A Democratic member of the Vermont House of Representatives told fellow Democrats yesterday he strongly opposes S.54, the legalization of commercial cultivation, production, sale and taxation of marijuana.
A $5 million spending hike would allow the four Vermont State Colleges to keep all campuses open, freeze tuition for the second straight year, maintain student programs and services, and continue valuable innovation, VSC officials told about 30 legislators at a breakfast in Montpelier.
This week state lawmakers will consider a pay hike for the House speaker, Senate president pro tempore, and committee chairs, and also discuss access to contraception and the $96 million cost of the Blittersdorf commuter rail between Montpelier and Barre.
A proposal to make the Vermont Constitution gender-neutral was introduced into the Vermont Senate late last week and sent to the Government Operations Committee.
Vermont’s senior human trafficking official strongly opposes a bill to legalize prostitution, she told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
On the Legislature’s first day back, the “bill mill” resumed at a rapid pace as House Democratic Caucus leaders gave members two minutes each to pitch new ideas to would-be co-sponsors.
House Education Committee Chair Kate Webb (D-Shelburne) a month ago emailed the Vermont Daily Chronicle a preliminary bullet list of 2020 committee priorities.
Last weekend’s shooting at a Texas church and stabbings at a New Jersey Hannukah celebration demonstrate that houses of worship must be able to defend themselves from murderous attackers, Vermont Traditions Coalition Firearms Policy Expert Bill Moore said in an interview following the attacks.
The Vermont Legislature reconvenes Tuesday, Jan. 7 for the second year of the 2019-20 biennium. Here are key issues that may get attention, as indicated by between-session legislative committee activity and media reports.
Members of the Vermont House Judiciary Committee have sponsored extensive legislation on racial bias, criminal sentencing, domestic violence, drug possession, gun restrictions, and other issues related to courts and crime.
The percentage of Vermonters in their prime working years of ages 25-64 will drop below 50 percent by 2030, a new demographic study says. As Vermont gets older and grayer, there will be employment and state revenue consequences.
A new report from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government says cars are bad, bad, bad for the economy. How bad? In Massachusetts alone, the study says, the “car culture” costs residents $64 billion per year.