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TexasTowelie's JournalSenators reject governor's idea to delay school voting
MONTPELIER - Gov. Phil Scott's idea to delay school budget voting found no support Tuesday at a key Senate committee, even among the panel's two Republican members.
The Senate Education Committee voted 6-0 to reject the Republican governor's idea of holding all Vermont school budget votes on May 23, rather than on Town Meeting Day in March. The date change is at the heart of the governor's budget and would give school boards more time to comply with strict limits on education spending.
The governor has asked lawmakers to make a quick decision on the date change before considering his overall education package. He argues that a May vote would give school districts "more opportunity" to talk with their communities about spending.
"I’m not sure I’m understanding what the downside is to that," Scott said at a news conference last week.
Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/31/senators-reject-gov-phil-scott-idea-delay-school-budget-vote/97291666/
Hundreds rally in Burlington to support refugees
First, Enrique Belcazar read a statement in Spanish, then Will Lambek spoke in English. Their message was the same, in support of refugees coming to America and in opposition to new President Donald Trump’s restrictions on immigration.
“Immigration is a human right,” Lambek said, translating Belcazar’s words, “and you can’t trump human rights.”
The two men from the Burlington-based organization Migrant Justice were among an estimated 700 people in the crowd Tuesday night at Burlington’s City Hall Park. They gathered to protest restrictions on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, affecting refugees from war-ravaged nations such as Iraq and Syria.
Trump says his executive order is necessary to keep potential terrorists from entering the United States. A statement read at the rally from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in opposing Trump's plan says America is a nation of immigrants with a history of welcoming the oppressed. Opponents also argue that the restrictions do nothing to make the country safer.
Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2017/01/31/hundreds-rally-burlington-support-refugees/97253776/
Senator: Army Corps Told to Approve Dakota Pipeline Easement
Source: AP
The Army Corps of Engineers was ordered to allow construction of the Dakota Access pipeline to proceed under a disputed Missouri River crossing, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said on Tuesday, the latest twist in a months-long legal battle over the $3.8 billion project.
The Standing Rock Sioux, whose opposition to the project attracted thousands of supporters from around the country to North Dakota, immediately vowed to again go to court to stop it.
Hoeven announced late Tuesday that the acting Secretary of the Army, Robert Speer, had directed the Army Corps of Engineers to "proceed" with an easement necessary to complete the pipeline. Hoeven said he also spoke with Vice President Mike Pence, just a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order signaling his support for the project.
A spokesman for the U.S. Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Hoeven spokesman Don Canton says that Speer's move means the easement "isn't quite issued yet, but they plan to approve it" within days.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/senator-army-corp-told-approve-dakota-pipeline-easement-45178876
Report shows roughly $160 million state surplus last year
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Strong state revenues allowed New Hampshire to end the last fiscal year with a nearly $160 million surplus.
The final numbers are part of the state's annual financial report released Tuesday that covers the year ending June 30, 2016. The report says $88.5 million of the surplus went into the state's general fund, while about $70 million went into the Rainy Day fund, giving it a much higher balance than normal.
Business taxes performed roughly 23 percent better than expected. The tax on rooms and meals also came in ahead of projections.
Now in the budget's second year, the state is projecting a shortfall in the health department. The budget ends June 30. Gov. Chris Sununu will present his plan for the next two-year budget next week.
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/regional/report-shows-roughly-million-state-surplus-last-year/article_e9db3eb0-9d29-5726-ba4d-e47e05dff181.html
House members propose bill to legalize marijuana
A House bill would legalize small amounts of marijuana and marijuana plants without creating a regulated market.
The bill, put forward by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, would remove all civil and criminal penalties for adult possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana. It would also allow adults to grow a total of two mature marijuana plants and seven immature plants per household.
It does not create any sort of regulatory structure to establish a legal market for marijuana sales.
The proposal is similar to the model adopted in Washington, D.C., in February 2015, after voters approved legalization by ballot initiative the previous November.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/31/house-members-propose-bill-legalize-marijuana/
Vermont Yankee to move fuel in spring
BRATTLEBORO – Vermont Yankee’s radioactive spent fuel soon will be on the move.
In April, a contractor will begin loading the shut-down Vernon nuclear plant’s fuel into sealed casks, which will be placed on a concrete pad.
The fuel is not going far: The pad is a short walk from the plant’s reactor building, where thousands of spent fuel assemblies currently are stored.
But the move is important for two reasons. It’s central to a proposed sale of Vermont Yankee, and it also will be a closely watched, tightly controlled transfer of hazardous material.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/27/vermont-yankee-move-fuel-spring/
Rutland firefighters union turns against chief
RUTLAND — The city firefighters union issued a vote of no confidence in its fire chief last week, further complicating efforts to resolve a dispute over the department’s budget.
According to union President Seth Bride, members of the union’s executive board waited for two hours with their laptops open in anticipation of an email from Chief Michael Jones explaining a proposed restructuring plan. It didn’t come.
Rutland fire department
The following day, just a few hours before a special Board of Aldermen meeting to discuss the fire budget, Mayor Chris Louras and Jones distributed a three-page draft of the plan aimed at overhauling the department’s approach to fire safety and prevention.
The plan calls for the appointment of an assistant chief who “will act as a coach, mentor, and a liaison between management and labor,” and a fire prevention training officer who will focus on public safety and community outreach.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/30/rutland-firefighters-union-turns-chief/
Gov. Scott promises to fight Trump orders
RUTLAND — Vermont leaders say they will push back against President Donald Trump’s executive order closing the borders to people from seven Muslim nations.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott, Congressman Peter Welch, D-Vt., and T.J. Donovan, the Vermont attorney general, say the order is immoral and possibly unconstitutional.
Scott issued a strongly worded rebuke of the president’s order suspending the nation’s refugee resettlement program for 120 days and indefinitely barring Syrian refugees from entering the country.
He spoke in Rutland on Monday where up to 100 refugees from Syria and Iraq were to be settled in the coming weeks. Trump’s ban indefinitely halts the resettlement of refugees in Rutland until the federal government determines that their admission is “consistent with the national interest.” The first two families arrived earlier this month, but officials say they may now be the last.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/31/scott-promises-fight-trump-orders/
Lawmakers seek to lessen penalties for minor drug possession
A proposal from key lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee would reclassify possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other drugs as a misdemeanor, rather than a felony.
The bill, offered with bipartisan support from the three officers of the committee, aims to reduce the penalties for drug possession so addicts won’t be slammed with felony charges if they are found to be carrying a daily dosage.
Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, who chairs the committee, said the proposal is part of a broader effort her committee is making to review how well the criminal justice system is functioning and serving the state.
“What we’re doing now in terms of incarcerating people, it’s not effective,” Grad said.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/31/lawmakers-seek-to-lessen-penalties-for-minor-drug-possession/
Education panel rejects key part of Gov. Scotts budget plan
The Senate Committee on Education sent a strong negative message Tuesday on the chances of the governor’s education overhaul plan passing this year, recommending towns not postpone voting on their school budgets from March until May as the governor had hoped.
Committee Chair Philip Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, said he took the straw poll to see if his committee, after listening to constituents and limited testimony from the administration, believed it was feasible or desirable to shift school budget votes from Town Meeting Day to May 23, as Gov. Phil Scott called for in his budget address last week.
The vote was unanimous, 6 to 0, with the two Republican members, Sen. Joe Benning, of Caledonia, and Sen. Kevin Mullen, of Rutland, voting no but “with regret.”
Moving the vote on school budgets from March to May was key to Scott’s plan because it depends on communities level funding their school budgets for next year. Many communities have been working on their budgets and were prepared to send them to the printers soon for March voting.
Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/31/education-panel-rejects-key-part-of-scotts-budget-plan/
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