Roper: Green reality – ripping off the poor to subsidize the rich
In the end, three lower income people ended up getting the rebate ($5,400), as opposed to 77 higher income people who got rebates totaling nearly $80,000.
Keelan: Bennington’s Trojan horse — the energy committee
On the surface, the stated purpose for creating such a committee is commendable: suggest ways to save energy, assist with reducing the communities’ greenhouse gas emissions and foster ways to utilize renewable energy resources. But what is the hidden agenda of the energy committee?
LaMontagne: Vermont is in trouble
We are facing a future where fewer workers, earning nearly the lowest relative wages in the country, are saddled with the task of shouldering ever-increasing liabilities. Our shrinking and aging population will only further increase our costs and hinder our ability to dig ourselves out of this financial hole.
Letters to legislators: Firearm purchase waiting periods harm and jeopardize Vermonters
S.169 firearm purchase waiting periods affirmatively harm and jeopardize a significant number of innocent, law-abiding Vermonters whose self-defense needs are innate, reflexive and instinctive.
McClaughry: The myth of voter suppression
“The black voter turnout rate has grown steadily since the 1990s. This has occurred notwithstanding an increase in state voter-ID requirements over the same period.”
Frenier: Abortion amendment is too one-sided
Luckily, we have two more stages in this constitutional amendment process — another legislative round in 2021, and a full-fledged referendum to the public if the legislation passes a second time. Time to start talking to our neighbors.
California’s sex ed guidelines suggest asking kindergartners what gender they identify as
Hundreds of parents protested the new framework — which includes everything from lessons in self-pleasure to transgenderism. The guidelines even go so far as to encourage kindergarteners to think about whether they might identify with another gender.
Flemming: Public policy informed by science, not Nixonesque fear-mongering
Treating chemicals with respect instead of fear will encourage future chemists and biologists to develop health policy and environmental solutions that will give us a cleaner and safer world.
Roper: A modest compromise on the $15 minimum wage
Pass a law mandating that workers earning less than $15 an hour make ends meet within their household budgets at the current minimum wage of $10.78. Just mandate that they buy more food, shelter, heat, etc. with the resources they have.
Moore: Approval of Hampton Inn by Act 250 environmental commission welcome news
This is exactly the type of clean, positive development that the region needs. The Act 250 approval is the last in a long list of approvals applied for and granted, including the Montpelier Development Review Board permits and all relevant state permits.
Green New Deal is a ‘guise’ to usher in socialism, lawmaker warns
Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee say Democrats’ Green New Deal would be an economic wrecking ball.
Statehouse Headliners: Some Dems doubt waiting period will prevent suicides
It seems clear that many Democrats have deep reservations about the effectiveness of something that declares all gun buyers guilty before innocent, victims of domestic violence too fragile to make a decision whether to buy a gun for self defense, and all others too “impulsive” to pursue the means for defending themselves and their families.