Douglas that he wanted a timeout on decisions about Vermont Yankee drew a clearer-than-ever picture that the issue of the nuclear power plant’s future is going to be hanging still when a new governor takes office next January.

If you thought Vermont Yankee was a big election issue before, it just became even more so. It will be a new governor’s Public Service Department that will be advising the Public Service Board on such matters.

That has not escaped the notice of the candidates who hope to replace Douglas. As mentioned above, two of the Democratic candidates called for a decision against continued operation after 2012.

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, the Republican candidate, joined Douglas at his Yankee announcement last week. Dubie agreed with Douglas that a "timeout" was needed on Vermont Yankee decisions and focused most of his comments on concern for the 650 jobs at the plant.

"I am deeply concerned about the 650 people who work for Vermont Yankee; I am concerned about their jobs and their families; I am concerned about all the small businesses in the area that depend on VY and its employees. My cousin is an IBEW member who works at VY. I am concerned about his uncertain future.," Dubie said. "And I am extremely disappointed that VY management has compromised those jobs through repeated breaches of faith with the State of Vermont and its people."

There was strong speculation in the Statehouse that Douglas’ change in stance last week was at least partly about bringing Dubie over to the skeptical side of the issue as a growing number of Vermonters don’t like what’s going on at the plant.

Afterward in the next room, Shumlin, one of the Democratic candidates who hopes to replace Douglas, said that Douglas’ call for a change in management at Vermont Yankee won’t solve anything.

— Terri Hallenbeck

Note: For regular readers, we're now breaking up the Tuesday buzz into separate items rather than one long one.

Labels: Mark Snelling; Vermont politics, vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee

There is a new chairman in the House Commerce Committee as of today.

Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, D-Montpelier, steps down from the chair but stays on the committee.

Rep. Bill Botzow, D-Pownal, takes over as chair.

The official reason given is that Kitzmiller found the chairmanship too time-consuming.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: politics, Rep. Bill Botzow, Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, vermont legislature

Free Press photog Glenn Russell has a video that takes you from the start of the day to the end at the Legislature's first day of the session Tuesday. Check it out HERE.


- TH

Labels: vermont legislature

First thing: a few changes

All is now ready for the Legislature’s return. Two staffers made sure the glass panels at the Statehouse entrances sparkled and the Statehouse curator straightened portraits and adjusted the velvet draperies in the governor’s ceremonial office.

House Republicans caucus at 9:30 a.m. _ before the House is called into session at 10 a.m. _ to select a new assistant leader. The sole candidate is Rep. John Morley of Barton. Morley replaces Rep. Patricia McDonald, R-Berlin, who stepped down because she wants more time to focus on running for the Senate.

When House members take their seats, House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, will announce a few changes in the makeup of committees as a result of resignations, Morley’s role shift and two recent deaths.

Morley has served on the House Appropriations Committee, which requires more time and attention than he can give as assistant House Republican leader. He will have a new assignment, but Smith wasn’t ready to announce it Monday.

Replacing Morley on Appropriations is Rep. Phil Winters, R-Williamstown.

Winters leaves House Ways and Means, so Rep. William Johnson, R-Canaan, move to that seat from House General, Housing and Military Affairs.

Peg Flory of Pittsford has been appointed to fill a Senate seat vacated by Hull Maynard. She was serving on the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Thomas Koch, R-Barre, who has been a member of the House Institutions Committee, replaces Flory on Judiciary.

Flory takes her oath and seat in the Senate shortly after 10 a.m. Two new House members also will be sworn in Tuesday morning. Adam Howard replaces Rep. Rich Westman, R-Cambridge, who became tax commissioner. Butch Shaw replaces Flory.

Smith will announce their committee assignments plus Morley’s this morning. The options include House General, Institutions, Health Care, Ways and Means or Transportation.

There are five openings because two legislators died suddenly just before Christmas – Rep. Ira Trombley, D-Grand Isle, and Rep. Rick Hube, R-South Londonderry. Gov. Jim Douglas has yet to interview possible replacements. David Coriell, the governor’s spokesman, said the earliest the governor could make those appointments would be next week.

Flory’s move to the Senate means some shuffling of committee members there as well. Senate leadership wasn’t prepared to detail the changes Monday afternoon, but the new assignments – affecting several senators -- will be announced shortly after the Senate convenes.

Is your head spinning yet?

-- Nancy Remsen

Opening day

After lawmakers kiss and hug following six months of separation, and the House and Senate complete their organizational business, lawmakers launch into some heavy stuff.

Senators have been invited to the House chamber to hear a briefing on the National Guard deployment to Afghanistan from Adjutant General Michael Dubie.

Day One also includes a presentation of restructuring options that could save state government $35 million-$50 million. A steering committee unveils the "challenges" to the Joint Legislative Government Accountability Committee following Dubie’s Guard briefing.

The restructuring presentation should put a buzz in the building, as the purpose is to see government from a new rather than traditional perspective.

-- Nancy Remsen

Getting down to it

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, said he expects House committees to get off to a fast start – this being the second year of the two-year session.

One panel could vote out a bill by Friday. That would be House Transportation, which begins work Wednesday on a bill that would allow heavier trucks on Vermont’s interstate highways.

A change in law is necessary now that Congress passed a law allowing a one-year pilot test in Vermont to allow large trucks to travel the interstates. Many states already allow heavier trucks on interstates because of waivers or grandfather provisions from federal restrictions.

"We are going to try to hear from everyone, have some discussion and hopefully kick it over to the Senate," said newly appointed Transportation Chairman Patrick Brennan, R-Colchester. "It is important," he said, noting that the federal trial period has already begun.

Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, has also submitted a bill on the Senate side. "I expect quick action," he said, noting the Senate has previously voted unanimously on various measures calling for allowing heavier trucks.

"We want to get these trucks off town and village streets," Illuzzi said.

Other bills on fast tracks include a measure to move the primary election and legislation making mid-year changes to the budget. Smith said he’d like to see the budget bill on the House floor by the end of next week so the House Appropriations Committee’s calendar is clear when Gov. Jim Douglas delivers his budget Jan. 21.

-- Nancy Remsen

Senate briefings

To avoid repetitive committee presentations, Senate leadership has scheduled two, two-hour briefings on some of the big issues facing lawmakers.

Wednesday afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m., senators hear from their chief fiscal adviser, Steve Klein, and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille. Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden, may also answer questions about the government restructuring options as she served on the steering committee that developed the proposals.

Thursday beginning at 10 a.m., senators gather again to hear recommendations from a retirement commission and a panel studying how to remedy the looming deficit in the unemployment insurance fund. Legislative staff also will offer observations about the potential impact of federal health reform legislation.

-- Nancy Remsen

Unified?

Fifteen labor unions offered their backing to Vermont Yankee at a Statehouse news conference Monday. The move is sure to make some of those who oppose relicensing of the nuclear power plant uncomfortable because many of them are people who strongly support labor unions.

George Clain, president of the IBEW Local 300, said the union represents 160 Vermont Yankee electrical workers and mechanics and they want to keep their jobs. Vermont Yankee employs 640 workers for an an average of $81,000 a year, he said, a salary not easily replaced if the plant closes when its license expires in 2012.

"We already have enough people unemployed," Clain said.

The move was meant to put legislators, who have a say in whether VY continues, on the spot.

Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, who supports unions but not Vermont Yankee relicensing, shrugged it off. He likened the power plant to other industries that inevitably yield to progress. "There’s an evolutionary process," he said. "This is the horse and buggy vs. the automobile."

The union representatives defending Vermont Yankee were not buying the notion that it needs replacing or that the green-energy jobs that might replace it would pay as well.

The union’s stance made some of their counterparts uncomfortable too. Traven Leyshon, president of the Green Mountain Labor Council of the AFL-CIO, was quick to point out that not all the local unions within the Vermont AFL-CIO coalition agree on Vermont Yankee. "We’ve got a tactical difference," he said.

Leyshon said he doesn’t consider Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. a socially responsible company and wants the state to help the plant’s workers retrain for new jobs, and he suggested Entergy should pay for that retraining. "We’ve got to plan for the future," he said.

Obviously, Vermont Yankee is making a big push to focus on the jobs that would be lost if the plant closes. That has prompted some opponents to argue that not all those jobs are filled by Vermonters, what with the plant’s proximity to Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Some 290 of the plant’s workers are Vermonters, Entergy Nuclear Vice President Jay Thayer said.

Some opponents suggest that reduces the size of Vermont Yankee’s imprint on the Vermont economy and deflates the argument that Vermont can’t afford not to relicense the plant. Thayer argued that payroll taxes for all of them go to Vermont.

--Terri Hallenbeck

Dubie’s principles

In a speech Monday to the Burlington Rotary Club, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie – Republican candidate for governor -- laid out three principles he said should guide lawmakers’ decisions about legislation.

First, he said all proposed legislation must have a positive impact on jobs and job creation. Would a texting ban be off the table under Dubie’s principles?

Second, he said the Legislature must reduce demands on taxpayers by reducing the size of government. Legislation that adds programs and increases the size and cost of government must be rejected. Restructuring and reduction is a given, but what about a new, better program? Certainly Gov. Jim Douglas offered a few over the years – scholarships and broadband expansion come to mind. Is Dubie really saying all new ideas are off the table?

Finally, Dubie said all state government programs, existing and new, must be evaluated and judged as sustainable. They must carry a high-enough priority to merit an identifiable revenue source that will sustain them over the long term. So what does Dubie mean by sustainable? He talks about "identifiable revenue sources" – but being able to name a tax doesn’t insure the money will always be there, right? When the economy sinks, once dependable taxes such as sales and income shrivel. When people stop smoking, cigarette taxes shrink. When people change their driving habits, gasoline taxes evaporate. What makes a revenue source sustainable?

-- Nancy Remsen

Labels: vermont legislature, vermont politics

As you read in today's Free Press, Vermont is faced with the prospect of having to change the date of the 2010 primary election.

Sept. 14 just isn't going to cut it. Congress just passed a law that says states have to send overseas absentee ballots out at least 45 days before the Nov. 2 general election, and there's not enough time to certify the primary, print the ballots and send them out under Vermont's current schedule.

So when would you like the election to be?

How's Aug. 24, as the Senate chose in a bill this year that hasn't passed the House?

Or Aug. 17, as the Secretary of State's Office proposed?

Or how about June? That one makes legislators nervous because they'd have to decide whether they're running and campaign during the legislative session. Could also make the session even messier politically than it's already going to be.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: primary election, vermont legislature, vermont politics

Gov. Jim Douglas today appointed Rich Westman's replacement in the Legislature. Westman, a Republican, took a job this summer as Douglas' tax commissioner after 27 years in the House.

His successor is Adam Howard, whom Westman had wanted to get the job. Like Westman, Howard lives in Cambridge. His district also covers Belvidere and Waterville.

In the announcement from the governor's office, Howard said,

“I look forward to bringing by experience in both traditional and creative economies to Montpelier at a time when private sector job creation is so key to our recovery.”

Here is his background, according to the announcement:

Educated at Western State College of Colorado, Howard received a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Community Journalism. Howard's love of the outdoors led him to an extensive career in journalism with a focus on winter sports, especially skiing. He began his career as an intern at Powder Magazine in California in 1997. When he returned to Vermont, Howard was a building contractor and professional ski patroller before becoming a reporter at the News and Citizen in Morrisville, Vermont. In 2002 Howard co-founded Vermont-based Height of Land Publications (HOL)which owns and operates Backcountry, Alpinist and Telemark Skier Magazines. He currently serves as editorial director at HOL.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Adam Howard, Jim Douglas, Rich Westman, vermont legislature