By Guy Page

After the news broke that the New York Supreme Court struck down New York City’s non-citizen voting ordinance, some Vermonters emailed VDC wondering if Vermont’s high court might follow suit on Montpelier, Burlington, and Winooski non-citizen voting ordinances. 

In fact, it already has: The Vermont Supreme Court in January, 2023 rejected a Republican National Party lawsuit to invalidate the ordinances.  The U.S. Constitution empowers states to run elections as they see fit (a source of Blue State voter angst about voter ID, etc.).

Senate roll calls thus far have been a mixed bag of winners and losers. Here’s a Senate roll call tally, thus far:

S.45, protection from nuisance suits for agricultural activities, passed 25-5 on March 18. The dissenters were Alison Clarkson of Windsor, Martine Gulick of Chittenden-Central, Tanya Vyhovsky of Chittenden-Central, Anne Watson of Washington, and Becca White of Windsor.

S.69, age appropriate code bill meant to battle youth internet addiction, saw a March 12 25-5 roll call more reminiscent of the recent past, in which the GOP was the tiny, small majority. Voting no were Sens. Beck, Ingalls, Norris, Douglass and Hart. 

Douglass explained: “I do not believe that this bill will accurately identify minors. We were told multiple times that age verification methods are very difficult, if not impossible, to implement. The Attorney General is directed to adopt rules for age verification, but prioritize user privacy and accessibility over the accuracy of the age verification. I want to solve the digital addictions problem, and I was initially excited to see this bill, but passing will hold off our attention on crafting a bill that will work as intended.”

H.141, the Budget Adjustment Bill, on February 25 saw a more typical Dem Yes, GOP No vote of 18-12.

S.44, authorization for the governor to have legislative approval to enter into immigration agreements, passed 29-1, with Franklin County Sen. Robert Norris the only dissenter. 

PR 3, the constitutional amendment for the right to collective bargaining, passed unanimously. 

Senate opposes Guv Public Safety reorg – The Senate on March 19 adopted a S.R.10, a resolution opposing Gov. Phil Scott’s proposed reorganization of the Department of Public Safety into the Agency of Public Safety. Specifically, the resolution says the reorg should go through the legislative process.