On Tuesday, top lawmakers met in the Cedar Creek Room at the Statehouse to urge Gov. Phil Scott to veto controversial S.55 gun legislation and sign less objectionable gun bills instead.
In this week’s Statehouse Headliners, pot smoking leads to more opioid abuse, lawmakers weigh having Vermont public defenders advise immigrants in federal court and a bill would make felony heroin and coke possession a misdemeanor.
If the school safety measures discussed Wednesday in the House Education Committee are any indication, there will likely be no immediate armed resistance to protect children if an active shooter steps onto a school campus in Vermont.
Last week, the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs took testimony on S.40, a bill that would give Vermont a $15 minimum wage by 2024. Watch video of the committee hearings held at the Vermont Statehouse.
The Vermont Senate on Friday afternoon passed sweeping gun control regulations, setting the stage for quick approval from Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who praised lawmakers and said he supports the measure.
We are concerned about six weeks of paid family leave, we continue to oppose increasing the minimum wage, and we’re against transferring partial funding of education to a new income tax surcharge. We also oppose broad liability for toxic substances.
The little bill that began as a measure for confiscated firearms storage has morphed into an all-encompassing gun control regulation, with the latest changes coming Tuesday as House members voted 89-54 to approve S.55 and send it back to the Senate.
In this week’s Statehouse Headliners, towns can’t “just say no” to pot dispensaries, the Scott administration opposes carbon tax money in the budget, a Mormon-founded super-community gets vote of no confidence, and other states say no to physician-prescribed death.
The House Committee on General, Housing, and Military Affairs on Wednesday examined raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, despite signals from the governor that such a measure would get a veto if gets to his desk.
Just days after Vermont’s pro-gun coalition issued a joint complaint to House leaders regarding a lack of accessibility to lawmakers, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday passed S.55, which includes a handful of significant restrictions on Second Amendment rights.
The Vermont Poverty Council began ten years ago and its tenure is up. Now it faces a crossroads, and lawmakers must decide if it has a future, and what that future might be.
If the conclusions presented to House lawmakers last week are indicative of what’s to come on pre-kindergarten programs, Vermonters can expect to see increased calls for expanding early education on the taxpayer dime.