By Guy Page

Republican members of the Vermont House of Representatives this morning said they will introduce a measure on the House floor today to allow properties enrolled in the Current Use program to count towards Vermont’s 50% conservation of total land area by 2050. 

The challenge takes on the U.N.-initiated goal set by Act 59 – one of the progressive-ish laws sponsored by House Environment Chair Amy Sheldon (D-Middlebury) passed during the era of the Democrat supermajority.  

The Current Use program taxes farm and forestry on their use value, not their (typically much higher) development value. Although participation in Current Use grows annually, it’s not technically ‘permanent,’ as required by Act 59. The likely proposed change – as yet opposed by the Legislature’s climate hawks – would delete the mandate for ‘permanent’ conservation. 

Shout out to VDC from…. John Walters? And speaking of challenges to Vermont’s conservation law, VDC got a shout-out from the state’s most progressive political commentator on its coverage of Democrats joining Republicans in voting last week to repeal the Road Rule and parts of Act 181. In his Vermont Political Observer column, the former Seven Days/VT Digger/Michigan Public Radio journo quoted VDC quoting the quotable Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell):

“‘In all of my 18 years, I can’t remember that happening,’ Republican Rep. Mark Higley told the Vermont Daily Chronicle — the only media outlet to report on Wednesday’s events as a noteworthy, standalone story. Which is a depressing statement on the health of our media ecosystem, but we’ll get to that later.”

Walters concluded of the media coverage about the seismic Democrat rank and file defection in the face of overwhelming public pressure from rural Vermonters, “it was paltry and inadequate. None of our media outlets, VTDigger included, have enough Statehouse reporters to cover the waterfront and keep an eye for unexpected developments. This would have been a hot steaming plate of red meat for political columnists — but of course, there are no political columnists in Vermont anymore.”

Well, I dunno, John. You and Rob Roper are slicing and dicing with the best of ‘em. 

Non-citizen voting proposed for LA – As goes Burlington, Montpelier, and Winooski, so goes Los Angeles? The nation’s second largest city may see non-citizen voting in municipal elections, if a proposal by a city councilor is approved. 

According to a May 4 news article in the Center Square, “The city and county of San Francisco allows noncitizens to vote in local school board elections. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Oakland residents in Alameda County approved a 2022 measure to allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections. Noncitizen residents in Washington, D.C., can vote in all local elections. Noncitizens also may vote in municipal elections in the Vermont cities of Montpelier, Winooski and Burlington, as well as in 16 municipalities in Maryland.”

Scheduled for House floor action this morning:

S. 243 distributes funds to the Vermont Language Justice Project. Proposed amendments to this bill would take the responsibility and $150,000 funding for multi-lingual disaster communications from the Office of Racial Equity and give it to the Dept. of Health

H.559 requires more training for the Vermont Parole Board, and requires informing victims of Parole Board decisions. 

Proposal 4 Declaration of rights; government for the people; equality of rights, is on today’s ‘notice calendar’ and is likely to come to the floor tomorrow. That floor discussion will likely be peppered with questions about impact on reparations (based on comment by Senate Judiciary Chair Nader Hashim) and non-citizen voting in municipal elections, among others.  

State House spotlight 

On May 11, Governor Scott signed bills of the following titles:

• H.410, calculation of recidivism and other related criminology measures, creates four categories for repeat violent offenders: Class 1 repeat violence: new violent conviction at least 1 year after sentencing. Class 2 repeat violence: new violent conviction at least 3 years after. Class 3 repeat violence: new violent conviction at least 5 years after. Class 4 repeat violence: new violent conviction at least 10 years after.
• H.519, Vermont State Employees’ Retirement System Group G membership, authorizes the Town of Randolph Police Department to enroll in the Vermont State Employees’ Retirement System.

Abenaki celebration on State House lawn today – The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs (VCNAA) invites the public to attend the Vermont Abenaki Arts & Culture Celebration on Tuesday, May 12 from noon – 3 PM on the Vermont Statehouse Lawn in Montpelier. This free, public event offers an opportunity to celebrate and learn about the rich cultural heritage of Vermont’s Abenaki people. 

The celebration will feature a variety of cultural demonstrations led by Abenaki artisans and culture bearers, highlighting traditional knowledge, skills, and creative practices. Attendees can experience drumming and singing, learn traditional crafts and skills, and participate in a variety of other activities. Scheduled demonstrations include cornmeal preparation, ash log pounding, basket weaving, wood carving, twining and more. The celebration is designed to foster greater awareness and appreciation of Abenaki culture while creating a welcoming space for community members to connect with their Abenaki neighbors.