A resolution co-sponsored by Rep. Peter Welch calls for “eliminating unnecessary governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, gender-affirming medical care and counseling for transgender and nonbinary adults, adolescents, and children.”
The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down New York’s “may issue” firearms carry permit law as too restrictive. What will this decision mean for Vermont?
Never mind the campaign promises – how did Vermont’s legislators actually vote?
The feds offered, and the State of Vermont gladly accepted an unprecedented amount of $$ for highway improvements, public transit, and transitioning to electric vehicles.
A bill approving a Burlington City Charter change removing language about prostitution was signed by Gov. Phil Scott.
Opponents of safe injection sites say their effectiveness is unclear and are a ‘foot in the door’ for legalizing possession and sale of hard drugs.
The two bills seek to address Vermont’s acute housing shortage with two popular tools of Vermont state government: shekels and shackles.
The bill, sponsored by House Natural Resources Chair Amy Sheldon (D-Middlebury), cites United Nations-sourced information that a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, humans globally are are squeezing wildlife into ever smaller areas, and that changes in land and sea use are the #1 driver of these problems.
Gov. Phil Scott vetoed 13 bills during the 2021-22 session. Nine stuck.
Framers of the universal school meals law say it will remove stigma, promote student performance, and help the local food economy; critics say it soaks the poor to subsidize the rich.
Ben & Jerry’s took out a full page ad in the May 25 Seven Days to criticize “social media attacks on legislators over a transgender rights bill.”
H96 creates a task force to develop “legislation to create one or more truth and reconciliation commissions to examine and begin the process of dismantling institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination in Vermont, both past and present.”
S287 does not require investment of additional funding directly in students, Gov. Phil Scott said. Nor does new spending capacity mean there will be better outcomes.
Weak drug laws and strong demand make Vermont a destination state for drug-traffickers, Gov. Phil Scott stated in his veto letter of a hard drug decrim bill.
The bill claims that leaving forests unmanaged would benefit wildlife habitat and slow climate change – but forest science shows the opposite is true.
On May 11 the short life of the Clean Heat Standard (CHS), promising “clean heat for a cooler planet,” came to sudden but probably not final end.
Spending and Senate/House retirements – both unprecedented – are the hallmarks of the 2022 session of the Vermont Legislature.
The final bill to pass the 2022 session of the Vermont Legislature was the $8.3 billion budget, which provides the funding for general government spending and the major policy bills this session.
A child tax credit and income tax relief for retirees were approved on the last day of the Legislature.
How did YOUR representative vote on giving the State of Vermont authority over naming local school mascots?
The updating of Act 250 will need to wait another year, if this year’s effort remains stalled.
The House voted today to urge the prevention of nuclear weapons on Vermont soil and taking the decision for nuclear war out of the hands of the president alone.
H746, the Burlington charter change legalizing prostitution, has passed the Senate and now goes to Gov. Phil Scott.
Two controversial hunting and trapping bills passed the House yesterday, as did a police data collection bill that critics say will discourage police officers from staying in Vermont.
A Springfield Democrat won’t change his vote supporting the Clean Heat Standard veto, despite pressure from House leadership.
Burlington’s ‘just cause’ eviction charter change won’t become law, and the Clean Heat Standard veto has yet to be challenged in its second day on the House calendar.
In the garden today, I was thinking about the many amazing Vermonters who are committed to the land and to each other.
For different reasons, pro-business groups and some environmentalists want to sustain Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of the Clean Heat Standards.
Gov. Phil Scott this afternoon vetoed the Clean Heat Standard, citing inadequate legislative ‘checkback’ on the PUC implementation plan.
Local school districts can’t be trusted as the final authority on naming their own team mascots, the Vermont Legislature decided today.
The Vermont House yesterday refused to vote on an amendment to allow noise suppressors for hunting, and instead sent the whole bill to the pro-gun control House Judiciary Committee.
The Vermont Legislature met Gov. Phil Scott’s condition on the Clean Heat Standard: bring the Public Utlities Commission plan back for a vote in two years.
Gov. Phil Scott gives thumbs down to ‘just cause’ eviction requirement and thumbs up to expanding penalties fore threatening public servants.
Will the State of Vermont allow Burlington to decriminalize prostitution?
The amended Clean Heat Standard faces at least two more votes – one in the House, one in the Senate – before it’s sent to the governor, the advocacy group Vermont Stands Up reminds opponents of the bill.
Gov. Phil Scott says the pension reform bill doesn’t do enough to make Vermont’s pension funding plan sustainable.
Voting no on the universal school lunch bill was a tough call for an Orange County mother and lawmaker.
The Vermont Senate today passed the Clean Heat Standard, which will raise the cost of heating with oil and gas in Vermont.
Bills extending social services to at-risk non-citizen youth and waiving safeguards to dispensing end-of-life drugs were signed yesterday by Gov. Phil Scott.
Bills passed in the Senate this week remove legal barriers to getting high and create an advisory Youth Council.
A House committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on Burlington’s proposed legalization of prostitution.
A House-approved bill requiring state registry of rental units won’t expand housing, as promised – quite the opposite, Rep. Samantha Lefebvre says.
Gov. Phil Scott did not use the word “veto”, but the implication was clear – he will veto both the budget and the pension bill if his concerns are not addressed before they reach his desk.
Burlington, Essex charter changes and Abenaki property tax exemption among bills signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott this week.
The Senate and Gov. Scott disagree on the proposed budget, and the governor isn’t afraid to veto the budget if necessary.
H148 would eliminate the religious exemption for required immunizations prior to enrollment in a school or child-care facility.
Another cop control bill sponsored by a Chittenden County senator will be reviewed in the House today.
If the Senate doesn’t fix a big snafu in the Clean Heat Standard bill passed by the House, both electrical utilities and heating fuel dealers will be claiming clean heat credits for the same heat pump.
About S265, criminal threatening bill, an Orange County lawmaker says, “I do not believe that someone who asks to be in the position that they are in should be treated any differently than our neighbors, friends, and relatives.”
At the 11th hour Gov. Scott is either trying to make a good pension deal better, or give it a poison pill.
If the State of Vermont really wants to fight contractor fraud, it might start with reactivating the link to a registry of fraudulent contractors.
The Vermont House expanded legal protections for non-citizen children and public officials this week, while also opening the door for a bill next year allowing civil lawsuits of Vermont police.
A grab bag of economic development ideas has been tossed by the Vermont House to solons of the Vermont Senate.
Those voting yes believe increased levels of conflict between citizens and school board members and other public officials across the country, particularly in regard to Critical Race Theory (CRT) and controversial Covid policies, warrants increased protections for elected officials from threats of violence, above those of ordinary citizens.
A bill to study the pros and cons of stripping police of protection from civil rights lawsuits will go to House floor tomorrow.
Subsidies for e-bikes and free bus fare are out of the Senate version of the House Transportation bill.
Cannabis psychosis should be included on the warning label of marijuana products sold legally in Vermont, Vermont doctors say.
Under a controversial bill, transgender drug therapy leading to sterilization (according to a leading children’s hospital) would be available to children without parental consent.
Opposition to the criminal threatening bill took an Orwellian turn on the House floor today.
The Senate chose to keep defined benefits in the pension reform bill.
House Judiciary last week discussed, but didn’t act on, making the ‘criminal threatening’ bill a felony to allow easier gun seizure.
If Windham County sheriff’s deputies lose qualified immunity from lawsuits, 14 towns will lose police coverage.
Burlington’s prostitution charter change comes before the House Government Operations Committee at 1 pm today.
Gov. Scott yesterday signed into law changes in legislative districts and gender changes on Vermont birth certificates.
Suing a cop, engaging in prostitution, and ending one’s own life legally will become less difficult from a legal perspective if Senate-approved bills now in the House become law.
The feds started paying for universal school meals during the pandemic. That money is going away, and some in the Vermont Legislature want to keep the programs going. Who pays?
The battle for the Black LIves Matter movement – or at least its flag – continues in the Vermont Legislature.
Teenagers aren’t allowed by law to sign contracts – a fact that surfaced after the Senate yesterday upheld Gov. Scott’s veto of 16-17 year old voting in Brattleboro.
The Senate on Thursday passed a long-time-in-coming pension reform bill protecting current retirees and asking more of those still working.
Vermont transportation spending has increased $225 million in two years. Aggressive use of federal paving money and a climate-change driven commitment to EVs and bike paths comprise the lion’s share.
A bill that passed the House 92-49 will – supporters say – streamline the Act 250 permit process. Critics aren’t so sure about that.
An amended coyote hunting bill appears poised to clear the Vermont Senate.
H618 would grant Abenaki-specific rights to state-owned lands.
Its coffers swollen with federal funding and higher-than-expected tax revenue, the Vermont House last week passed record high state budget and transportation bills.
Last week, both the Vermont House and Senate passed widely differing versions of Act 250 (property regulation and development) reform. Reconciliation may prove difficult.
Vermont’s free market think-tank has assembled voting profiles on every Vermont lawmaker. In a few clicks you can find out how they voted on bills that matter to you – and then share that information with others.
What photo could be even more boring than empty parking spaces reserved for legislative carpooling? Satellite photos of the homes of lawmakers generally opposed to land development.
Vermont public school mergers: easy to get into, hard to get out of. And harder still if a bill passed by the House March 17 becomes law.
Bills about leg hold traps, non-unanimous jury trial decisions, collecting data on police and 13 other topics all passed the Senate yesterday.
Farmers, cops, landlords, and home improvement contractors all are targeted for inclusion in statewide registries by a Legislature determined to combat systemic racism and climate change.
Don’t expect a veto on S4, the gun control bill. But that bill turning half of Vermont into an ecological preserve? Gov. Scott has his eye on that one.
Gov. Phil Scott may have the Senate votes to make his veto of teenage voting stick – at least for today.
Legislation approved by the Senate and now in the House would expand the role of a State House artwork advisory committee.
Gov. Phil Scott and Senate President Becca Balint are both determined to win upcoming veto battles in the Vermont Senate. Vermonters who want to be more than spectators are calling their senators.
An anti-development forestry bill that didn’t go through the forestry committee and heard no testimony from landowners passed the House.
A bill to force conversion from fossil fuel heating passed the Vermont House yesterday.
A bill before the Vermont Senate would protect illegal immigrants from arrest while in a courthouse in support of a family or household member.
Vermont House members overrode Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of Brattleboro’s charter change to allow teenagers to vote.
With changes, bills restricting coyote hunting and leg hold trapping met the crossover deadline and will go to the full Senate. Same for bills on suing police, stopping development in 50% of all land area, and other ‘hot button’ issues.
Civil trial lawyers love S178, allowing non-unanimous jury decisions. It and other better-known bills passed Crossover Friday. Part 1 today.
Russian gasoline and liquor are driving Vermonters and other Americans less and less these days. All liquor store proceeds from the sale of Russian-made products for one week have been set aside for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
Do as I say, not as I do?
Another of the Vermont Legislature’s ‘first in the nation’ bills may add costs and reduce availability of household goods containing hazardous chemicals.
Climate change warriors have secured tax breaks to keep Vermont forestland undeveloped.
Three controversial anti-hunting bills won’t make crossover and appear headed to summer study.
A bill giving a property tax break to homeowners providing housing to refugees has cleared the Vermont House and is now in the Senate.
A ‘criminal threatening’ bill doubles the maximum sentence if the victim is a politician or government worker. S265 passed the Senate and is now in House Judiciary.
Rep. Vicki Strong is Vermont Strong on standing up to federal government encroachment on the Right to Free Speech. So far – with one cautious exception – she’s standing up alone.
Like a patient hunter, Gov. Phil Scott is taking his time before deciding whether to take aim at three controversial hunting bills.
The legalization of prostitution, now being pushed mostly by Progressives, is not “what Vermont needs at this point,” Gov. Phil Scott says.
