After reaching what had been described as “a crisis,” efforts to shore up staff shortages within each of Vermont’s six corrections facilities have been fruitful, according to a state official.
I have often spoken on overregulation in Vermont. Some is good in order to protect citizens, plants, food, animals, etc. from disease, invasive species, insects, pollution and water. Act 250, however, is a hinderance to farm and forest operations.
What was striking about the press conference, apart from the remarkably ambitious timetable, was the fact that most of the advocates of this bill would benefit financially from the policy should it become law.
Vermont is rushing rashly into a permanent universal student meals program that will cost taxpayers an estimated $27 million yearly. This sudden push is being driven by a handful of political activists, while ignoring the sources and impacts of funding the program.
Watermark paper, magnetic ink, a greater segregation of duties and increased proof of residency protocols are the focus of a newly introduced election security bill introduced into the New Hampshire General Assembly.
The bill targets independent truckers who aren’t on the payrolls of large unionized corporations. The Teamsters union is keen on this because they want the dues money to bankroll the campaigns of candidates who will pass ever more pro-union legislation. For independent truckers and small non-union companies, it’s “join the union or stop trucking.”
Despite Ethan Allen Institute estimates of a surcharge on heating fuel of as much as $4.00 per gallon which will unravel implementation of the AHA, the committee continues to seek advice on how to prevent the program from being opposed on legal grounds.
Less than two weeks after dismissing the gas stove furor as little more than tinfoil hat conspiracies, Granholm’s own agency proposed energy efficiency standards that ignited opposition from the gas appliance industry.
Keep in mind that of Vermont’s roughly $8 billion annual budget, roughly $6 billion is paid for with federal dollars, and of that $6 billion about half is “one-time” emergency funds. Vermont taxpayers are only required so far to pony up a little more than $2 billion of all that spending — and that is tapping us out.
A House lawmaker this week introduced a bill to protect the “academic freedom of public educators” who teach their personal beliefs regarding gender, race and other controversial topics in Vermont’s schools.
As federal funding for Vermont’s COVID-era school meal program is about to run dry, hunger advocates are pressing state lawmakers to keep the free meals going using Vermont tax dollars.
The clean heat standard bill, S.5, would put Vermont’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in charge of figuring out how the program would actually work — after the bill becomes law — and managing it once in place. This will be a huge, complicated, expensive task.