By Michael Bielawski

This week lawmakers in the House may vote on a bill that would create a retroactive carbon tax. Another bill that they will look at would allow the Commissioner of Public Service to modify building codes to mitigate climate change.

Agendas published weekly on the Legislature’s website are subject to change. The agenda for all the committees can be seen here.

Possible vote on Climate Superfund – S. 259 (Tuesday, House Committee on Judiciary) Sponsored by Sen. Anne Watson, D/P-Washington District. There are no other current sponsors.

In essence, this would be a retroactive carbon tax. It states, “Under the Program, an entity or a successor in interest to an entity that was engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2019, would be assessed a cost recovery demand for the entity’s share of fossil fuel extraction or refinement contributing to greenhouse gas-related costs in Vermont.”

There may be a vote. State Attorney General Charity Clark is scheduled to speak before any vote. Her office while under the leadership of former State Attorney William Sorrell has made unsuccessful attempts to seek money from energy companies that use carbon-energy.

Changing penalties associated with overdoses –  S. 58 (Wednesday, House Committee on Judiciary) Sponsored by Sen. Richard Sears Jr., D-Bennington.

There will be testimony most of the week and a possible vote on Thursday. It would “amend the definition of knowingly for purposes of liability in drug offenses; increase penalties for second and subsequent offenses for trafficking.”

It would also change how situations are dealt with when there is a death associated with a mixture of illicit drugs. It states, “In a prosecution for dispensing or selling a regulated drug with death resulting, prohibit using the fact that a substance contained more than one regulated drug from being a defense if the proximate cause of death is the use of the dispensed or sold substance containing more than one regulated drug.”

There are more initiatives in the bill.

Possible vote on employment protections and collective bargaining – S. 102 (Wednesday, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry) Sponsored by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, and others.

This deals with “expanding employment protections and collective bargaining rights.” It will be introduced by Rep. Thomas Stevens, R-Waterbury, the chair of the House Committee on General and Housing. Legislative Counsel Damien Leonard is invited. 

This bill is to “establish a good cause standard for termination of employment, require employers to provide severance pay to terminated employees, and permit employees or representative organizations to bring an enforcement action on behalf of the State for violations of the good cause termination requirement.”

Another portion deals with an employee’s right to speak up on certain issues. It “proposes to prohibit employers from taking adverse employment actions against an employee in relation to the employee’s exercise of free speech rights. This bill also proposes to permit agricultural and domestic workers to collectively bargain and to permit employees to elect a collective bargaining representative through card check elections.”

The House Committee on General and Housing will also be working on this bill most of the week, including they may have a vote.

Conditions of release  – S. 195 (Wednesday, House Committee on Corrections and Institutions) Sponsored by Sen. Brian Collamore, R-Rutland, and others.

This deals with “a defendant’s criminal record is considered in imposing conditions of release.”

The bill indicates that more offenses will be added to what judges may consider when setting conditions for release. It states that it will “add the number of offenses with which a defendant is charged and the recent history of pending charges against a defendant as explicit factors a court considers in imposing conditions of release.”

It also states, “In determining whether the defendant presents a risk of flight from prosecution, the judicial officer shall consider, in addition to any other factors, the seriousness of the offense charged and the number of offenses with which the person is charged.”

Getting more trade workers – S. 304 (Wednesday, House Committee on Education) Sponsored by the Senate Committee on Education.

This bill promotes technical education programs. Scott Farr, director and superintendent for the River Valley Technical Center School District is invited.

Part of the bill deals with funding for these centers. It states they should be “basing the tuition charged to a school district on the district’s prior year full-time equivalent student enrollment in a CTE center.”

Another portion requires all grade 6 through 8 students to visit the centers at least annually to be aware of those opportunities available. Governor Phil Scott has been an adamant supporter of getting more Vermonters in the trades.

Reading better – S. 204 (Thursday, House Committee on Education) Sponsored by Sen. Martine Gulick, D-Chittenden Central, and others.

This is for supporting “Vermont’s young readers through evidence-based literacy instruction.”

It may require more staffing for already financially challenged schools. It states “the Agency of Education to approve universal reading screeners for use by public school districts and approved independent schools.”

Nonetheless, Vermont’s students are scoring below the desired marks. This past September VDC wrote “Though a ten-point drop is pretty significant, the fact remains that about half of Vermont’s students were not able to read at grade level before the pandemic. The chart [with the article] shows a steady decline since 2018 for most grades, with all of them doing poorly across the years.

Building energy codes – S. 253 (Tuesday, House Committee on Environment and Energy) Sponsored by Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, and others.

This bill would “allow the residential building energy codes and the commercial building energy codes to be updated at the discretion of the Commissioner of Public Service.”

First thing in its findings section, it clarifies that this is about applying more green energy policies. It states “According to the 2020 State of Vermont Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Update and Forecast, home and business heating and cooling is the second largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Vermont.”

An initiative in this bill is to create a working group to implement this policy. It states, “There is created the Building Energy Code Working Group to recommend strategies for increasing compliance with the Residential Building Energy Standards (RBES) and Commercial Building Energy Standards (CBES).”

Stripping Fish and Wild Department of its powers S. 258 (Thursday, House Committee on Environment and Energy) Sponsored by Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, and others.

This bill states that they would first strip the Department of its policy-making powers so that it would just be in an advisory role and would reverse one of the decisions that the Department and lawmakers were at odds over last year, dealing with the hunting of coyotes with dogs. The other points they disagreed on were the rules for trapping.

Two citizens, a game warden, a former Fish & Wildlife Board member, and Mike Covey, the executive director for the Vermont Traditions Coalition are invited.

Public meetings in private? – S. 55 (Wednesday, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs) Sponsored by Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, and others.

This bill is “to amend the Open Meeting Law to authorize public bodies to meet through electronic means without designating a physical meeting location.”

Current public meeting law requires a physical location for meetings. Kate Larose, the Pandemic Equity Coordinator for the Vermont Center for Independent Living, is invited. Larose has previously made public comments arguing against the lifting of mask-wearing requirements during the years of COVID-19.

Rare Disease Advisory Council –  H. 573 (Thursday, House Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel) Sponsored by Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone, D/P-Burlington.

This council would “provide guidance and recommendations to the public, General Assembly, and other government agencies and departments, as necessary, regarding the needs of individuals living with rare diseases in Vermont.”

The handling of COVID-19 protocols including mandatory masking, the closing of public and private buildings, and pressure especially on working people to get the vaccines have all come under scrutiny in the following years as having been allegedly more damaging than helpful.

News talk show host Bill Maher has been one of the most recent critics to call for more accountability for mistakes made in public policy during COVID-19.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle