Weekly Statehouse Roundup, week #1

The second year session of the 2011-12 biennium started off extremely well, with all legislative committees starting work, putting in many hours and receiving much new testimony.

During this opening week the House Commerce Committee reviewed bills passed in the 2011 session and got a brief rundown of issues and bills to be worked on this session, according to Rep. Lynn Dickinson from St. Albans Town. Anne Noonan, Commissioner of Labor, and her staff from the Department of Labor shared information with the Committee on a number of topics. Unemployment Insurance and Workers Comp bills from last year were reviewed and updates on issues facing the legislature this session were heard. Commissioner Noonan shared good news that Unemployment Insurance will require people with call back dates for seasonal work to do a work search after 10 weeks of unemployment insurance and use the “re-employment” help from the regional offices to continue to qualify for UI payments. Also, the Committee was pleased to hear the Unemployment Fund is becoming healthier faster than anticipated. The Committee brainstormed what works and what needs improvement regarding the Workers Compensation program. Regrettably, neither of two bills in the past two years have solved the many issues with Worker's Compensation. The Commissioner feels the program still is not user friendly for anyone. Act 52 (the Jobs Bill) from 2011 was reviewed with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. John Hollar and others presented the Vermont Insurance Business Transfer Act, a proposed bill designed to create jobs supporting the commercial insurance industry. The Committee reviewed Act 53, the telecom bill designed to loosen up the permit process in order to allow federal ARRA money to expand our broadband system in a timely manner.

Rep. Mike Hebert from Vernon reported that the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee has begun working on several bills. H.468 introduces Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and makes significant changes in the Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development (SPEED) and an includes expansion of 'standard offer'. Passage of this bill could result in a $350 million increase in the cost of electricity to rate payers over the next 20 years. H.475 makes changes to the Net Metering program. Caps are removed and credits which had been used to reduce costs of energy usage charges will now apply to all charges on electric bills. The costs associated with delivery of electricity would shift to non net metering customers. H.479, a new bill, would tax the storage of spent nuclear fuel storage in a new way. Currently the monies raised would be distributed as follows: 17% to the general fund; 11% to the education fund; 3% to the town of Vernon and the balance to the Clean Energy Development Fund. The Committee will begin reviewing this bill early next week.

House Institutions and Corrections Committee received a lot of information this week about the Vermont State Hospital and Gov. Shumlin's plans for its replacement, wrote Rep. Linda Myers from Essex. Jeb Spaulding, Secretary of Administration, and Patrick Flood, the new commissioner of Mental Health both testified to the Committee. Andy Pollito, Commissioner of Corrections, reported on prisons. The Committee took an all-day field trip to Chittenden County to look at three businesses with relatively new buildings to see how their layouts are working for their employees. Stops included NRG in Hinesburg, 7th Generation in Burlington and Green Mountain Power in Colchester. These buildings showcased innovative design and construction, and the Committee will re-examine how state buildings are configured during discussions of the Waterbury complex. A review of status of FY2012 Capital Bill projects began with a review from Mike Obuchowski, Commissioner of Buildings and General Services. Rob Evans, who is the the Agency of Natural Resources river corridor and flood plain manager, reported on planned flood mitigation in light of "Irene."

Rep. Bob Bouchard from Colchester reported the House General Housing and Military Affairs Committee started the week learning about housing losses due to Hurricane Irene with the bulk of discussion centering on mobile home loss. Later in the week the Committee learned about H.78 pertaining to laid off workers wages. The concern is that some companies have shut down without paying their employees in full, triggering a lot of questions, basically going back to the drawing board. H. 57 is designed to have the seller of a home pay for an energy audit at the time of sale. The bill received much resistance last year and was sent to a study committee during the off season. The recommendation now is to have the seller submit a report informing the purchaser about the house including windows insulation.

Rep. Norm McAllister, from the town of Franklin, reported the House Committee on Agriculture heard from the Secretary of Agriculture as he brought the committee up to date on the $20 million in agricultural loss due to Hurricane Irene. The Secretary shared concerns about feed in storage and possible problems yet to come. Darby Bradley spoke to the committee on changes to easements on conserved land and related proposals. The Attorney General reported on the status of the Dean Food Settlement and the pending litigation. The mobile poultry slaughter unit may be sold.

This week’s House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Hurricane Irene damages that effected landowners and towns incurring record cleanup costs. Testimony was taken on the effectiveness of ignition devices on cars where the intent is to prevent drivers under the influence of alcohol from starting the car. Committee reporter Rep. Vicki Strong from Derby pointed out that the Committee discussed priorities for the year and expects to have a productive year.

Rep. Anne Donahue from Northfield summarized the week's work done by the House Human Services Committee. The Budget Adjustment bill will come to the House floor shortly, so the Committee reviewed the administration requests for amending the Drug Monitoring system. This system was designed for doctors to intervene with possible patient addictions, and open it the Monitoring system for police to scan for possible criminal offenses. Also reviewed by the Committee were initial assorted topics on Vermont's mental health system and whether the plan proposed by the administration meets the needs of Vermonters in crisis. The committee will be devoting the majority of time over the next few weeks to an assignment to deliver a bill to the Senate by the end of the month. Other Committees including Appropriations, Corrections and Institutions will have very major roles in the new bill along with the Health Care Committee. The bill will suggest all aspects of new spending related to expanded services to attempt to partially compensate for the loss of the Vermont State Hospital. This new bill will stand alone, not be in the Budget Adjustment bill.

Rep. Oliver Olsen from Jamaica reported on one of the topics studied this week by the House Ways and Means Committee. He writes that a draft report on Vermont's education finance system was presented by Dr. Lawrence Picus. The report was commissioned by the Legislature last year, and was intended to look at how well Vermont's education finance system was working against the goals that were established within Act 60/68, as well as some comparisons with other states. Unfortunately, the scope of the report was tailored to look at how the current system is working against narrow objectives within Act 60/68. So, although some of the headlines have proclaimed that the current funding system is working well, the qualifier is that the system is working within the parameters that the Legislature established within Act 60/68. Dr. Picus was careful to qualify this statement throughout his presentation. In other words, we should not interpret this to mean that the funding system is working well, compared to alternatives that might exist. The Picus report did provide concrete data that clearly shows that we could be doing a much better job educating our students with the significant tax dollars we collect. Rep. Olsen relates these key findings:

From 1999/2000 to 2000/2011, Vermont ranked #1 in the country for the growth in K-12 per-pupil spending - 149% cumulative growth (pg. 98);
For the same time period, Vermont ranked #49 in the country for the change in student enrollment - while many states experienced growth, Vermont experienced a 18% reduction in student enrollment (pg. 101);
New Hampshire spends 20% less per pupil than Vermont (pg. 98), yet its students consistently score better than Vermont students on math and reading exams (pg. 29);
Despite the extraordinary growth in per-pupil expenditures, Vermont's results have been relatively flat, or exhibit only modest increases, over
the past five years across all subjects (pg. 29);
Vermont students are losing ground compared to other New England states - both New Hampshire and Rhode Island have seen greater improvement in student test scores in the past five years (pg. 30).

from,
Rep. Carolyn Branagan
Franklin-1, Fairfax/Georgia
Vermont House of Representatives