In this Statehouse Headliners, medical pot for every disease clears Vermont Senate, fossil fuel divestment is back, homeless bill of rights still alive, and proposed racism panel may have skin color quota.
In this week’s Statehouse Headliners, Vermont Yankee settlement gets near-unanimous approval, an environmental group calls state carbon policies ineffective and costly, and solar jobs decline 13 percent due to tariffs.
In this Statehouse Headliners, scores of bills addressing issues from drones and marijuana odor to carbon taxation and the statewide voter checklist survived the March 2 crossover deadline and remain under consideration for approval this year by the Vermont Legislature.
At the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, senators took testimony regarding whether to impose additional taxes and regulations for independent health care providers that aim to provide more affordable care than their hospital counterparts.
In this week’s Statehouse Headliners, a ban on coyote-hunting competitions passed the Vermont House, Gov. Phil Scott gets into gun control talks, and a pricey carbon tax study advances.
Guns and more guns was the issue of the day as lawmakers and high school students alike gathered at the Statehouse Thursday to call for new gun restrictions in response to the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
“If I had gotten any truth with the economic development folks that you’d be increasing our taxes by 24 percent, we would not have made that expansion. We would have invested outside Vermont.”
“This is very important for Vermonters to hear and know about,” Turner said. “They are going to see an increase in their income tax if we don’t fix this, and the majority is comfortable with that because they will have that much more money to spend.”
The House Government Operations Committee approved a bill Tuesday that imposes severe penalties for sharing Vermont’s voter checklist information with the federal government or other entities for cross-verification or voter registration purposes.
The Ethan Allen Institute hired an economist and former policy director for the Vermont Department of Public Service to crunch numbers and determine what economic impact the ESSEX carbon tax plan will have on the state. The outlook isn’t good for Vermonters.
The House Education Committee is hearing what’s working and what’s not with the state’s pre-K education law, which enables families to seek state payment for 10 hours of pre-K funding for 35 weeks in a year.
Less than 24 hours after the Senate Economic Development Committee approved a $15 minimum wage proposal, Republican leaders on Wednesday held a news conference to declare that the party is united against the bill.