By Guy Page

Last Tuesday, the House Environment Committee and the Speaker of the House agreed that Tier 3 and the Road Rule must be repealed from Act 181. What’s next?

VDC asked a legislator on Ground Zero – Rob North (R-Ferrisburgh), a Republican on House Environment. He’s not proclaiming victory. He’s concerned. 

“Lots of misinformation on both sides,” North said. He’s even read legislators’ newsletters saying, ‘we’ve won.’ North says that’s premature.   

“We are far from repealed. We haven’t seen any updated legislation,” North told VDC in the State House cafeteria this AM. “I asked that question and did not get a definite answer. Which is concerning.” 

After House Environment’s 11-0 verbal agreement to repeal on Tuesday, “We spent the rest of the week with my Democratic colleagues getting very nostalgic about the wonderful wording of this wonderful bill.” Longtime supporters of Act 181 asked, “Where [else in statute] are we going to put this wording?”  

To VDC, North suggested the circular file. But that’s not happening – yet. 

“They are reluctant to do it too quickly. Are they trying to time out the session? Maybe. The battle is being held within our committee rather than on the floor.” That’s because a floor discussion is more public, more vehement, more opportunity for phone messages to the Sgt. At Arms (802-828-2228) from constituents. 

And Democrats don’t want that, North said. “Even while they were calling for repeal, it was very evident they were being forced to do that. They were crying. Literally tearing up.”

Forced by who?, VDC asked North.  “By the speaker of their own party. As a political calculation in response to the overwhelming voice of the people.”  

Krowinski recognizes that pushing the figurative battleships through the Straits of Bosporus, to invoke the WWI disaster that sunk the career of Winston Churchill for a quarter century, would lead to disaster at the polls in November.  

“They would be slaughtered,” North said. Many of the Environment Committee members are “people that bleed green. There is no way they would have agreed to this if they had not been forced.”

“The four of us [Republicans North, Mike Tagliavia of Corinth, Larry Labor of Essex County, and Chris Pritchard of the Bennington/Rutland border towns] are going to do the best we can to hold their feet to the fire,” North said.

Stay tuned. 

Computer upgrade an expensive headache – Unlike Act 181, updating the state’s computer system hasn’t been a headline grabber. But it will be the subject of a joint House/Senate energy committee hearing at 1 PM today. The problem is that the system is antiquated, even if not judged by the merciless standards of ever-changing technology. 

Remember when the Department of Labor computer crashed and Covid-era unemployment checks were delayed while the techs muddled for solutions? Remember when a frustrated Gov. Scott got into his car and actually hand-delivered some of those checks himself? 

The latest is that the upgrade will cost about $70 million – and a bill in the Legislature would transfer $10 mil of that back into the general fund. The hearing will be held at 1 PM today (Tuesday April 21) in room 11, and be accessed in person or by zoom.