Vermont State News

Rep. Laura Sibilia: Looking for state accountability on education spending

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000

This commentary is by Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover.

For years, a multitude of factors beyond the control of school districts have been affecting school budgets and tax rates: demographic shifts, pandemic disruptions, the end of federal funding and deeply flawed equity calculations in the education finance mechanism.

Gov. Phil Scott and the Legislature have regularly addressed these challenges by buying down tax rates one year at a time, potentially delaying difficult budget discussions.

In addition to these challenges, there is a lineup of state-directed spending and unfunded mandates passed by the Legislature and supported by the governor. PCB remediation, universal school meals, teacher pension commitments and funds required to hold harmless districts seeing a correction in their weights added more than $100 million in state-directed spending last year, which directly affected the Education Fund.

Furthermore, initiatives such as early college, flexible pathways and payments to private after-school facilities decrease funding and programming in the public school system, leading to increased tax rates.

Despite these challenges, little has been done by state leadership to alleviate the burden on schools and taxpayers.

State leaders aren’t acknowledging our role in exacerbating these challenges while also repeatedly making expenditures out of the education fund without paying for the spending. The governor’s steadfast opposition to taxes and fees makes support unlikely for legislative proposals to raise taxes to cover state-directed education spending.

The result is property taxes are required to fill the gap.

Overwhelmed districts are also challenged to secure the necessary technical support to address myriad modernization and building challenges. The governor’s administration has experienced vacancies throughout its agencies and departments including at the Agency of Education. The governor’s recent nomination of a new education secretary, a year after Dan French’s departure, was long overdue. The State Board of Education has been excessively focused on private school rules.

As the session draws to a close, legislators have been asked for suggestions on how to address the funding of education. I made suggestions related to accountability and transparency. In the final education bill of the year, the education tax bill, or Yield Bill, I will also be proposing an amendment that state-directed spending proposals be considered in standalone bills and pass with a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the House.

I’ll also propose greater transparency on state-directed spending in the annual Dec. 1 letter from the tax commissioner. This information could help state leaders be more accountable for their impact on property tax rates.

While performative gestures of concern about property tax increases are common, leadership in this arena is lacking across the board. It’s time for the Legislature and the governor to acknowledge underlying issues, differentiate between local and state-directed spending, and ensure consistent oversight of our publicly funded education system.

We need to stop short-term tweaks and fixes like buying down rates and establish a public process to address the sustainability, accountability and quality of our public education system.

Education investments are the single most important public investments our communities make in the future, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that our education system receives the support and oversight it deserves, at the local and state levels.

Please reach out to your elected leaders and ask them to pay for state-directed spending, stop short-term fixes of the finance system, and put a public process in place to identify and implement sustainable solutions that prioritize the needs of students and taxpayers alike.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rep. Laura Sibilia: Looking for state accountability on education spending.

Young Writers Project: ‘Thirteen ways of looking at a goldfinch’

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000

“Goldfinch,” by Lauren McCabe, 17, of South Burlington.

Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers and artists, which has been based in Vermont since 2006. Each week, VTDigger features the writing and art of young Vermonters who publish their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for 12- to 18-year-olds. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org and 802-324-9538.

If spring is the season that best reminds us to look around and welcome life’s subtle moments and tiny joys, then it is the season for all our senses to open up — for our ears to perk up to April birdsong and our eyes to revel in the flashes of color darting between the branches. Inspired by a personal favorite — Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” — this week’s featured poet, Sela Morgenstein Fuerst of South Burlington, considers the humble goldfinch in as many ways.

Thirteen ways of looking at a goldfinch

Sela Morgenstein Fuerst, 10, South Burlington

Among the deathly pale hills

suffocating in their blanket of snow,

the only thing moving was the wing of the goldfinch.

II.

My mind was always pulling,

tearing itself apart to ride down three different roads,

and on each path was a goldfinch.

III.

The goldfinch soared in the autumn sky,

the winds no match for its clever eye.

IV.

Humankind and nature

are one.

Humankind and nature and the goldfinch

are one.

The view from the top of the mountain

wowed me, and widened my eyes.

The goldfinch’s whistle

stole my breath away.

VI.

The trees are naked now,

trying to hide their unfashionably empty branches,

gray against the blindingly white snow.

One has no need.

It is the tree where the goldfinch rests.

VII.

Oh, great rabbis and scholars

of the villages and temples of old,

why do you speak of jeweled birds?

You have no need for ruby-adorned mechanical things,

for the goldfinch walks at your feet.

VIII.

I know of stories, of songs,

of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

Yet I know, too,

that the goldfinch is involved in what I know.

IX.

When the goldfinch

flies out of sight,

I am compelled by a sudden urge

to follow its golden wings to the ends of the Earth.

When in sight

of goldfinches flying in the evening light,

even the heartless, the unfeeling,

would cry out in awe.

XI.

He rode around Vermont

on a chestnut horse, with unsightly yellow reins.

Suddenly, a fear overtook him:

He mistook the limp, little reins

for a goldfinch.

XII.

The Earth is turning,

and the river is moving.

The goldfinch will be flying.

XIII.

It was winter, again.

It had been snowing;

it was going to snow again.

The goldfinch sat

in the cedar limbs.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Young Writers Project: ‘Thirteen ways of looking at a goldfinch’.

Windsor jam company’s expansion plans bear fruit

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 12:01:00 +0000

A customer tries a few of the many samples at Blake Hill Preserves in Windsor on Tuesday. As part of a larger financing package, the business is applying for funding through the Town of Windsor to support a $2.7 million facility expansion in Artisan Park. Photo by Jennifer Hauck/Valley News

This story by Patrick Adrian was first published by the Valley News on April 11.

WINDSOR — A fruit preserves manufacturer in Artisans Park is close to financing a $2.7 million expansion of their building to keep pace with increasing customer demand.

Blake Hill Preserves, which makes specialty jams, marmalades and condiments, seeks to build a 6,700-square-foot addition to their 6,000-square-foot facility at 60 Artisans Way. The company produces, packages and distributes over 80 varieties of sweet, spicy and savory preserves to stores and customers around the country.

Since moving to Artisans Park in 2016, the company has grown from 10 employees to a staff of 45 people. Last year Blake Hill produced over one million units of preserves and shipped 983 pallets and over 9,300 packages of product orders — about four times the company’s production volume seven years ago.

“We’ve filled up that building space pretty quickly. And in recent years, we’ve been bursting at the seams,” said Vicky Allard, who co-owns Blake Hill Preserves with Joe Hanglin, her husband and business partner.

The addition will increase their combined building space to 12,700 square feet and will include a mezzanine for offices and meetings, and an expansion of their specialty preserves store.

In the meantime, to make more space for production, packaging and ingredient storage, Blake Hill has had to lease three additional buildings, including one for offices and two for warehouses. Two of the buildings are located in Artisan’s Park and the other is in downtown Windsor.

“We’re constantly shuffling back and forth between buildings,” Allard said in a phone interview. “We will still keep the warehouse space in downtown Windsor, but everything else we will be able to consolidate into our extended building.”

Allard and Hanglin started Blake Hill Preserves in 2009 as a small business from their home in Grafton.

The business came about unintentionally, after a family friend snuck some of Allard’s homemade jams from the pantry and brought them to the village store, Allard said.

“He came back with the Sunday morning newspaper and an unexpected order from the store for everything I had made,” Allard said. “So it was totally unexpected but I thought that it would be fun (to start selling them).”

Allard, who is originally from England, began making jams and chutneys in Grafton for personal enjoyment, as it rekindled her childhood memories of making preserves with her family. She harvested apples or wild blackberries that grew on her property, or bought fresh-picked fruit from farmers markets.

In 2012, as the preserves began to draw attention from customers outside of Vermont, the couple built a small commercial kitchen on their property. They switched from making jar labels by hand to an automated labeling machine and eventually had six employees.

“We expected that kitchen to last us a long time but we were getting interest in orders from some big national accounts and we just outgrew that space really fast,” Allard said.

Supermarket chains that carry Blake Hill products include Whole Foods and Kroger, which operates over 2,700 grocery stores nationwide.

Artisans Park, located on Route 12 close to Interstate 91, is also home to Harpoon Brewery, Simon Pearce, SILO Distillery, Path of Life Sculpture Garden, Great River Outfitters, Artisan Eats and Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company Market.

“We’re all very excited for their plans to expand,” Artisans Park owner Terry McDonnell said in an interview. “It’s a win-win all around and a success story for Artisans Park, Blake Hill Preserves and the state.”

With a larger store at Artisans Park, Allard said she hopes to provide events that help customers think creatively about their use of preserves, such as cheese and jam pairings, or to showcase recipes that incorporate different types of jams.

To finance the project, Blake Hill has received approval for loans from Mascoma Bank as well as three low-interest lending programs — Vermont Economic Development Authority, Springfield Regional Development Corporation and the Town of Windsor.

Vermont Economic Development Authority is a statewide financial lender that provides low-interest loans to help support commercial startup or expansion projects.

Springfield Regional Development Corporation (SRDC), a private, nonprofit organization that serves towns in southern Windsor County, also built Blake Hill’s current building in Artisan’s Park, which it leases to Blake Hill under a lease-to-own agreement. A portion of the financial package for the expansion also will fund Blake Hill’s purchase of its existing building.

“This project allows them to make the next step in their company’s growth and we are happy to be there for them,” said Bob Flint, executive director of SRDC.

Blake submitted a business plan to lenders as part of the loan review process, though Allard declined to discuss the company’s financial earnings in the interview.

The Windsor Selectboard approved a $50,000 loan to Blake Hill from the town revolving loan fund at a meeting on March 27.

The fund is intended as an economic development tool to support startup or growing businesses in town, Town Manager Tom Marsh said in a phone interview. The loans have more flexible payment terms than a traditional bank loan and are meant to “help close the financial gap” needed by the borrower.

Other businesses that have used the town loan fund include Simon Pearce and SILO. Blake Hill also borrowed $50,000 — which the company has since repaid — from the town fund in 2016 to support its relocation to Artisans Park, Marsh said.

The Windsor loan includes a five-year term and a one-time balloon payment, with 5% interest. The structure of the loan is intended to lessen the amount of the repayments during the first five years, Marsh said.

“Sometimes the loan program can be the difference between a business moving here or choosing somewhere else,” Marsh said.

The loans from the lenders have been approved but still need to close, said Flint.

Allard said they hope to complete the building expansion by November.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Windsor jam company’s expansion plans bear fruit.

Amid mud season, a Vermonter finds the Boston Marathon to be just the rush

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 10:01:00 +0000

Timothy Noonan of Montpelier is a veteran runner who will be competing in the Boston Marathon on Monday. Seen at home on Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Vermonter Tim Noonan knows the long slog of winter, having seen this April spring more snow than showers.

The 67-year-old Montpelier resident is also well aware of the endurance test of life, having retired after a four-decade career resolving employment disputes as head of the state Labor Relations Board.

That’s why he’s happy to share his favorite shortcut around both: the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon.

Noonan qualified for his first in 1979. He was 22.

“It’s considered the premier marathon in the world,” he said in a recent interview.

On Monday, he’s set to again tackle the race. It will be his 22nd.

“I’m into it,” he summed up his love of the exhausting yet energizing sport.

Noonan has run 94 marathons on the East Coast in the past half-century, starting when he entered the Ocean State Marathon as a student at Rhode Island’s Providence College in 1977.

“I’ve done at least one marathon every year since.”

For the Massachusetts-born runner, Boston’s 128-year tradition and seemingly longer trials — take Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 — top all other events.

“I find the course more challenging than pretty much any other to try to get right.”

Timothy Noonan of Montpelier is a veteran runner who will be competing in the Boston Marathon on Monday. Seen at home on Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

As a twentysomething, Noonan had to run under three hours to qualify for his 1979 Boston Marathon debut. Moving to Vermont a year later, he discovered an added incentive to earn entrance again.

“The winters up here are kind of tough, so it’s nice to look forward to.”

The former Montpelier High School cross-country coach trains almost daily, running some 45 miles a week and starting as early as 6 in the morning.

“I’ve been out there when it’s as cold as 20 below zero. You can dress for just about anything.”

That said, Noonan has faced surprises. He completed the 2013 event some 25 minutes before a bombing killed three people at the finish line.

“I had all kinds of contacts from all over, from people I hadn’t heard from in years,” he told reporters after. “I realized how small New England and the running community is.”

Timothy Noonan of Montpelier, seen during the 2023 Vermont City Marathon, is a veteran runner who will be competing in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15. Photo courtesy of Timothy Noonan

Noonan is one of 93 Vermont qualifiers this year. He’ll join five fellow runners in the 65-69 age group, including Nancy Elwess, 69, of North Hero; Harry Homeier, 66, of South Royalton; Jack Pilla, 65, of Charlotte; Brian Sherras, 66, of West Rupert; and Katherine Williams, 65, of Montpelier.

(Two others are more senior: Janis Campbell, 73, of Westford and Toshiharu Furukawa, 76, of Essex Junction.)

“They’ve made accommodations for older people,” Noonan said. “I’ve had almost no injuries, but you do slow down.”

Even so, Noonan could only qualify if he raced under 4 hours and 5 minutes in one of the four marathons he ran last year, which included those in Burlington, Maine and New York City.

This year’s Boston Marathon is set for broadcast Monday on WPTZ and ESPN2, with athletes starting between 9:02 and 11:15 a.m. as outlined on the event’s official website.

“Sometimes people ask, ‘Why do you ever do it more than once?’” Noonan said. “Every marathon is different.”

Then again, Boston is always a harbinger of spring.

“It’s not unusual that the first time I’m in shorts is when I run it.”

And a welcome reminder that, no matter how many finishes past, there’s still more road ahead.

Said Noonan: “I’m in this for the long run.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Amid mud season, a Vermonter finds the Boston Marathon to be just the rush.

Childhood literacy is key; Unlock it with your gift today

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Dear reader,

From the time I was a young child, my parents lovingly fostered a passion for reading in me. I remember my brothers and I piling into bed with my mom while she read us stories before bed; Harry Potter and The Time Warp Trio were our favorites. Stretching back earlier than I can recall, my sunny childhood bedroom window was lined with books. It was sitting on my bed right beside this window that I vividly remember reading my very first book all by myself, The Chick and the Duckling. I raced out of my room to tell my mom, and then read the book aloud to her to demonstrate my achievement. I was so proud of myself.

As I grew older and graduated to chapter books, then thicker novels, my confidence and independence continued to grow — and all along the way were caring adults who supported me, putting the books in my small hands. My fourth grade teacher would lend me her own personal copies of books — like her own childhood edition of Little Women — to read and then discuss with her while I waited for my bus to be called at the end of the day. She also taught me how to write a five-paragraph essay, and I took the natural next step for a word-lover, to writing.

Support VTDigger’s original reporting and you will also send one brand-new children’s book to a Vermont child. Time is running out for our critical spring member drive. Will you join us?

Join the drive and send a book

My eighth grade English teacher introduced me to the classics and taught me how to really read, hunting for hidden meanings, metaphors and illusions. I felt like I was learning a new, hidden language, and something I had known how to do for years suddenly felt brand new again. I still have my copy of A Tale of Two Cities from that time — spine broken, pages thin, notes scribbled in the margins and lines underlined with the gusto of a kid in awe.

It’s so obvious looking back now that the grown-ups in my life, by cultivating my love of reading from a young age, were assembling the building blocks of who I am as an adult. As a reporter, I read and write on a daily basis. But I also strive to go deeper, finding the colorful characters, engaging dialogue and illuminating details that bring a story to life. Covering politics, I mine for nuance and hidden meanings like my eighth grade teacher taught me — but now, I parse out Vermont state politics, not Dickens’ fictionalized world of the French Revolution.

Childhood literacy was the ticket to my adult life. It saddens me to think that those precious books granted to me over the years were a privilege not afforded to all kids. The Vermont-based Children’s Literacy Foundation is striving to change that reality, working to deliver new books to Vermont kids so they, too, can grow to their full potential.

If you have the means, I hope you’ll consider supporting VTDigger and the Children’s Literacy Foundation in our spring member drive.

Join the drive and send a book

When you support VTDigger’s independent journalism today, you will also send one brand-new children’s book to a child in Vermont. Together, our goal is to donate 3,000 brand-new books to Vermont children by April 20.

Thank you for your generosity.

Sarah Mearhoff
Statehouse Bureau Chief

Read the story on VTDigger here: Childhood literacy is key; Unlock it with your gift today.

Final Reading: Committee expected to vote on Act 250 reform next week

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 23:49:34 +0000

Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, speaks as the committee takes testimony on a bill that would provide a statewide river management system at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Credit: Glenn Russell

The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee has a mighty task.

By Wednesday, committee members plan to have hammered out complex details of Act 250 reform while sticking to a compromise that environmentalists and housing advocates crafted over the summer.

Committee members plan to combine the meat of three bills — H.687, S.311 and S.308 — each of which modifies Act 250 in different ways.

Act 250, Vermont’s 54-year-old sweeping and controversial land use law, is designed to ensure that development in the state is carefully planned and desired by neighbors.

In more recent years, developers and affordability advocates have targeted the law, calling it a barrier to addressing Vermont’s dire housing crisis. Meanwhile, environmentalists have responded that climate change and habitat loss due to development should require builders to think even more carefully about their projects.

Despite the conflict, the compromise crafted over the summer gives this legislative session the unique potential to lead to change. But the consensus is high-level, and an hourslong debate on the House floor over H.687 late last month, complete with 10 amendments, shows there’s plenty of room for disagreement.

With some conflicting sections, the two main bills could be tricky for the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee to merge.

For example, the House bill would send appeals to a professionalized board instead of a judge. S.311, however, appoints a new judge to help speed along Act 250 appeals.

H.687 creates tiers that would define how the law applies to various types of land use. S.311, would set up a public process to define those tiers and where they would apply. In the meantime, it would allow Act 250 exemptions for certain types of projects in specific areas.

“We’re really, definitely, under a microscope,” Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, who chairs the committee. “That’s OK, fine. We’ve been there before. There’s been controversy attached to things before. We just stay open-minded and keep working. We have a history of getting good work done.”

Bray said H.687 — a bill Gov. Phil Scott has taken direct aim at this session — will be the vehicle that will carry pieces of S.311 and S.308, a Senate Natural Resources bill that hasn’t seen much discussion yet. The committee plans to meet for most of Monday, an off day for most lawmakers, and to vote by Wednesday, he said.

He’ll be staying in “close communication” with Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D/P-Chittenden Southeast, who chairs the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee, which crafted S.311.

Ram Hinsdale told VTDigger via text that she’s “cautiously optimistic about the next two weeks.” Her priorities for the final product are strong Act 250 exemptions for the next five years as well as a tier system and mapping process that is “fair and begins with our municipalities,” she said.

She also hopes Senate Natural Resources will leave large chunks of S.311, which are not related to Act 250, alone. Bray said that’s his intention.

Stakeholders are anxiously awaiting the product.

Megan Sullivan, a lobbyist for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, said the “pieces around compromise are still there,” but she’s hoping the bill will lean toward S.311’s approach.

“I haven’t heard anything that’s giving us pause that there isn’t a commitment to really bringing the housing pieces from S.311 in,” she said, adding that she plans to be in the committee room on Monday all day.

— Emma Cotton

In the know

In late March, the House passed an ambitious spending bill that creates new revenue streams for a wide range of housing programs, from bolstering shelter capacity, to eviction prevention, to boosting affordable rental housing production. With a stated intent to invest $900 million in housing initiatives over the next 10 years, H.829 has been lauded by its supporters as a long-overdue plan to transition Vermonters out of homelessness — and reduce the state’s reliance on motels for shelter.

But as that bill arrives in the Senate, it faces headwinds. Key senators say this is the year to focus on easing regulations that impede housing development — not continuing to spend.

Read more here.

— Carly Berlin

The Vermont Senate Committee on Education will hold its confirmation hearing for Gov. Phil Scott’s pick for education secretary, Zoie Saunders, on April 23.

The committee’s chair, Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, initially considered holding the hearing next week, when Saunders plans to begin work. But Campion said in an interview on Thursday that the administration had requested the hearing be scheduled one week later.

Read more here.

— Ethan Weinstein

When the week started, the House’s tax writing committee looked poised to structurally transform Vermont’s education finance system.

By Thursday, such changes seemed less certain.

And on Friday, Gov. Phil Scott’s administration entered the room, throwing out an unexpected proposal to lower property taxes this year by spreading out the tax increase over multiple years using a yet-to-be-named pot of money.

Read more here.

— Ethan Weinstein

On the move

On Friday morning, the Senate passed H.363, prohibiting discrimination based on certain hair types and styles by employers and in public places — legislation modeled on the CROWN Act, which has already been enacted in dozens of states, including New York and Maine.

The chamber also gave preliminary approval to H.664, which designates the Bear’s Head Tooth as the state mushroom.

Meanwhile, the House gave preliminary approval to S.199, concerning the governance and business practices of communication union districts, or CUDs.

The bill creates rules for the merger of CUDs — municipal structures created to promote the development of universal high speed broadband across Vermont. The rules would allow CUD mergers to occur after backing by their respective governing boards, rather than requiring approval by voters which is the law for other municipalities. It also gives CUD business records the presumption of confidentiality and makes miscellaneous other more technical changes to current law.

— VTD Editors

Visit our 2024 Bill Tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.

Happy birthday

You know when you buy your significant other a gift for a special occasion, but it’s really mostly a gift for yourself? No? Just me? Well, the entire Senate (and a certain reporter) pulled a similar stunt on Senate Secretary John Bloomer on Friday in celebration of his birthday this weekend.

Chief of Staff Ashley Moore and Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, hatched the plan. Here’s how it was supposed to go: On cue, at the end of Friday’s floor session, senators would all take out their cellphones at once to send identical texts to Moore and Bloomer.

Photo by Juan Vega de Soto/VTDigger

“The senator next to me is texting,” all the texts would read.

If you don’t know Bloomer, this may seem like a pretty mild prank. But IYKYK: Bloomer, a stickler for decorum, strictly enforces the Senate’s “no electronics” rule. To send a text from the Senate floor is the equivalent of spitting on Bloomer’s shoes, more or less.

It nearly didn’t go as planned. Before the cue, Moore’s phone began ringing in the chamber. Senators exchanged panicked glances and stifled laughter, worried it was all over.

Bloomer stalked around the chamber until he located the ringing phone and nearly confiscated it. Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, quick on his feet, jumped in. “I’ll take that!” he said.

At the close of the floor session, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, gave the cue. All senators took out their phones at once and began texting. The confiscated phone ding, ding, dinged from Zuckerman’s dais. From the balcony, I’m pretty sure I spotted an actual flash of red in Bloomer’s eyes.

And then I played my part, committing the cardinal sin of eating and drinking in the historic chamber. Out from my bag I pulled a bag of popcorn and soda, which I loudly cracked open. In the words of Vyhovsky, such a show requires popcorn.

Happy birthday to the secretary — sorry not sorry!

— Sarah Mearhoff

What we’re reading

Vermont’s Union Mutual insurance company announces affiliation with Norfolk & Dedham, VTDigger

Fossil fuel companies can be linked to climate damages, Dartmouth scientist tells Vermont lawmakers, Vermont Public

Ethics panel dismisses complaint against Ram Hinsdale, Seven Days

Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: Committee expected to vote on Act 250 reform next week.

Amid Black Lives Matter flag debate, Milton school board votes to only fly U.S. and Vermont flags

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 22:55:13 +0000

A group of people waves Black Lives Matter flags outside Milton High School on March 20. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

MILTON — The Milton school board on Thursday avoided talking about the Black Lives Matter flag that has flown outside the high school for five years. But the board voted to change the flagpole policy to effectively exclude such flags.

After a three-hour long, packed meeting at the high school library, the school board voted 3-2 to allow only the United States and Vermont flags to be flown on district flagpoles.

Whether the Black Lives Matter flag, which still flew Thursday night, will come down right away is, however, unclear.

“The policy is now officially enacted, but not a word was spoken about next steps with the BLM flag on the flagpole and the plan for removing it,” Superintendent Amy Rex said in an email Friday.

The dissenting votes came from Kumulia Long, the chair of the five-member board, and Frank Metcalf. Both expressed concerns about dismissing a student-led democratic process that resulted in the raising of the Black Lives Matter flag in 2019.

A group of students advocated for and followed the required process to create a detailed one-page procedure to have the Black Lives Matter flag flown at Milton High School “recognizing that struggle and the work that needs to be done,” Metcalf said.

“Flags are symbolic. So how do we symbolize that we understand these struggles are happening and there’s work to be done and we support that work?” he said.

While the flagpole policy has been discussed by the board for a year, the discussion has largely been around the policy itself, rather than specific flags, according to Rex. The Black Lives Matter flag is the only other flag that has flown along with the U.S. and Vermont flags at the high school.

During an October school board meeting, Long, the only Black member on the board, proposed removing student interest flags from the main flagpole and flying just the United States and Vermont flags, in an effort to minimize conflict. He suggested student interest flags could be moved inside the school instead.

However, previous discussions this year have included objections to flying the Black Lives Matter flag on the district flagpole outside the high school, which is not visible from the road. That has in turn led to residents recently protesting on the street outside the high school and sending letters to the board in support of keeping the flag up.

That narrative was carefully avoided at last night’s marathon meeting during which members claimed they were focusing on the flag policy and not the flag itself.

“So when I look at this as a policy change, I’m not looking at it as it’s taking down the Black Lives Matter flag. I’m looking at it as a policy that’s not working because we have a division within the community,” said board member Scott O’Brien.

He claimed that the flag was being flown in perpetuity “even though that’s what nobody wanted” and that the flag policy is flawed because no other group has come up to the school board to fly any flags since.

Rex pointed out that per the previous policy, the board could have requested the flag be taken down at any time, and that nothing in the policy states that another flag had to replace it.

Those who voted in favor of the new policy, incumbent Karen Stout, Allison Duquette and O’Brien (both newly elected to the school board) argued that a majority of high students do not support the flag, citing a recent anonymous student-led survey. But two high school representatives on the school board spoke up to correct the record.

Jack Shannon, one of the student representatives, later explained that the survey had nothing to do with the Black Lives Matter flag. Instead, he said, it asked two questions: Are you in favor of a Milton student interest flagpole? If yes, would you utilize the student interest flagpole?

Shannon said 140 students, out of about 460 in the school, responded. Of them, 61 said no, 39 said yes and 40 were neutral to the first question; 90 said no, 16 said yes and 34 were neutral to the second question.

While the board had already voted in January not to have two flagpoles — one for the United States and Vermont flags, and one for flags representing student interests — that discussion came up again Thursday night.

Some residents suggested flying the Black Lives Matter flag in the school vestibule or on a separate flagpole. One resident said students could apply to fly the flag on the town’s flagpole at River Street Park, a more prominent location.

Resident Sean Tatro, who has previously volunteered to pay for a separate flagpole, reupped his offer to do so at Thursday’s meeting.

Two teachers — Pete Wyndorf and Ellen Taggart — reminded the board members that the decision to fly the Black Lives Matter flag was the product of a two-year effort led by the Milton Students for Social Justice group. To take the flag down without student input would be disrespectful, they said.

Lynda Battistoni is a resident new to the flag dispute. She said some students, like her daughter, don’t know that there was a time when the flag did not fly there.

“I think a lot of this stems from misunderstanding or miscommunication or whatever, about what was really being discussed,” she said. “I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for a tremendous compromise that should make everyone happy. If it is not about a Black Lives Matter flag, then why do you care if another pole has it?”

More than 30 people attended the meeting in person and more than 22 online, with multiple residents speaking for or against flying a Black Lives Matter flag.

Resident Mary Callahan said the Black Lives Matter flag was “anti first responders and anti law enforcement” and also claimed that it’s insulting to Black people who are “doing better in this country than white people.”

Racial disparities in wealth, housing, education persist and remain starkly in favor of white people in America, according to the Brookings Institute.

Another resident, Susan Mcnamara, said, “I love Black people. I have nothing against them but I don’t think the public would like a white lives matter flag flying, Hispanic, Chinese. Please let’s stop dividing this country, this nation, this little town and let’s respect everyone, include everyone, by not focusing on one particular race.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Amid Black Lives Matter flag debate, Milton school board votes to only fly U.S. and Vermont flags.

As committee scrambles on school tax plan, administration pitches curveball idea

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:58:25 +0000

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, left, and Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio. Photos by Glenn Russell and Mike Dougherty/VTDigger

When the week started, the House’s tax writing committee looked poised to structurally transform Vermont’s education finance system.

By Thursday, such changes seemed less certain.

Where that money for the “deferred payable” idea could come from and what effect it might have on the state’s credit ratings remain open questions.

Craig Bolio, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Taxes, told lawmakers the administration would hash out the details if legislators were interested.

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, appeared startled that such a left-field idea could appear so late in the legislative process.

“I have never heard this deferred payable idea before — it is a genuinely intriguing idea — and yet we had planned to vote this bill out today. We’re going to vote it out early next week,” she said during a Friday hearing. “Do you have the mechanics figured out? Is there legislative language for it?”

“If you’re very excited, I think we would start working together on crafting the legislative language and hammering out the details that need to be hammered out,” Bolio replied, noting that the committee’s education funding bill only appeared publicly on Tuesday.

“We’ve been discussing it internally,” Bolio said.

The unexpected proposal from the administration arrived on the heels of a whirlwind week in education finance as committee members drafted the annual yield bill, which helps determine education property tax rates statewide.

This year, that bill is also likely to include policy changes and new revenue streams.

As it stands, the bill would impose what’s known as a cloud tax by repealing an exemption on the sales tax for software accessed over the internet. That decision would raise a projected $20 million annually.

The latest draft includes a 1.5% tax on short-term rentals like Airbnbs, estimated to raise about $6.5 million.

The bill also includes ideas lawmakers intend to address cost-containment and transparency, which drew vociferous disapproval from the associations representing Vermont teachers, superintendents, principals and school board members.

The bill would require new ballot language, starting with next year’s budget votes, to inform voters of the percent change in per-student education spending.

Lawmakers included language they hope will address frustration with the Common Level of Appraisal, or CLA, a town-by-town metric used to adjust property values. In practice, the change should reduce the degree to which local tax rates are impacted once the state figures out each town’s CLA.

The legislation also includes “allowable spending percentages,” specific annual growth rates each district must stay within during the next two budget cycles to avoid paying an excess spending penalty. Lower-spending districts would be able to increase spending more than their higher-spending counterparts.

But lawmakers slightly walked back the most radical consideration: to set Vermont on the path of transitioning to a system that provides each district with a base payment per student.

The bill’s so-called “educational opportunity payments” would provide school districts with money on a per-student basis, with considerations still in place to give districts more money for students who are more expensive to educate. Districts that wanted to spend more could do so using homestead property taxes, and the system would still use a statewide grand list.

In theory, the system would also allow districts to know more about their tax rates before the budget cycle than the current process allows.

Originally, lawmakers had included language that imposed a deadline for coming up with the policy specifics needed to transition to the foundation formula model. That date is now removed from the bill, which still creates a task force that would be required to come up with an implementation plan for the new system and draft legislation by Dec. 15.

‘Lightbulb moment’

This year, Scott has repeatedly pointed to his ideas from 2018 related to cost containment in education, arguing they remain applicable to the present.

So when Bolio, the tax commissioner, presented a new idea to spread out the projected average double-digit education property tax increases over multiple years by deferring payment, it took lawmakers by surprise.

Kornheiser called the tax department “profoundly collaborative” when it comes to working with her committee. “But this is not an example of that.”

“There have been many, many, many opportunities for (the administration) to bring tangible, coherent proposals to us,” she said. With her committee planning to vote out the education finance bill on Tuesday, “it’s unclear what we do with this.”

For Kornheiser, many unknowns remain about the administration’s idea, including how it would affect the state’s bond ratings and cash flow.

The proposal also mentioned “forgiveness of some or all of the deferment” for districts that meet specific metrics like improving test scores. Kornheiser said she also wanted to know more details about those incentives.

“We’d need to see legislative language and get the thumbs up from the treasurer,” she said.

In an interview, Bolio said the administration’s proposal was the product of a “lightbulb moment recently.”

“There was no situation of holding back an idea here,” he said.

Given interest shown by lawmakers, Bolio said his department, administration officials, and the treasurer’s office would expedite work on fleshing out the details: Where could the money come from to pay for deferred education spending if not property taxes, and how specifically could legislation incentivize school district behavior?

The proposal, Bolio explained, came out of “dread and concern” about impending property tax hikes.

“If you don’t do anything,” he said, “you will have the spike for everybody this year.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As committee scrambles on school tax plan, administration pitches curveball idea.

Confirmation hearing scheduled for Zoie Saunders as education secretary

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:36:23 +0000

Zoie Saunders has been appointed as Vermont’s new secretary of the Agency of Education. Courtesy photo

The Vermont Senate Committee on Education will hold its confirmation hearing for Gov. Phil Scott’s pick for education secretary, Zoie Saunders, on April 23.

“Seemed a little ambitious for her to arrive, and then the next day have a hearing,” Campion told VTDigger. “It seems quite — I don’t know — acceptable to give her some extra time to come up and meet people and have an opportunity to talk to people.”

Saunders’ appointment has drawn “grave concerns” from the Vermont Democratic Party and downright opposition from the state Progressive party since Scott announced her appointment last month.

Some senators, the state’s teachers union, and the associations representing superintendents, principals and school boards have questioned her qualifications, with many pointing to Saunders’ experience in leadership at Charter Schools USA, a for-profit education management company.

In her most recent job — a roughly three-month stint as chief strategy and innovation officer in Broward County Public Schools in Florida — Saunders led an effort to close and consolidate schools, which the district called “redefining.”

Like other high-level appointees, Saunders requires the approval of a majority of senators to be confirmed.

According to Campion, the Senate education committee’s hearing on April 23 will last about an hour and a half. Afterward, the committee’s members will publicly draft a report, the format of which remains an open discussion, to be submitted to the Senate, he said.

It would then be up to Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, to decide when to bring Saunders’ nomination to the Senate floor, Campion said.

In the meantime, Saunders, who spent some of this week shaking hands in the Statehouse, will have more time to get to know those responsible for confirming her.

“I’m guessing she’s probably had appointments with, I don’t know, maybe 30% of the Senate, individual meetings,” Campion said.

Those closed-door meetings are also opportunities for lawmakers to get to know Saunders before the public hearing in a little more than a week.

Asked why the administration requested the confirmation be pushed back, Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for the governor, said Saunders “already had things planned” for her first week, including school visits and Agency of Education meetings.

“A confirmation hearing one week after an effective (start) date would still be very accelerated,” he said, noting that some gubernatorial appointments go months or even a whole session without receiving Senate attention.

Saunders will be staying with family in Shrewsbury, Maulucci said. Her family plans to move to Vermont once her two children finish their school year.

In an interview, John Bloomer, secretary of the Senate, said it’s standard practice for gubernatorial appointees to begin working at their effective start date, not once confirmed.

“It’s been done for decades and decades,” he said.

Bloomer also noted that people appointed to positions while the Legislature is out of session generally begin working when they are appointed, and then the Senate takes up the confirmation in January. Sometimes, though, the Senate chooses not to take up a confirmation at all, and an appointee continues in their role nonetheless, he said.

According to Bloomer, the last time a gubernatorial appointee was voted down by the Senate was under the administration of former Gov. Howard Dean, which ended more than 20 years ago. But, in that case, the appointments were of three people to positions on an environmental board. He could not recall a state agency head whose appointment was voted down by the Senate.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Confirmation hearing scheduled for Zoie Saunders as education secretary .

Bethel officials under fire for their handling of firefighter’s comments

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:03:29 +0000

“You guys disgust me,” Tom Harty, Pastor of the United Church of Bethel, and a former medical examiner, told the Bethel, Vt., Selectboard during a meeting at Town Hall on Monday, April 8, 2024. Harty told the board it should support the removal of a firefighter from the town’s volunteer department who made an insensitive social media post about a Vermont State Trooper after he was critically injured in a crash on Interstate 89 last month. Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News

This story by John Lippman was first published by the Valley News on April 12.

BETHEL — Supporters of the town’s former fire chief harshly rebuked town leaders this week over their handling of a firefighter whose colleagues want to oust him from the fire department.

One vocal supporter pointed at and denounced town officials to their faces: “You guys disgust me.”

Tom Harty, a former regional medical examiner and state trooper, excoriated both the chair of the town’s Selectboard and the town manager at a public meeting.

The Selectboard set aside a public comment period at Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting to hear residents voice their support for former longtime Bethel fire chief David Aldrighetti, who resigned after the town blocked his effort to kick out a firefighter who used a social media post to disparage a state trooper who was gravely injured in a highway accident.

“Do you think it’s OK what that man wrote on the internet? Do you think it’s appropriate?” said Harty, addressing Bethel Selectboard Chairman Chris Jarvis by name.

“Would you stand down at Dartmouth Hitchcock holding that man’s hand like I have in that bed, looking across at his wife and saying that he was a no good pig?” Harty demanded, standing at the microphone a few feet in front of the table where Selectboard members and the town manager sat. “Would you like to come with me and read it to his wife in front of him while he sits there helpless in that bed on the edge of death?”

“You guys disgust me,” said Harty, now a church pastor in Bethel.

Lynne Tracy, of Barnard, hugs her son, Bethel volunteer firefighter Josh Tracy as firefighters gather after leaving a Selectboard meeting at Town Hall in Bethel, Vt., on Monday, April 8, 2024. Tracy’s father, Rob Tracy, of Barnard, quit working with the Bethel fire department in solidarity with long-time chief David Aldrighetti, who resigned last month. Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News

Board members, meanwhile, sought to defend their handling of the personnel matter that has angered members of the fire department and town residents alike.

Jarvis set aside 60 minutes at the beginning of the meeting to explain the position of the town — to the extent that he could, given that it involves a personnel matter because Bethel volunteer firefighters are considered “employees” of the town. In addition, he tried to address concerns of people upset over the fire chief’s resignation. (Officially described as a “retirement” although Aldrighetti has said that is for the sake of appearances).

Jarvis and Town Manager Therese Kirby came in for a pummeling but held their composure, explaining that there are legal constraints the town must abide by when handling personnel matters involving town employees.

“There has been a lot of unnecessary attacks against the town manager, myself and the Selectboard,” Jarvis said in an email to the Valley News following the meeting. Those attacks, he said, have been “fueled by the spreading of misinformation” on social media and “individuals not understanding the process.”

Calling the Selectboard and town manager “very strong supporters of our fire department,” Jarvis lamented the “personnel issue at hand is very unfortunate” and acknowledged “the outcome has been unsettling.”

“I get that there are a lot of citizens in our community that are unhappy in how this played out, but attacking people in our community that work so hard everyday to bring positive outcomes to our town wasn’t the appropriate approach,” he said, adding “this all could have been avoided two weeks ago without running the good town of Bethel’s name through the mud.”

Jarvis did not explain what could have been done differently to have avoided the contretemps.

Aldrighetti resigned on March 29 over frustration at being unable to dismiss the volunteer firefighter who took to social media to discuss a Vermont state trooper whose cruiser crashed into the back of a Bethel fire truck while firefighters were responding to another crash on Interstate 89 last month.

Former Bethel Fire Chief David Aldrighetti directs firefighters from East Randolph during a fire at the Middle Branch Grange Hall in East Bethel, Vt., on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. Aldrighetti resigned at the end of March after 35 years on the department. File photo by James M. Patterson/Valley News

Aldrighetti contended the social media post had been the latest in a string of infractions by the firefighter that was disrupting the department and causing friction among other members.

“We took a gamble on this person,” said Aldrighetti, explaining that when the volunteer — who he did not identify by name — initially joined the fire department “he did well. But now, no.”

The firefighter in question, Bethel resident Tom Gauthier, appeared to take satisfaction at the fate of the trooper, whom Gauthier alleged beat him during an arrest arising out of a traffic stop for a broken headlight in 2018. Gauthier is a convicted felon who by his own account has been arrested more than a dozen times.

Gauthier subsequently apologized and deleted the post, acknowledging what he wrote was “insensitive to the condition of the trooper” but “as many of you know I always speak my mind.”

Aldrighetti, who served with the Bethel fire department 35 years, directed his pointed remarks at Jarvis and Kirby, both of whom he claimed undercut the independence of the fire department by forming an “advisory board” to oversee it. (He spared other members of the Selectboard from his harsh appraisal, contending they had not been informed of the personnel issues concerning Gauthier.)

He criticized Jarvis and Kirby for following an attorney’s advice that they couldn’t block the firefighter from joining the department or discipline him over his social media post because it is protected under free speech. Their fear of a lawsuit was interfering with doing the right thing, Aldrighetti argued.

“You can blame it on the lawyer all you want,” he said. “But all you had to do was come down and talk to us, make us part of the conversation,” Aldrighetti said. He told the board that he spoken with members of other towns’ selectboards and an municipal affairs attorney “and they all said this could have been handled completely differently.”

Aldrighetti said that the firefighter had been formally “reprimanded six times in a letter” for violating “Bethel employee conduct policy,” calling the firefighter a “bad egg.”

“This person we’re talking about, we can’t trust him. But none of that matters because it’s all employee rules, employee laws. That’s the way the world is going,” he said.

Gauthier, who estimates he has been on more than 150 calls over the three years he has been with the department, said the reprimands were “mostly for station etiquette” such as how he handled his gear and “heckling comments” he made during a fundraiser.

“As far as I know there’s no actual safety infractions that would cause anyone on any scene to be unsafe or any person to feel unsafe about me being on scene,” Gauthier said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Bethel officials under fire for their handling of firefighter’s comments.

Vermont’s Union Mutual insurance company announces affiliation plan with Norfolk & Dedham

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:46:55 +0000

Union Mutual’s offices on State Street in Montpelier, as seen on Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Juan Vega de Soto/VTDigger

Two New England insurers want to join forces. Vermont’s Union Mutual and Massachusetts’ Norfolk & Dedham announced their intent to affiliate in a joint statement released Wednesday.

The contract between the two companies, signed last Friday, would have them pool their finances as part of a business partnership. The affiliation is subject to approval by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, a process which is expected to take several months and may involve a public hearing.

The two companies insure a range of both commercial and personal assets, such as homes and cars, as well as providing worker’s compensation and employment practices liability insurances.

Union Mutual will remain headquartered in Montpelier, according to the statement, and the combined group “will have approximately 250 employees.” No layoffs are planned, according to firm’s vice president Sarah Jarvis.

According to Jarvis, initial conversations about the new arrangement began in fall of 2022.

“This is not a case of either needing saving, this is about wanting to grow sustainably,” said Jarvis.

Union Mutual does business in seven northeastern states, whereas Norfolk & Dedham only operates in Massachusetts and New Jersey. However, the Massachusetts insurer has a much higher policyholder surplus, which is the amount of money in hand after it pays out customers’ claims. The surplus amount acts as a marker of the company’s financial strength in case of unexpected disaster.

According to their publicly available annual statements, Union Mutual posted a $116 million surplus in 2022. That same year, Norfolk & Dedham’s surplus was nearly four times bigger, at $434 million.

Union Mutual CEO Lisa Keysar and Norfolk & Dedham CEO Joel Murray wanted to combine the former company’s geographical diversity with the latter’s excess surplus, according to Jarvis. Together the firms would have 1,000 agency offices across the Northeast, the statement said.

Since both insurers are mutual companies — they are owned by their policyholders — they cannot merge or be acquired. Instead, they can enter into an affiliation.

Under this agreement, the two entities will remain legally distinct and continue to operate under their own brands. Keysar and Murray will also remain President and CEO of their respective companies.

However, the affiliation creates a joint board of directors. Norfolk & Dedham will have more members than Union Mutual on the board, with Murray sitting as Chair.

Also, AM Best, a prominent credit rating agency for the insurance industry, will rate the combined group — which does not yet have a name — as one organization. The agency stated on Wednesday that the rating of both companies remained unchanged with “Financial Strength Ratings of A (Excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “a” (Excellent),” and that the outlooks for both “are stable” in the wake of the affiliation announcement.

Jarvis indicated that the two firms also intend to move towards acting as a single employer for all staff at Union Mutual and Norfolk & Dedham.

“This is so that we can unify compensation, benefits and human resources,” she said.

Benefit values would not decrease for any employee, according to Jarvis. And all the accumulated paid time off and vacation days would carry forward under the affiliation agreement.

Union Mutual and Norfolk & Dedham would become effectively affiliated on the first Tuesday of the calendar month following regulatory approval.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s Union Mutual insurance company announces affiliation plan with Norfolk & Dedham.

Vermont lawmakers, governor at odds over how much to invest in housing

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 15:40:53 +0000

Crews work to finish construction at Farmstead Lofts in South Burlington in December 2023. File photo by Carly Berlin/VTDigger and Vermont Public

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

When lawmakers arrived in Montpelier in January, most could agree on one thing: addressing Vermont’s crushing housing shortage — and homelessness crisis — would be a priority. As the 2024 legislative session nears its finish line, though, their preferred tactics for tackling the problem appear in conflict.

Earlier this month, the House passed an ambitious spending bill that creates new revenue streams for a wide range of housing programs, from bolstering shelter capacity, to eviction prevention, to boosting affordable rental housing production. With a stated intent to invest $900 million in housing initiatives over the next 10 years, H.829 has been lauded by its supporters as a long-overdue plan to transition Vermonters out of homelessness — and reduce the state’s reliance on motels for shelter.

But as that bill arrives in the Senate, it faces headwinds. Members of the upper chamber have expressed a lack of enthusiasm to continue spending on housing programs to the degree the state has over the last few years, when federal pandemic relief funds made over $500 million in investments for housing and shelter creation possible.

With other top priorities competing for a limited slice of the post-pandemic budget pie, and a lack of appetite to raise taxes, key senators say this is the year to focus on easing regulations that impede housing development — not continuing to spend.

“We should see how much that half a billion dollars benefited us in the next couple of years before we decide that the path forward is more money,” said Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D/P-Chittenden Southeast, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs. “My focus this year is on regulatory reform because that unties the hands of the rest of our housing developers and providers to provide lower-cost housing for all Vermonters.”

‘We felt we needed bold action’

The proposed spending in H.829 is relatively modest for the coming year. The bill directs around $17 million toward housing initiatives in fiscal year 2025, including programs to represent renters in court and help them pay back-rent when facing eviction, and efforts to build up homeless shelter and service capacity.

Yet the larger project of the bill is to set up new revenue streams to shore up housing investments in coming years. The bill would create a new marginal personal income tax bracket with a tax rate of 11.75% on income earned above $500,000 for married households, plus increase property transfer taxes for property purchases exceeding $750,000, well above Vermont’s median home price. It would also lower the property transfer tax threshold for the purchase of lower-value homes.

Those tax changes are intended to funnel new revenue into housing programs over the next 10 years. The bill sets an intent for the Legislature to spend $900 million through 2034 “to fund programs that advance a long-term solution to Vermont’s housing shortage.”

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, an architect of the proposed tax changes, said that long-term intent is meant to allow housing players outside the Statehouse to adequately plan projects. While the goal isn’t binding, Kornheiser said that “by putting it in that intent language, we are asking the public to hold us accountable to this promise.”

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, left, and Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, listen to testimony at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Credit: Glenn Russell

Lawmakers envision this 10-year spending commitment as a path to transition away from depending on state-subsidized motel rooms to shelter the bulk of Vermont’s unhoused population. While lawmakers have voted time and again to extend the stays of Vermonters in the motel program, they have yet to come up with a long-term plan to stop depending heavily on it. Proponents of H.829, including housing advocates, say the bill finally provides such a blueprint: As more shelter space and affordable units come online – along with greater support services – the state can move more Vermonters out of motels.

“It’s a bonafide plan — something that we haven’t had,” said Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury. “Is it bold? Yes, it’s bold. But we felt we needed bold action in this time.”

In late March, the House advanced a bill that relaxes Act 250’s reach in some municipalities, allowing new development to proceed without triggering the state land-use law. To Wood, focusing solely on updating Vermont’s development regulations won’t provide a track out of homelessness. More money is needed to do that.

“This trickle-down notion of regulatory reform only creating housing — it’s just a false narrative,” she said. “That’s not going to create sufficient housing on its own in order for us to stem the tide on this homelessness issue.”

Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, chair of the House Human Services Committee, at a Statehouse press conference in March 30 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

‘Our resources, they are finite’

Leading senators have expressed skepticism about H.829’s approach — both the fact that it makes major taxing and spending asks outside of the budget and its attempt to direct future lawmakers to dedicate new revenue to housing programs for years to come.

Beyond their concerns about the legislative process, though, lies a more fundamental choice about the tools lawmakers have at their disposal to take on the state’s housing woes. They can direct public money to housing programs, subsidizing the cost of a rental or a home when a household’s income won’t cover it on its own. And they can loosen regulatory hurdles to building more housing overall — increasing the supply of housing and therefore easing pressure on rents and home prices that have skyrocketed in Vermont in recent years.

Shane Phillips, housing initiative project manager at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and an expert on housing affordability, said he often sees regulatory reform and increased housing subsidies get pitted against each other. But both are critical to addressing housing affordability.

“Having more subsidies makes it easier to build affordable housing, obviously,” he said. And having less restrictive land-use rules make it possible to build more housing overall — which keeps housing prices from rising, and allows subsidies to go further, he said.

“I think we really just need to move beyond this idea that it’s one or the other,” Phillips said. “It really does need to be both.”

Ram Hinsdale acknowledged the need for affordable housing investment. But she noted that pandemic-era federal funding is gone, Vermonters aren’t ready for new taxes, and flood recovery is taking up some of the available budget. This is the year, she said, to tackle regulatory reform, including updating Act 250.

“Developers have been asking for that opportunity to get out from under the mountain of permits that they’re required to have, and to make housing more affordable for everyone again,” Ram Hinsdale said.

A separate housing bill advanced by Ram Hinsdale’s committee earlier this session, S.311, focuses on regulatory reform, though it also includes investments to rehabilitate rundown rental housing and upgrade manufactured housing communities.

A group of people sitting at a table with papers in front of them. — Daniel Banyai appears remotely in Rutland County Superior criminal court in Rutland on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Updated 3:42 p.m.

The state Environmental Court has rescinded its arrest warrant for Daniel Banyai after the town of Pawlet said it had brought his Slate Ridge property into compliance with court orders related to zoning violations.

As of Friday afternoon, Banyai was still detained at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland.

Banyai has been held there on the warrant and a separate assault charge since March, when he was arrested by Pawlet Second Constable Tom Covino following a traffic stop. Police accused him of assaulting Covino during the arrest, leading to a felony aggravated assault charge for which he was held on $15,000 cash or surety bond.

According to court documents filed this week by Merrill Bent, Pawlet’s attorney, the town will file an affidavit outlining the costs of bringing Banyai’s property, called Slate Ridge, into compliance and will also request “compensatory damages.”

A deconstructed school building remains on Banyai’s property, Bent wrote, but “Banyai’s agents” have agreed to remove the materials within 60 days.

Around 1 p.m. Friday, Banyai appeared in Rutland Superior criminal court via video link to respond to an extradition request from the state of New York, where a court has issued a warrant for his arrest. In that case, Banyai is charged with violating a condition of his probation, which stemmed from a 2023 conviction for criminal contempt — disobeying a court order.

Banyai’s attorney, public defender Chris Davis, said Banyai won’t voluntarily allow for his transfer to New York. Because of this, New York would have to seek what is known as a governor’s warrant to extradite Banyai. Meanwhile, Banyai can be released from jail on the charge of being a fugitive from New York if he pays a $15,000 cash or surety bond

Slate Ridge, the former paramilitary-style training facility, terrified its neighbors and garnered media attention nationwide. The warrant rescinded this week was issued last year by the state Environmental Court, which found Banyai in contempt amid his years-long legal saga with the town of Pawlet over zoning violations on the property.

Banyai bought his property in West Pawlet in 2013 and opened Slate Ridge in 2017.

Alleging that the activities and structures on his property violated town bylaws, Pawlet issued Banyai a notice of violation in 2019.

In March 2021, Thomas Durkin, the environmental court judge, issued an order that required Banyai to close Slate Ridge and remove unpermitted structures on his property, accelerating a legal battle that continues in the present day.

By February 2023, with Slate Ridge still out of compliance, a judge threatened Banyai with jail time, eventually issuing an arrest warrant in July. Meanwhile, lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott approved a law banning paramilitary training camps, in part inspired by the Slate Ridge debacle.

Despite the arrest warrant, Banyai remained free and the order expired in September 2023, only for it to be renewed indefinitely in December after an inspection of Slate Ridge determined the property remained out of compliance with court orders.

Ignoring an order to turn himself in to authorities, Banyai evaded Vermont State Police and the Rutland County Sheriff’s Office for months, with both agencies reporting repeated checks on the fugitive’s Pawlet property. Perhaps, authorities said, he’d left the state.

Three months after the warrant was reissued, the Pawlet constable arrested Banyai mere miles from Slate Ridge.

Banyai is scheduled to return to court on his aggravated assault charge on June 3. Prior to that, he has a hearing on the governor’s warrant set for May 10.

Tiffany Tan contributed to this report.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Deeming Slate Ridge now in compliance, court rescinds Daniel Banyai warrant.

Assia Hamana and Alice Urban: Youth mentoring in Vermont fosters community and connection

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:01:00 +0000

This commentary is by Assia Hamana of Winooski and Alice Urban of Burlington. Assia is a graduate of Winooski High School and a junior at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, studying international relations. Alice is a member of the MENTOR Vermont board of directors and is a director of business development at Tetra Tech, a global engineering and consulting firm with an office in Burlington. They were both participants in the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) Vermont’s Crossroads Mentoring Program.

Assia: When my family and I first resettled in Vermont from Chad, one relationship in particular helped me to embrace my new home. I’m fortunate to have supportive parents, but when we arrived in Vermont and I entered the eighth grade without the ability to speak or write in English, I faced a number of obstacles.

A case worker suggested I participate in Crossroads, a new mentoring program organized by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Vermont Field Office and supported by MENTOR Vermont. I was hesitant to be matched with a mentor as I was admittedly not the most extroverted person. I was fortunate to be matched with Alice, an outstanding mentor who never gave up on me.

For young people, the presence of trusted adults beyond their immediate family plays a critical role in their development and well-being. Trusted adults provide a wealth of diverse perspectives and experiences, enriching young people’s understanding of the world and broadening their horizons. At the same time, I think there is great value for trusted adults to engage with young people, as we can offer new perspectives and ideas as well.

The first meetings with Alice were difficult for me, often marked by silence on my part, despite Alice’s efforts to engage in small conversation in French. Even with my hesitancy, Alice’s perseverance showed her care. This continuous support gradually broke down my defenses, allowing me to open up and accept her as a dear friend. Alice became a very significant part of my life; she helped me adjust to the education system in the U.S. and was there at one of the most stressful times of my life when I was applying to colleges as a first generation applicant. She is still there for me now in college, which I deeply appreciate.

Mentoring has had a great impact on my life by instilling a sense of community and connection. I am inspired to offer similar support and kindness to others as I enter adulthood. My background as a refugee deeply informs this ambition, and my aim is to contribute positively to the lives of vulnerable individuals whose voices often go unheard.

Alice: When Assia and I were matched as part of USCRI Vermont’s Crossroads Mentoring Program, we had both just moved to Vermont — I from Washington, D.C., and Assia from Chad. While our moves to Vermont were under very different circumstances, we bonded over our newness to the area and the challenges and excitements of building a home in a new place.

Our first meetups were at Assia’s apartment; we read out loud to each other so Assia could practice her English — her sixth language — and we played dozens of games of cards. As we got to know each other and built a foundation of trust, we ventured out to the YMCA to play basketball, to my house to cook and to Church Street to try new restaurants. Assia’s family came to my house for Thanksgiving, and my husband and I celebrated Eid with hers.

Assia is very academically motivated, so much of our focus over her high school years was spent on navigating the U.S. education system and exploring post-high school options. She arrived in Vermont in the eighth grade speaking no English, and her goal was to still graduate from high school on time. She accomplished this goal and went on to be accepted into Brandeis University’s selective Myra Kraft Achievers Program.

I’m not sure if either of us would have expected that those afternoons reading in Winooski or group gatherings with Crossroads would turn into meeting up in Boston to attend a concert or making plans for Assia to study in Geneva this summer, but they have. Seven years later, our mentor/mentee match has grown into a lifelong friendship.

It’s trite to say, but genuinely true, that I’ve learned and grown from knowing Assia as much or more than she has knowing me. I’ve learned about the value and joy of intergenerational friendship, and I’ve been moved by the richness of community as our families became friends. My world has expanded by knowing Assia, and I am a more empathetic, curious, and optimistic person for it.

At a time when research shows that loneliness and isolation are trending upwards, we know that positive relationships are powerful tools for significant change. They bring us together, help us to navigate our divides and create a common purpose. Mentoring can unite us.

To learn more about the impact of mentoring in Vermont or to get involved, visit mentorvt.org.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Assia Hamana and Alice Urban: Youth mentoring in Vermont fosters community and connection.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield: Baby bonds would empower Vermonters to improve their lives

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 10:01:00 +0000

This commentary is by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s.

As the founders of Ben & Jerry’s, we know firsthand the power of investing in Vermont’s communities. Since opening our first location in downtown Burlington, we’ve used our platform to support economic and social justice. That’s why we wholeheartedly support the proposal to create a baby bonds program in Vermont.

The status quo isn’t working for regular people, both in Vermont and nationwide. High costs of higher education and housing, coupled with systemic barriers to capital, prevent many from overcoming cycles of generational poverty and achieving upward social mobility.

We know these challenges disproportionately impact BIPOC Vermonters. In 2020, white Vermonters had a homeownership rate of 72%, compared to 21% for Black Vermonters, a wider disparity than the national averages of 70% for white individuals and 41% for Black individuals.

Over the past several decades, America’s wealth gap between the richest and poorest families more than doubled. The wealthiest Vermonters currently earn over 10 times more than the bottom 20%.

While education is commonly viewed as “the great equalizer,” through which anyone can be successful if they work hard, the cost of higher education only widens the wealth gap. Vermont recently ranked ninth in the nation for the amount of student debt per borrower ($38,071).

Economic struggles are often mistakenly tied to personal shortcomings, but a more accurate explanation is the lack of access to capital. In Vermont, lacking financial resources makes it harder to attend college, purchase a home or launch a business. This obstacle severely limits the ability to accumulate wealth and break free from inherited economic hardships. A statewide baby bonds program seeks to address just that.

The proposal would establish a birthright to capital for every child in Vermont born on Medicaid. $3,200 would be deposited for each child and invested by the treasurer’s office, growing over time. Individuals could access their baby bond between age 18 and 30, with the initial investment projected to grow to over $10,000 by age 18 and nearly $25,000 by age 30.

The funds would be dedicated to wealth-building purposes like buying a home in Vermont, starting or investing in a business in Vermont, pursuing higher education or job training or saving for retirement.

Vermonters enrolled in the program would have access to capital at a critical moment in their lives, providing opportunities to start their own financial futures. This would have a massive economic output and benefit to our communities.

We know firsthand the impact of having startup capital for a business. It was thanks to a $12,000 investment that Ben & Jerry’s opened its first location. We need to ensure all Vermonters have a hand up so they can fulfill their dreams of starting a business, owning a home or being the first person in their family to go to college.

We urge lawmakers to support baby bonds, an investment to address intergenerational poverty and empower people to improve their lives.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield: Baby bonds would empower Vermonters to improve their lives .

Charlotte A. (Harring) Teese

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 23:53:19 +0000

Born Oct. 25, 1941

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Died April 5, 2024

Berlin, Vermont

Details of services

In accordance with Charlotte’s wishes, there will be no services held.

Charlotte A. (Harring) Teese, 82, of South Burlington, Vermont, passed away on April 5, 2024 in Berlin, Vermont after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Charlotte was the first born of Charles and Catherine Harring. She grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey and graduated from Fanwood-Scotch Plains High School in 1960. Charlotte married Roger D. Teese in 1963 and together they raised two children in Richmond, Vermont: Gregory and Laura. She and Roger divorced in 1983 but continued to work together to raise their children.

After her divorce, she found fulfillment working in the Dean’s Office for the University of Vermont College of Arts and Sciences, where she took pride in supporting UVM’s students and faculty. She retired from UVM in 2007.

Throughout her life, Charlotte was known for her unwavering pride in her children, her passion for environmental conservation, and her keen interest in local and national affairs, writing many letters to her congress persons on issues she felt dear. She loved to read and had a keen interest in art, history and nature. In her earlier years, she delighted in ballroom dancing and traveling—she fulfilled her lifelong dream of visiting Italy not once, but twice, and also traveled to England, Aruba, Nova Scotia, and many states across the country. Her annual holiday cookie baking was legendary, as she showered her family members with countless dozens of meticulously wrapped treats. With her green thumb, she cultivated stunning flower gardens, bringing beauty to her surroundings. Her love extended to her grandchildren, and she had a special close connection with her special needs granddaughter Nicole, who predeceased her in 2022.

Sadly, just prior to and during the pandemic, she began suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which slowly robbed her of her independence and memories. The family is profoundly grateful for the exceptional care given to her by Central Vermont Medical Center and Woodridge Nursing home.

Charlotte is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Laura S. Noonan and Matt Noonan, and by her son and daughter-in-law, Gregory D. Teese and Rebecca Teese, her brothers Robert Harring and Dennis Harring, and her grandson Will Noonan. She was predeceased by her parents Charles and Catherine Harring, sister Barbara Kirschmann and granddaughter Nicole Noonan.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Make-A-Wish Foundation of Vermont, in her memory. Charlotte’s kind, generous spirit will be greatly missed — as her final wish to all her family and friends, she would say “Please be safe!” Please visit awrfh.com to share your memories and condolences.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Charlotte A. (Harring) Teese.

Final Reading: For bill to ban flavored nicotine products, Gov. Phil Scott’s veto likely to stick

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:40:15 +0000

Sen. Ginny Lyons D-Chittenden Southeast, speaks at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Feb. 13. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Credit: Glenn Russell

Last Wednesday, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed S.18, a bill that would ban the sale of flavored e-liquids and nicotine products in Vermont.

Since then, the bill has spent a week on the Senate’s action calendar with no movement from senators, raising the question: Did lawmakers have the votes to overturn that veto and pass the bill into law?

On Thursday, the Senate appeared to provide an answer.

In the afternoon, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden Central, announced that the bill would not move forward for an override vote.

“Senators will see on the calendar, as they have for the last few days, S.18, an act relating to banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids, which was vetoed of course by the governor,” Baruth said on the Senate floor. “It is not our intention to bring that up for an override vote.”

Senate lawmakers passed S.18 last year, and an amended version advanced out of the House last month by a 83-53 vote. The Senate voted 18-11 to approve those amendments a week later.

But overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. On Thursday, Baruth seemed to admit that those votes had not materialized in the Senate.

All seven Senate Republicans voted against the bill, as did Sens. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, Bobby Starr, D-Orleans, Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, and Tanya Vyhovsky P/D-Chittenden Central. Former Grand Isle Senator Dick Mazza, who resigned Monday, was absent.

A person uses an electronic cigarette. Photo via Adobe Stock

The bill was instead sent back to the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare on Thursday, where it was first approved. According to the rules of the Senate, it cannot be further changed there.

The move is a blow to a years-long legislative effort to restrict the sale of flavored vapes and nicotine, with the goal of keeping addictive products out of the hands of children and youth.

Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, the chair of Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a longtime advocate for restricting flavored tobacco products, expressed disappointment with the move but said she was still assessing her options.

“It doesn’t mean that the concept and some of the important provisions that are in the bill can’t be taken up and put in another bill,” she said. “I don’t know. I’m still sorting out what’s possible.”

— Peter D’Auria

In the know

Members of the House Committee on Ways and Means continued tinkering with legislation on Thursday that would significantly transform education finance over the next three years.

The idea they are considering would transition Vermont to a system in which the state education fund provides districts with a base payment per student. Districts would then be able to raise additional money beyond that if local voters agree to increase homestead property taxes, a process that would still use a statewide grand list.

One development from today: The quickly moving legislation lacks support from four key associations representing school leaders and school board members.

Written testimony submitted by leaders of the Vermont Principals’ Association, Vermont Superintendents Association, Vermont School Boards Association, and Vermont Association of School Business Officials said that their groups “have presented well-informed, expert testimony” on the delivery and cost of education.

“At every turn, we have urged a collaborative, thoughtful and substantive policy approach to addressing the costs of the education system. We don’t believe that the yield bill honors that approach,” they wrote.

The associations predicted that the proposal would lead voters to shoot down more school budgets in the future, a dire possibility for the organizations on the back of this year’s wave of school budget failures.

After a full day of testimony, it also seems less likely the legislation will include any significant cost containment measures for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. Committee members had considered clawing back money from school budgets earmarked for local capital reserve funds, or requiring a return of budget surpluses back to the education fund.

Still on the table: a surcharge on short-term rentals that would be sent to the education fund, at least in the short term.

Ways and Means heard from Austin Davis, a lobbyist for the Lake Champlain Chamber, who said he didn’t expect his organization would “push too hard” against a small surcharge. Legislators are considering a new tax, likely between 1.5% and 3%, with rough revenue estimates anywhere from $6 million to $15 million.

— Ethan Weinstein

A bill moving through the Vermont Legislature this year would create dozens of new positions across the state’s judicial system — and fund them with higher corporate taxes and fees.

The bill, H.880, would support some 70 total positions, many of them new, from prosecutors to IT specialists. It’s meant to give the courts additional resources to tackle a stubborn backlog of thousands of unresolved cases.

But a proposed funding mechanism for those positions — raising taxes on corporate income and increasing the annual fees due on many types of securities offered for sale in the state — has drawn criticism from Republican lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott.

H.880 is one of three separate bills that the House passed in recent weeks that contain significant policy proposals with new tax revenue attached to cover their multi-million-dollar price tags. But their future in the Senate is unclear.

Read more here.

— Shaun Robinson

It was a big week for tourism in Vermont — maybe the biggest ever, if the state’s preliminary traffic estimates are anything to go by. (Something happened to the sun? Idk.)

State tourism industry leaders leveraged the hype to drum up support for their businesses — hotels, restaurants, theaters and ski areas among them — at the Statehouse on Thursday. Vermont’s tourism sector employs more than 11% of the state’s total workforce and brought in an estimated $3 billion in visitor spending last year, according to data they shared at a press conference.

“The celestial event happened on its own,” said Heather Pelham, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, drawing laughs from the crowd, but “the success of the day — and I think we can all agree that it was an amazing success of a day for the state — could not have happened (without) all the hard work of all of our partners in tourism and hospitality.”

Industry leaders such as Hans van Wees, general manager of Hotel Vermont in Burlington, urged lawmakers to pass legislation that creates more housing for workers, and to support career and technical education programs to encourage more young people to take jobs in Vermont.

“I’m concerned, together with a lot of my colleagues, about who’s going to follow me and others to take leadership positions in our industry,” van Wees said, pointing to Vermont’s status as one of the oldest states in the country, and how the state’s population is aging rapidly.

The House also read a resolution on the floor Thursday highlighting the importance of tourism to the state. Later in the day, lawmakers made their way to the cafeteria to be wined and dined — literally — by members of the Vermont Specialty Food Association.

According to the association’s website, this “legislative tasting” is “THE MOST highly anticipated event for legislators each year,” and offers “a chance for producers to highlight the importance of grants and funding for their industry.”

— Shaun Robinson

Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.

What we’re reading

Vermont Flannel buys Vermont Teddy Bear, fusing 2 prominent companies, VTDigger

Recent catastrophes prompt new thinking about ways to manage Vermont’s flood-prone landscape, Seven Days

$10 billion long Covid ‘moonshot’ is being floated by Bernie Sanders, STAT

Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: For bill to ban flavored nicotine products, Gov. Phil Scott’s veto likely to stick.

Costs balloon for planned Chittenden County recycling center

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 21:32:29 +0000

An engineering rendering of the 68,000-square-foot recycling center planned to be constructed on Redmond Road in Williston. Courtesy of Williston Planning and Zoning office

This story by Jason Starr was first published by the Williston Observer on April 11.

The cost of Chittenden County’s new recycling center will be nearly $5 million more than what was estimated when voters approved a $22 million bond for the project in 2022.

Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD) administrators are scaling back the scope of the project in an attempt to mitigate the cost overrun. CSWD Executive Director Sarah Reeves pointed to the increased cost of steel, concrete, asphalt and excavating compared to when the project was first budgeted in 2021 as the reason for the overrun.

“We just happened to catch it at the peak of pricing,” Reeves said in a January meeting of the CSWD Board of Directors, referring to construction cost inflation, which she noted has since leveled off.

The new recycling center is built to handle 150 times the amount of material that the current facility on Avenue C in Williston processes, CSWD Director of Compliance and Hazardous Waste Josh Estey said in a February hearing with the Williston Development Review Board. The new center is sited on a 36-acre parcel on Redmond Road, near CSWD’s Williston drop-off center and composting headquarters. It is being built for a decades-long horizon of residential and commercial growth with flexibility to handle evolving product packaging, using an automated process that replaces the human sorters the current recycling center relies on.

“This project is needed, not just for Chittenden County but for the state,” Reeves said.

CSWD leadership has reduced the building size, changed the construction of the roof, narrowed the width of the access road and paused a planned community room to chip away at the cost overrun. They are also continuing to search for government grants and loans to close the gap. But Reeves said the organization, which is funded primarily by the 18 municipalities it serves, can cover the cost overrun with its own reserve funds. She also said doing so may lead to an increase in trash collection fees, which have remained flat for the past 12 years, to replenish reserves.

“Anything that makes it more expensive to live in Chittenden County and run a business in Chittenden County I know I’m personally not for,” said Williston’s representative on the CSWD board, Kelton Bogasky. “I don’t take that lightly, raising any fees that we charge.”

The Development Review Board gave the project preliminary approval in February. A final hearing with the DRB is scheduled for April 23. In the February hearing, engineer Greg Dixson of Colchester-based Krebs & Lansing Consulting Engineers said the 68,000-square-foot facility would attract about 80 truck trips a day on Redmond Road between the operating hours of 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Architect AES Northeast of Plattsburgh, N.Y., has designed the building. The CSWD has issued a request for proposals from companies to bid on constructing the project. Bids are due by April 26. The district hopes to have a construction company chosen by the end of May.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Costs balloon for planned Chittenden County recycling center.

Each year, a Burlington food activist opens his home for an Eid feast

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 21:12:48 +0000

FaReid Munarsyah grilled up a seemingly endless pile of beef and chicken satays in his backyard on Wednesday. The Burlington resident and organizer of The People’s Kitchen has been hosting a community Eid celebration at his house for 20 years. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger

BURLINGTON — FaReid Munarsyah missed breaking fast with his friends and family back home in eastern Indonesia. So he created his own gathering in Vermont.

For about two decades, the Burlington resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen has been serving up community feasts on Eid from his South End home.

The Islamic holiday marks the end of Ramadan when Muslims around the world break their month of dawn-to-dusk fasting with a traditional feast.

What that feast entails depends on where you are from. For Munarsyah, it includes shrimp chips, coconut milk soup, lumpia (a spring roll), vermicelli and satays — grilled meats on sticks with a sweet peanut sauce.

A multi-day celebration at the start of the 10th month in the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Fitr began on Wednesday. Munarsyah started his day with prayers at the Islamic Society of Vermont in South Burlington, which held two Eid prayer services to accommodate a larger crowd.

On Wednesday evening, he sported a festive embroidered black and gold kopiah (a pointed cap often worn by Muslim men) as he tossed vermicelli with bean sprouts, scallions and bok choy in a crowded kitchen.

A woman prepares a dish at FaReid Munarsyah’s community Eid celebration on Wednesday in Burlington. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger

“It’s how we grew up,” he said simply.

The community he grew up in was part Muslim and part Christian. At Eid, the Muslim families opened their doors, holding a feast for everyone, and at Christmas, the Christians did the same. Every house had its own specialty dish, so you had to plan ahead or you would soon be out of belly space, he joked. His mother made chicken and lamb satay and rice.

On Wednesday evening, as visitors came up to greet him and wish him happy Eid, Munarsyah passed the tongs to his friend Elga Gruner, who seamlessly continued the cooking, after frying up a batch of shrimp chips.

“It started with just us and a few families at first,” said Gruner, who is also an immigrant from the same easternmost province of Papua in Indonesia and has celebrated many Eids with Munarsyah.

“I think it just reminds me of home, having groups of people visit and to celebrate with friends,” said Gruner, who is not Muslim but grew up celebrating Eid with friends in Indonesia, which has a Muslim majority.

In fact, most of the people who visited Munarsyah’s house don’t identify as Muslim but were eager to partake in the celebration.

Burlington resident Janet Hicks, who grew up “strictly atheist” in Vermont among white Yankee Protestants and Jewish progressives, now considers herself a “relaxed agnostic.” She was there attending her second Eid with Munarsyah, who she first met through working with a food donation program.

Hicks said she has “a very basic idea” of what Ramadan and Eid mean but she loves food and cooking and understands celebrating with friends and family. As many Muslims break fast with dates, she brought Munarsyah a Mason jar of dates, candied ginger and pistachios.

Her friend Linda Cooper, who is Unitarian, also brought him a bag of mixed fruits.

Cooper took over the food donation project from Hicks, which is how she too met Munarsyah, she said. He would always make a boxed lunch for her to take home, she recalled. And, Cooper said, she just loves his food.

Despite his unassuming demeanor, Munarsyah is a well known face in the city. Many who stopped by seemed to know their host from his activism addressing food insecurity, including his work at The People’s Kitchen — a community mutual aid project to provide free food. In 2022, he made a bid for the Ward 5 City Council seat.

First-time Eid visitor James Balady talked about how Munarsyah set up a community food distribution system during the Covid-19 pandemic. “So I’m here to support him,” he said.

Daniel Munteanu said he met Munarsyah at the Battery Park Movement downtown in September 2020. It was a BIPOC-led month-long protest of the police department in Burlington. Jay Jonathan met him at a climate activism event in the city last summer. Jaz Mojica met him from participating in city mutual aid projects about five years ago.

Mojica, who was attending his first Eid, called it a great way to meet more people from different backgrounds in a very white region.

A drizzle did not dampen festivities. A stream of people walked in and out of the back door, passing through a muddy backyard. All the while, Munarsyah was under a tent on the patio cooking up a seemingly endless supply of chicken and beef satays on stick skewers over a small charcoal grill.

Children, two cats, and a dog mingled seamlessly inside a busy and packed living room and kitchen. There, visitors delved into chores, from making space for multiple dishes on the dining table to washing a precarious pile of dishes.

A man grills meat at FaReid Munarsyah’s community Eid celebration on Wednesday in Burlington. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger

A newcomer settled into a corner of a well-worn couch and picked up a copy of a Free Radical magazine that lay on a side table.

Just out the back door, Infinite Culcleasure threw a tablecloth on a folding picnic table for the grilled meat Munarsyah was rapidly whipping out. He has been a guest there at Eid for many years, he said.

“Even though I don’t fast, I try to celebrate with my friends and family just as I did for Yom Kippur,” said Culcleasure, who has made runs for mayor and state senate. Plus, it’s also a great culinary and cultural experience for his 6-year-old, he added.

For Syrah Diaz, who met Munarsyah at a Pride parade, the food spelled comfort and the celebration was a chance to connect with neighbors. Diaz does not maintain any regular religious practice, but said it felt important to be spiritually connected: “There is spirit in all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not.”

For Munarsyah, the celebration is special every year and an opportunity to welcome new and different people into his life. His friend Culcleasure summed it up: “It’s a deeper meaning of renewal and any opportunity I get to do that, I’ll take it.”

As devotees around the world ended Ramadan with fasting (sawm), prayer (salah), reflection and community, the motley crew of mostly white residents leaned in to enjoy the spirit of Eid over hot food on a wet Wednesday in a small corner of the city.

Standing around a fire pit in the damp backyard, Culcleasure reflected, “As we all shuffle through life making mistakes, this is a good time to pause, ask for forgiveness and receive grace for being human.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Each year, a Burlington food activist opens his home for an Eid feast.

VTDigger spring member drive getting down to the wire

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 19:36:55 +0000

Dear reader,

As a regional reporter at VTDigger, I gather information in southern Vermont and beyond to provide you, our readers, with the facts you need to form opinions and make decisions.

When I hear gratitude from community members for the care I put in reporting their difficult life situations, or when I see my stories resulting in changes to state policies, I’m reminded that our work really matters.

Join the drive and send a book

My reporting would not be possible without reader support. There are less than ten days left in VTDigger’s critical spring drive, and we have a steep hill to climb. Please consider a gift in any amount, and keep me, and my newsroom colleagues, on the beat every day.

Donations are tax deductible, and each member will also be sending a brand-new book to a Vermont child through the Children’s Literacy Foundation. Our goal is to provide 3,000 books, and we still have 1,931 books to go — and need as many members — in less than ten days.

Join the drive and send a book

From breaking news to policy analysis and investigations with impact, VTDigger provides an irreplaceable public service for Vermont. If you value our reporting, please consider supporting our work today.

Thank you for your generosity.

Tiffany Tan
Southwestern Vermont and substance use disorder reporter

Read the story on VTDigger here: VTDigger spring member drive getting down to the wire.

Vermont Flannel buys Vermont Teddy Bear, fusing 2 prominent companies

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:55:32 +0000

Vermont Teddy Bear operates a factory and flagship retail store in Shelburne and is one of the country’s biggest teddy bear manufacturers. Photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger

Vermont Flannel announced Tuesday that its ownership group, USA Brands, has acquired the assets of Vermont Teddy Bear.

The deal had been in the works for months, according to USA Brands president Matt Bigelow, and closed April 4. Vermont Teddy Bear’s ownership group simultaneously sold its apparel divisions — Pajamagram, Pajamajeans and the 1 for U — to an affiliate of New York City investment firm Lionel Capital.

“We’re really excited to have another company that supports domestic manufacturing,” said Bigelow, who declined to comment on the specific purchase price of Vermont Teddy Bear.

Ohio-based USA Brands — which also owns All-American Clothing and Diamond Gusset — now has 70 full-time employees in the state, between Vermont Flannel and Vermont Teddy Bear, Bigelow estimated.

“There are no planned layoffs,” he said, indicating that both Vermont entities would continue to operate as standalone brands.

One eventual departure, however, is former Vermont Teddy Bear CEO Bill Shouldice. He plans to stay on in an advisory role during the transition before leaving.

Shouldice said he did not want to speculate on the new owners’ plans but that he had no knowledge of employees losing jobs during the consolidation.

“On day one of the sale everyone is still employed, and we’re proceeding as if that is going to be the case,” he said.

Joe Van Deman, CEO of USA Brands, is now the primary decision-maker at Vermont Teddy Bear, according to Bigelow.

Lindsay Kurrle, commissioner of the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said at a Wednesday press conference that she spoke to Van Deman on the day the deal was closed.

“At this point there was no news of layoffs or plans to pull out of Vermont,” Kurrle said.

Vermont Teddy Bear operates its factory and flagship retail store in Shelburne and is one of the country’s biggest teddy bear manufacturers.

Vermont Flannel has six retail locations across Vermont — two of which operate as production facilities — and two retail stores in Maine. The company plans to open a ninth store this summer in Waterbury, according to a statement released by USA Brands.

Bigelow said there are plans for Vermont Flannel and Vermont Teddy Bear to partner on new products. The companies already launched a collaborative teddy bear wearing a Vermont Flannel button-down shirt last year.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Flannel buys Vermont Teddy Bear, fusing 2 prominent companies.

Putney General Store and VEDA: Keeping a community hub alive, with a little help

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:15:15 +0000

General stores are a staple of Vermont culture. A gathering place, a quick sundry stop, and at times a gossip hub.

The state’s oldest of these establishments is the Putney General store, which has served its community since 1796.

Its website boasts everything from cat litter to WD-40 in addition to pantry staples. And much like Vermonters’ characteristic hardiness, the store has endured — it burned twice and was revived twice before its owner, Mike Cosco, took the reins.

Cosco and wife Kim bought the store after local historical society volunteers had worked to run it. Joining the town fully was important to Cosco — he said, “This is a building literally built on their hard work, their blood, sweat and tears. It felt like they wouldn’t let us fail, no matter what.”

So, they did it.

Feeling almost a calling to Putney, the Coscos packed up their lives and moved in 2019, to run a business five times the size of the one they had been running. After a few bustling months of meeting customers and vendors, setting up and settling in, the COVID-19 pandemic all but shut down the economy.

“That was really bizarre timing,” Cosco said. The store never closed. Not for a day. People relied on it, Cosco said, and despite the fuzziness, the “is this real?” and the uncertainty, the community and its general store came together in a unique way.

“That experience kind of solidified our relationship, we were there, we went through that together,” he said. “It shows these people who came from out of town, what we’re willing to do to survive.”

One thing he was willing to do was learn about VEDA and the ways in which it could help them weather the economic storm. It all happened quickly, Cosco said. Filling out forms, looking at numbers, and getting the money where it was needed.

If not for VEDA, “it would be pretty precarious,” for the store.

Through working with VEDA, Cosco was able to borrow in the form of a forgivable loan and also acquired a home equity line elsewhere, together adding an extra level of security to his portfolio — just in case.

“So I’d probably be taking loans and hoping to pay them off later this year or over the next couple of years. I’m determined to not let the business fail.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Putney General Store and VEDA: Keeping a community hub alive, with a little help.

Lawmakers weigh funding new judicial positions with higher corporate taxes and fees

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:03:05 +0000

Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington, has told his colleagues that it would take a decade to overcome the court backlog of more than 16,000 cases just on the criminal side at the judicial system’s current staffing levels. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

A bill moving through the Vermont Legislature this year would create dozens of new positions across the state’s judicial system — and fund them with higher corporate taxes and fees.

Scott has also said he wouldn’t support adding the new positions, regardless of the funding mechanism. The bill passed the House late last month and is now under consideration in the Senate.

Democratic lawmakers maintain that H.880 would support the needs that judicial system leaders have identified in testimony to lawmakers this year and that lesser investment would undermine efforts to improve public safety across the state.

“Without that funding, we have an unfunded liability,” said Rep. Martin LaLonde, the South Burlington Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, on the floor last month. “I think it’s pretty critical that — I’ll use cliches — we put our money where our mouths are. That we walk the walk, and not just talk the talk, about public safety.”

LaLonde told his colleagues that it would take a decade to overcome the court backlog of more than 16,000 cases just on the criminal side at the judicial system’s current staffing levels. Many of those pending cases are multiple years old.

The additional resources in the bill could cut that timeline at least in half, he said, adding that doing so would also bring the court system more in line with nationally established standards for the timelines with which a case enters and exits the system.

As approved by the House, H.880 would appropriate about $7.5 million in the 2025 fiscal year to fund the expanded workforce, as well as other initiatives. The new corporate taxes and fees would provide that much next year and significantly more in future years, according to estimates from the Joint Fiscal Office.

Most of the new positions are “limited service,” which typically means positions that will only exist for three years or less.

That includes 27 limited-service positions for the court system, among them judicial assistants, IT help desk analysts and other systems administrators. It also includes 10 limited-service deputy state’s attorneys and 10 limited-service victim’s advocates. The bill would also fund six limited-service positions in the state Department of Corrections to assist with remote hearings, as well as a limited-service court diversion position under the attorney general.

The funding would also support contracted sheriffs’ deputies, court technology, grants to community justice centers and legal services for low-income residents, among other initiatives.

In addition, the bill would require the departments that receive new limited-service positions to ask the Scott administration for additional funding for those roles in the 2026 fiscal year.

None of H.880’s proposed positions were in the administration’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2025. In fact, lawmakers have previously noted, Scott’s budget would prompt cost savings, forcing the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs to cut as many as nine prosecutor positions.

However, the administration has proposed creating two new superior court judge positions this year — an allocation for which is included in this year’s annual budget bill, House lawmakers said during floor discussion last month.

One of the budget’s chief architects — Sen. Jane Kitchel, the Caledonia Democrat who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee — said the budget, the so-called “big bill,” is where new positions and revenue sources should end up, rather than individual policy bills, such as H.880.

“We’re going to be building our budget the way we always do — so some of these bills that the House passed will end up being incorporated into the budget,” Kitchel said during Tuesday’s Senate Democratic Caucus meeting.

Kitchel noted then that she was concerned the House’s budget bill and the administration’s proposal did not include enough resources for the judicial system. Her local state’s attorney was “practically in tears” over the number of cases pending in their county, she said at the same meeting.

Broadly, H.880 would increase Vermont’s top marginal corporate tax rate from 8.5% to 10% — the highest top rate in the nation — and would add back a federal deduction on certain income into the definition of corporate net income in Vermont.

The Legislative Joint Fiscal Office estimates that these changes would generate about $2 million in new revenue in fiscal year 2025 and $33 million in fiscal year 2026, when most of them would go into effect.

In addition, the bill would increase the cost of both the initial notice fee and the renewal fee for securities — financial vehicles for investment or ownership — available for sale in the state. Those increases are expected to raise at least $6 million annually starting in fiscal year 2025.

The judicial bill includes language noting legislators’ intent to fund the new judicial positions going forward with revenue generated by the corporate tax and securities fees proposals. Another bill that passed the House last month, H.721, would direct some of that same revenue toward an expansion in eligibility for Vermont’s Dr. Dynasaur and Medicaid health insurance programs.

Scott spokesperson Jason Maulucci said last week that H.880 was akin to “throwing money at a problem” and that the governor would rather see further changes to criminal justice legislation. Several of the administration’s proposals have made it into bills that are moving through the House and the Senate this year.

“Simply growing the bureaucracy, without making real policy changes, won’t work. If the Legislature thinks more resources are needed, they should do so within existing resources,” Maulucci said in a statement.

Speaking shortly after LaLonde on the floor last month, Rep. Carl Demrow, D-Corinth, suggested that policy and financial resources could not be so easily separated. He said appropriations in the bill would help more criminal cases be disposed of quickly — something that isn’t always happening right now.

“Many of the public safety issues our communities face right now are a symptom of the system’s inability to process criminal cases in a timely fashion,” said Demrow, speaking for the House Ways and Means Committee. “The most effective way the Legislature can reduce crime is by ensuring certain and quick consequences.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Lawmakers weigh funding new judicial positions with higher corporate taxes and fees.

Barbara Felitti: Gov. Scott’s veto of the flavored tobacco ban is shameless

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:01:00 +0000

Dear Editor,

Shameless is the only word to describe Gov. Scott’s veto of the flavored and menthol tobacco ban. It seems his staff went into overdrive to find a creative argument of “inconsistencies” as a reason to veto the bill. Really, inconsistencies? So we are worried about the rights of tobacco products being unfairly targeted? It’s a crafted ploy so it would not seem that the governor is putting state tax revenue above the health of the state’s population. But that is exactly what he is doing.

As recently discussed in a letter to the editor of VTDigger, this is just one more example of Gov. Scott’s use of his veto power to scuttle months of work by committees and legislators. His reliance on vetoes displays an appalling lack of leadership. He should be working with legislators to craft legislation that can be passed, not throwing a wrench in at the last minute.

This is the best argument I can see for why divided government is not serving the best interests of Vermont’s citizens.

Barbara Felitti

Huntington

Read the story on VTDigger here: Barbara Felitti: Gov. Scott’s veto of the flavored tobacco ban is shameless.

Mark O’Maley: Don’t confirm Zoie Saunders as secretary of education

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:01:00 +0000

This commentary is by Mark O’Maley of Concord. He has worked in secondary and higher education for close to 30 years.

As the Vermont Senate prepares to hold a confirmation vote on the potential next secretary of education for the state of Vermont, I urge Vermonters and our elected officials to ask themselves: is this appointee whom we the citizens of Vermont really want in charge at the Agency of Education at this pivotal moment we find ourselves at?

My lifelong background in education and being deeply student-centered gives me serious pause over Gov. Phil Scott’s appointment of Ms. Zoie Watson Saunders, M.Ed to be the next secretary of education. Indeed I have major reservations about her qualifications to lead the Vermont Agency of Education for the following reasons:

1.) Ms. Saunders does not possess a terminal degree in education or otherwise — she has a 30-credit master’s degree from Vanderbilt University, and it is not directly related to teaching or working with students. This degree would not allow her to teach on the college level — more importantly, it would not allow her to teach on the elementary or secondary levels in public schools — without licensure.

The most recent Vermont secretaries of education — Rebecca Holcombe, Daniel French, Heather Bouchey — have all possessed a doctoral degree. There are major differences between an M.Ed such as Ms. Saunders holds and the Ed.D and Ph.D degrees. I deeply hold that one’s own education, paired with real teaching and school administration experience, is paramount in a position such as secretary of education. Ms. Saunders does not possess that knowledge or experience based on her credentials and resume that Gov. Scott has presented.

2.) Ms. Saunders is not licensed to teach, and to the best of my knowledge has never been a teacher nor worked in the classroom — public or private. Nor has she been a principal of a school or superintendent of a school district. Additionally I see no evidence that she has served on a school board, nor has she has worked directly with students and families. To me, all of these deficiencies disqualify Ms. Saunders from being confirmed and serving as in the Vermont secretary of education position.

3.) Ms. Saunders extensive work with/for charter schools is concerning. A core belief I have personally encountered from many charter schools nationwide is that they feel they are entitled to public funds, but often insist they have no accountability to the taxpayer and voter, as they weaken public education. There are many outstanding questions about her work with charter schools for sure, and questions about how that work on her part is at odds with Vermont’s public education systems.

4.) It appears Gov. Scott and his team paid no attention to the surveys done by the Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont Superintendents Association and the Vermont Principals Association — which clearly voiced the needs Vermont educators and educational leaders had for a new Secretary of Education.

His ignoring this input is deeply disappointing and concerning. In so many ways I believe Gov. Scott has done a great job for Vermont and Vermonters through some very difficult times during his terms, but with this appointment of Ms. Saunders and his failure to fill the secretary position for so long, he has failed Vermont’s students and citizens spectacularly.

5.) As Vermonters, we are facing hard upcoming conversations and decisions concerning school spending, budgets, property taxes and potential consolidation of school buildings within towns and districts. These are issues the local schools boards and administrators will be on the front line for. It would stand to reason that someone who actually lives and works in Vermont should be at the helm of the Agency of Education for these decisions we will have to wrestle with. As one of my local state reps recently said to me “we need a leader who understands — and has lived — our history, and still can think afresh about our next stage”.

I can suggest that the disastrous appointment of Parwinder Grewal from Texas to the presidency of the newly emerging Vermont State University serves as an example of a non-Vermonter making horrible education decisions for Vermonters — and it should serve as a warning to us all. We saw how that played out, and the cost Vermont paid.

It just makes no sense to me whatsoever, and indeed should serve as a lesson for Gov. Scott, the Vermont Senate and Vermonters statewide when considering the appointment of Ms. Saunders. To lead the Agency of Education, we need someone who understands how diverse, unique and complex Vermont and Vermonters are.

That Ms. Saunders is from Florida currently is of no importance whatsoever — regardless of what any cruel online comments say. That she is not from, living in, or has ever lived in Vermont — paired with that she is not a teacher — is of utmost importance. You wouldn’t want someone who, say, lives in Chicago, being the state representative or senator for Saint Johnsbury, Bennington, Winooski, Castleton or Wilmington, would you? Why then does Gov. Scott think we need someone who comes from far away making educational choices for our students and towns?

With these concerns in mind, I ask all Vermonters to contact their state senator and to urge them to do what’s best for Vermont’s children and families, education system and towns by not confirming Zoie Watson Saunders to the position of Vermont Secretary of Education. Send Gov. Scott back to the drawing board to select a qualified Vermonter to this crucial position.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Mark O’Maley: Don’t confirm Zoie Saunders as secretary of education.

Vermont Conversation: Peace activist Jules Rabin on his century of raising hell and raising bread

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:38:40 +0000

Peace activist Jules Rabin. Photo by David Goodman/VTDigger

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more.

Even if you don’t know Jules Rabin, there’s a good chance that you have seen him protesting or read one of his many letters to the editor or commentaries in local publications. Rabin is Vermont’s most tenacious and dedicated peace activist. He celebrated his 100^th birthday on April 6 by asking friends to join him in downtown Montpelier to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.

Rabin grew up in Boston, the youngest of five children. His father worked in a junkyard sorting metal and the family struggled to get by. His experience living in poverty in a working class community during the Depression made him a lifelong crusader for social justice.

Rabin attended the Boston Latin School, then went on to get a bachelor’s degree at Harvard and studied anthropology in graduate school at Columbia University. He lived in Greenwich Village where he met his wife Helen. In 1968, he moved to Vermont to teach anthropology at Goddard College, where he taught for nine years.

After Goddard downsized and he lost his teaching job, Jules and Helen started Upland Bakers, baking sourdough bread for 35 years in a wood-fired oven that they built. Their bread earned such a loyal following that a local store posted a sign to customers: “To prevent RIOTS and acts of TERRORISM, we ask you to please limit your purchase of Upland French Bread to no more than three loaves.”

Jules Rabin attended his first protest at the age of 8, and has protested wars in every generation. From 1960 to 1961, he participated in a 7,000-mile march from San Francisco to Moscow to promote nonviolence and nuclear disarmament. He spent years protesting against the Vietnam War, and in the early 2000s, just as the Iraq War was starting, he could be found in a weekly peace vigil in front of the Montpelier Federal Building in a protest that continued uninterrupted for nine years. Rabin, who is Jewish, has long protested Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians.

Peace activist Jules Rabin. Photo by David Goodman/VTDigger

“How could the Nazi genocide of Jews 1933-45 be followed by the Israeli genocide of Palestinians today?” asked Rabin. He held a sign with a similar message at a recent protest. “I feel so strongly that what Israel is doing today to Palestinians so much resembles what Germans did to Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and everywhere else in Europe and World War II. It’s kind of a pitiless wrecking of human flesh.”

Jules and Helen Rabin have lived in Marshfield in the same house for 56 years, where they raised their two daughters, Hannah and Nessa. They have three grandchildren.

I asked Rabin what keeps him protesting. “It’s not that I’m a morbid person always looking for the darkest corner of the room to squat in and be miserable in,” he replied. But he added, “One can’t look the other way when something dreadful is going on.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Conversation: Peace activist Jules Rabin on his century of raising hell and raising bread.

Final Reading: Jane Kitchel joins the race for the Vermont Senate’s ‘third member’

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 23:15:01 +0000

Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, speaks before the Senate Finance Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Fans of inside baseball, please take your seats. Today, we’re talking process under the golden dome.

On Monday, Vermont’s longest-serving state senator, Dick Mazza, announced his resignation from the Grand Isle district seat he occupied for nearly four decades. The moderate Democrat’s resignation not only leaves an open seat in the 30-member chamber but also on one of the building’s most influential panels: the Senate Committee on Committees.

Composed of the lieutenant governor, Senate president pro tempore and a so-called third member, the committee holds the quietly powerful job of assigning senators to the chamber’s committees and selecting who will chair those panels. Like the pro tem, the third member is elected to the position each biennium by the full chamber.

According to Senate Secretary John Bloomer, Mazza occupied the influential role since 1997. With his resignation, the position is open for the first time in 27 years. Vying for the open seat is Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, according to an email obtained by VTDigger on Wednesday.

“The thing about the third member is, they really have to be somebody who’s highly trusted by all three parties,” Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, said Wednesday.

“The Republicans want to make sure that their rights as the minority are protected and that they’re not getting shut out of things that they want or need. So it’s usually somebody with substantial experience,” he added. “That’s a category that Sen. Kitchel definitely fits.”

Baruth spoke to VTDigger Wednesday afternoon — rather serendipitously, from the Senate Transportation Committee room that Mazza occupied for years as committee chair. The pro tem said the role of the third member “is really interesting because they don’t tend to be known or understood by anybody outside the Legislature, even most people in the House.”

Baruth gestured to a corkboard affixed to the transportation committee room’s wall that serves as a sort of scrapbook to Mazza’s tenure. Tacked onto the board beside numerous photos of Mazza smiling with his colleagues is a Seven Days cover dubbing Mazza “The Advisor,” depicting him in the style of “The Godfather” movie poster.

“Dick Mazza was that person who, behind the scenes, exerted a lot of power,” Baruth said.

With Mazza’s resignation, the search for a new third member commences. At noon on Monday, Baruth sent out an email to the chamber laying out the timeline:

Friday, April 12: Deadline for placing one’s name in contention
Tuesday, April 16: Democratic caucus candidate forum and Democratic caucus vote
Tuesday, April 23: Formal vote of all senators on senate floor

Once the Democratic caucus anoints its candidate next week, Baruth said, it’s typical that the nominee runs unopposed in the full Senate vote — but another senator could go rogue and challenge the nominee then.

If someone does, they may face a formidable opponent. Less than 20 minutes after Baruth sent his note to senators Monday, Kitchel emailed her colleagues to say that she would throw her hat in the ring.

“After discussion with some of my colleagues, and recognizing that our work in the Senate has to continue, I have made a decision to run for the position of third member to fill the vacancy left by Senator Mazza,” Kitchel wrote.

Baruth said that, as of Wednesday afternoon, no other senator had submitted their name to the caucus for consideration.

Time is of the essence to fill the seat. In the waning weeks of the legislative session, the committee will have the all-important task of appointing senators to conference committees to hash out differences between House and Senate bills.

Perhaps most vital among those conference committees will be the six-member panel selected to reconcile the House and Senate budget drafts — a behemoth bill spearheaded in the Senate by none other than Senate Appropriations Committee chair Kitchel.

— Sarah Mearhoff

In the know

The Vermont House’s tax-writing committee rolled out a preliminary proposal this week that would radically reimagine education finance in the state.

The plan, written into the annual bill that helps set tax rates statewide, would provide school districts a base payment student, meaning voters would only consider any spending in excess of that base.

The Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, plans to hash out many of the details by the end of the week. As written, the biggest changes, including the base or “educational opportunity payments,” would not take effect until fiscal year 2027, two budget cycles from now.

Read more here.

— Ethan Weinstein

The federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a landmark rule on Wednesday that regulates the amount of PFAS, a harmful class of chemicals, in public drinking water for the first time.

Exposure to PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been linked to cancers, liver and heart problems, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, according to the EPA.

In Vermont, the state’s Agency of Natural Resources has been regulating PFAS in public drinking water systems since 2019. The process began after state officials discovered high levels of the substance in private drinking wells in the Bennington area.

Despite the existence of state regulations, Vermont will still need to adapt to the new federal rules.

Read more here.

— Emma Cotton

Vermont officials estimate that some 160,000 people traveled by car into the state ahead of Monday’s total solar eclipse, based on preliminary data collected by the Agency of Transportation.

Those people came in some 60,000 vehicles, state officials said Wednesday, noting they started measuring the traffic volume last Friday. Those figures match the upper limits of what the state was projecting in the leadup to the eclipse.

Read more here.

— Shaun Robinson

On the move

The House advanced S.25, which bans the production, sale or distribution of a variety of consumer products that are made with PFAS chemicals.

The Senate advanced H.603, which allows small farms to sell cuts of poultry directly to a consumer or restaurant. Current law allows only whole birds to be sold.

The chamber also advanced H.621 and H.741, which removes copayments for imaging services used to detect breast cancer and expands coverage for colorectal cancer screening in accordance with national standards and for those who are at the highest risk.

Final approval is expected this week, after which the bills would go to Gov. Phil Scott for his signature.

— VTD Editor

Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.

What we’re reading

Prosecutor details past police encounters of suspect in arson at Sen. Bernie Sanders office, VTDigger

Zoie Saunders, Gov. Scott’s pick for education secretary, faces questions about her qualifications, Seven Days

Upper Valley towns seek voice in Wilder Dam’s future, Valley News

Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: Jane Kitchel joins the race for the Vermont Senate’s ‘third member’ .

With weeks to go, could lawmakers radically reimagine Vermont’s education finance system?

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:52:42 +0000

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro, speaks during a committee meeting at the Statehouse in Montpelier on April 3. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

The Vermont House’s tax-writing committee rolled out a preliminary proposal this week that would radically reimagine education finance in the state.

“I know it’s always a draft until we pass it,” Kornheiser said during a committee meeting Tuesday. “But it’s like a very draft, draft, draft,” she said, tacking on a few more “drafts” to the qualification.

The tax committee is looking at potentially wresting considerable power away from local voters as property taxpayers face estimated double-digit increases statewide.

Current projections, with a few legislative assumptions baked in, would increase the average homestead property tax bill by 15.46% and the average non-homestead tax bill — paid by businesses, rental property owners and second-homeowners — by 18.57%. Specific bill changes will vary widely from town to town.

The projected tax hikes reflect an estimated $192 million increase in education spending from the current year to next. That increase has fallen by about $40 million in the last month as school districts revised budgets in response to legislative action. State data suggests health care costs, construction, special education, disappearing federal money and increased salaries are all contributing significantly to the increases.

Tucked inside the annual yield bill, the plan outlines education financing changes for this year, next, and the year after.

The plan would gradually transition Vermont to something resembling a foundation funding formula, a popular model used in other states, and would still rely on a statewide grand list. Newly calculated pupil weights created by previous legislation, which provide more money to schools for students that are more expensive to teach, would also continue.

The idea shares similarities with a plan outlined to VTDigger last month by Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, a member of the ways and means committee.

For this year, few immediate fixes are contemplated. As initially written, the bill prohibits districts from drawing from the education fund in order to add money to capital reserves. On Wednesday, committee members debated the viability of that idea and whether to add language that would send any surplus money raised by districts in 2025 back into the statewide pot of money, but the feasibility of that idea is also unknown.

The current version of the bill would impose what’s known as a cloud tax by repealing an exemption on the sales tax for software accessed over the internet. That decision would raise a projected $20 million annually.

Next year, lawmakers would need to hash out more of the plan’s specifics if the state wanted to shift to the “educational opportunity payments.”

The legislation would also create “allowable growth percentages” for district budgets in the next two years — fiscal years 2026 and 2027 — increasing the tax liability for districts that spend beyond the growth rate, and allowing low-spending districts to increase their budgets slightly more than the highest-spenders.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Scott called it “good news” that lawmakers were considering a plan that would address structural issues with education funding.

But Scott also called it “concerning” that the plan doesn’t address this year’s projected tax increases. He said his administration would issue a response acknowledging the strengths of the plan and the problems it sees with it.

Much about the plan remains in flux, perhaps most notably the size of the per-pupil payments, which will come from an analysis of what an adequate education costs in Vermont. The committee expects that number “any day now,” Kornheiser said Tuesday.

The committee members have also discussed a tax targeting short-term rentals, though the size of such a surcharge, and whether or not to include it at all, is an open question.

“We put a bunch of big ideas out into the world,” Kornheiser said Wednesday morning, telling her colleagues that the committee would continue “puzzling through” the bill.

“It’s fairly intense,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: With weeks to go, could lawmakers radically reimagine Vermont’s education finance system?.

Prosecutor details past police encounters of suspect in arson at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:04:04 +0000

The damaged door at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office in Burlington. Photo via police affidavit

A federal prosecutor seeking to hold the man accused of setting a fire at the Burlington office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is highlighting an incident last summer in which law enforcement officials in another state seized an AK-47 from his vehicle.

In a five-page motion filed ahead of Thursday’s detention hearing for Shant Michael Soghomonian, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher described him as a flight risk and a danger to the public if released.

“His demonstrated willingness to place lives in danger through the use of fire in an occupied building is a clear concern,” the prosecutor wrote of Soghomonian.

To strengthen his case, Lasher cited an August 2023 incident in which Soghomonian was stopped for a traffic violation by Illinois State Police. Troopers then seized an AK-47 rifle with two magazines, along with 11.5 grams of cannabis, from his vehicle.

“He told a trooper that he did not have weapons in his vehicle, despite the rifle in his truck,” the prosecutor wrote.

Also found in the vehicle, according to Lasher, was the book, “How to Blow up a Pipeline.” Despite its title, the 2021 book by Andreas Malm does not, in fact, provide instructions to carry out such an act. Rather, according to the Washington Post, it “criticizes climate activists’ commitment to pacifism, and argues for the adoption of strategic property destruction as a tactic.”

During the Illinois traffic stop, Soghomonian identified himself with an Oregon driver’s license that was later found invalid and told authorities he was traveling from the West Coast, according to the filing.

“Subsequent records checks indicated the defendant’s vehicle had been in New York, then Chicago, then California, and then Pennsylvania all within August 2023,” Lasher wrote.

“In other words,” the prosecutor wrote in his filing, “defendant has a history of itinerancy, firearms possession, and lack of candor with law enforcement, all exacerbating his risk of flight and undermining his appropriateness for effective supervision.”

There is no indication in Lasher’s filing if authorities brought charges against Soghomonian in connection with the Illinois traffic stop.

Lasher’s filing also asserted that in 2005, while Soghomonian was a juvenile in his mid-teens, he was arrested for an alleged assault involving a firearm on a person in Glendale, California.

The prosecutor added, “the case appears to have been later dismissed in part in the ‘furtherance of justice’ on some counts and to have resulted in the imposition of wardship on others.”

No court filings by the prosecution, including the latest detention motion, provided any indication of a motive in the Burlington arson, and Soghomonian did not give a statement to authorities. Instead, he asked to speak with a lawyer.

Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a federal charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce stemming from the alleged arson Friday at Sanders’ Church Street Senate office.

Soghomonian made an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Burlington and a hearing has been set for Thursday afternoon to determine whether he will remain in custody while the case against him is pending.

Sanders was not in the office at the time of the fire, although seven staff members were present. No one was physically injured in the fire, police said. The historic building did sustain water damage and the door was charred by the fire.

Lasher, in his detention motion, said that he needed time to further research Soghomonian’s residential and employment history.

However, based on the investigation so far, the prosecutor wrote, Soghomonian appears to have been a “temporary resident in a Chittenden County hotel” between February and his arrest Sunday.

“The only data available regarding his criminal history suggest he would continue his mobile and itinerant past,” Lasher wrote. “Accordingly, the defendant’s history and characteristics weigh in favor of detention.”

Barclay Johnson, a federal public defender representing Soghomonian, could not be reached Wednesday afternoon for comment.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Prosecutor details past police encounters of suspect in arson at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office.

New EPA rule will require more of Vermont’s public drinking water systems to address PFAS

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:58:14 +0000

A drinking fountain. Photo via Adobe Stock

The federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a landmark rule on Wednesday that regulates the amount of PFAS, a harmful class of chemicals, in public drinking water for the first time.

Exposure to PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been linked to cancers, liver and heart problems, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, according to the EPA.

Despite the existence of state regulations, Vermont will still need to adapt to the new federal rules.

Vermont’s statewide limit for PFAS in drinking water is 20 parts per trillion, higher than the new federal standard, which is 4 parts per trillion for the chemicals PFOA and PFOS and 10 parts per trillion of four other types of PFAS. State water quality standards must be equal to or stricter than federal standards.

Ben Montross, manager for the Department of Environmental Conservation’s public drinking water program, said about 20 public drinking water systems exceed the current state standard, including several that serve Vermont schools. An additional 30 systems would exceed the new federal standard.

A public drinking water system falls within the state and federal regulations if it serves the same people for six months or more in a non-residential setting — for example, schools, office buildings, factories — or if it’s a community or municipal system that serves at least 25 people or 15 connections in a residential setting.

PFAS can contaminate drinking water sources through, for example, nearby industrial activity, or when a school or other facility has a private septic system and a private well and regularly use substances such as floor wax, floor cleaners or other chemicals.

“That will go down the drain, and the drain is septic, and then that contaminates the well, and then it just kind of loops and perpetuates in that cycle,” Montross said.

Treatment systems that filter out PFAS are often expensive. The cost varies widely and depends on a number of factors, such as whether the drinking water system has a space to perform the treatment, or whether an additional building with light and heat is required, according to Montross. The water may need to be pretreated to remove substances such as iron and manganese before PFAS can be removed.

“It really is site and system specific,” Montross said.

The EPA’s announcement of its new rule also pointed to a slew of federal funding that can be used to help communities address PFAS. The pots of money include $1 billion in new funding; $9 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that has already been designated for drinking water impacted by PFAS and other emerging contaminants; and $12 billion, also through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, for general drinking water improvements, including PFAS.

Vermont will see between $8 million to $9 million of that money every year for the next five years, Montross said. Managers of public water systems can apply for grants through the Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We are also setting up a contract where we are hiring three engineering firms that will be doing the design for free for those water systems that need the help,” he added. “We are about to issue those contracts and then start gathering and soliciting the systems that need the help and then assigning an engineer to them at our expense using that grant money.”

There is also a forgivable loan program available to public drinking water systems that will have between $7 million and $8 million of funding available each year over the next five years, according to Montross.

The Vermont Department of Health is working to compile a list of resources for people with private wells who are concerned about PFAS contamination, he said.

The EPA gives states three years to collect data about PFAS in public drinking water systems and another two years to implement treatment systems. Because Vermont has already been monitoring PFAS in public drinking water, the state has a head start, Montross said.

Even so, officials at the Agency of Natural Resources still have a lot of work to do before they understand exactly how the state’s existing regulations overlap with the new federal regulations, he said. For example, there are thousands of types of PFAS, and the federal regulation applies to six of them. Vermont regulates five types of PFAS.

Last March, during an earlier stage of the process, the EPA was considering an even stricter proposal for regulating PFAS. The agency’s announcement on Wednesday calls the final regulation “achievable using a range of available technologies,” but it still sets a “maximum contaminant level goal,” a non-enforceable health-based goal, at zero for PFOA and PFOS.

“This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers,” the announcement states.

Hayley Jones, Vermont and New Hampshire director of Slingshot, a regional advocacy organization that helps communities organize and fight the impacts of pollution, celebrated the new regulation on Wednesday. The group was active in Bennington when the news of PFAS contaminations arrived there, they said.

Jones said the news is “tangible” because “we haven’t had any enforceable federal standards that regulate PFAS and our public drinking water supply until this announcement,” and “symbolic because it’s showing that the federal government is really putting their weight behind all these community efforts to regulate and eradicate PFAS.”

“We’ve always called for zero,” they said, “because we know, and our leaders who have been exposed know, that there’s no safe level of exposure to this class of chemicals. So four parts per trillion is a great start, and we’ll call for it lower and lower.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: New EPA rule will require more of Vermont’s public drinking water systems to address PFAS.

Burlington residents share thoughts on potential pro-Palestine ballot advisory question

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 04:36:58 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - It was a heated scene inside Burlington’s city council meeting Monday night. The gathering was a special meeting discussing a formal pledge from the city calling for justice in Palestine. The city council eventually voted against the proposal in a 5 to 7 vote.

More than 1,500 Burlington residents signed on in support of putting an advisory question on the town meeting day ballot that supports Palestine, but also condemns support to Israel. The resolution opposes all forms of racism, and an end to what the petitioners call ‘Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.’

“The Zionists claim the referendum is racist, that is false, it explicitly opposes antisemitism as well as all forms of racism... The Zionists claim that this is not a local issue, that is false, Vermont tax payers send nearly $6 million a year to the state of Israel,” said Burlington resident Ashley Smith.

Councilors who sponsored the proposed charter are also calling for an end to all support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza. It comes after last year’s split 6 to 6 council vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. That measure originally started simply as a resolution condemning the Thanksgiving shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent on North Prospect Street.

Community members in attendance spoke out on both sides of the issue, those in favor saying Burlington citizens deserve the opportunity to weigh in.

“I’m here tonight as a Jewish-American to ask that you not block the Apartheid-free pledge from going on the ballot. Our collective safety is bound up together,” said resident Britta Fisher.

those opposed claim the question is antisemitic in nature. “This ballot item makes many Jewish people feel unwelcomed and afraid in Burlington, asking town residents to vote on whether to condemn the state of Israel, where half of the world’s Jews live, will lead to a rise in antisemitism here in Burlington,” said Rabbi Aaron Philmus of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue.

“This resolution would bring no benefits to the Burlington City, stick to championing for the people of Burlington, stay away from matters outside your jurisdiction. This resolution will not bring peace, it will bring division into this city,” said resident Josephina Leit.

New Norwich President postpones instatement following health concerns

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 04:25:45 +0000

NORWICH, Vt. (WCAX) - Norwich University has announced that the school’s replacement pick for president will not be taking the reigns until later this spring.

School officials say shortly after nominating Lieutenant General John Broadmeadow as the next president of the university, Broadmeadow became aware of a medical concern that requires testing to determine the severity of the illness.

While they did not disclose what the medical concern is, the board of trustees says they still feel confident in his ability to serve the university, and that Acting President Karen Gaines will remain in her position until springtime.

T-Ruggs standoff ends with no injuries after 6 hours

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 04:21:47 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A police standoff in Burlington’s Old North End today has been resolved after 6 hours of negotiations.

Burlington Police say an armed man ran into T-Ruggs bar near the corner of Elmwood Avenue and North Street at around 2:15 p.m.

It all started when the man, identified as 23-year-old Tyshawn Lee, who was already wanted by police, was approached by a police officer who told him he was under arrest for violating his conditions of release and identity theft.

Mr. Lee backed away and produced two cutting instruments, one of which he held to his own neck, and the other he pointed at the officer. The officer attempting the arrest then drew his firearm, and Lee ran away into the tavern.

The bar was occupied by several patrons, most of whom fled the bar, but two people—a man and a woman—were trapped inside as Lee barricaded himself inside. A five-hour standoff ensued.

Police blocked streets and nearby schools were placed on lockdown.

At around 7:15 p.m., the woman was able to escape. The male hostage began to fight Mr. Lee as a tactical service unit entered the bar.

They got the man out and used a flash bang to distract and subdue him. Lee was taken into custody on an array of charges.

Police discovered several Molotov cocktails in the bar that Lee had made.

Lee was taken to the UVM Medical Center for treatment and evaluation.

Made in Vermont: Letty’s Lovelies Co.

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:05:47 +0000

WEST DANVILLE, Vt. (WCAX) - West Danville’s Krystal Foster might not describe herself as an artist, but her creations are certainly works of art.

“Aspiring artistic,” Foster said with a laugh.

Like many other small businesses in Vermont, Foster got her start during the pandemic. “During COVID, something to kind of occupy my time,” she said. During an otherwise dark time in the rest of the world, Foster needed a little color. That’s when she found polymer clay.

“Saw it on Pinterest one day and thought, ‘You know what? I could do that.’ Gave it a try and haven’t looked back since,” she said. “It’s a fun outlet and when I’m just creating, I just feel relaxed and kind of shut everything out.”

With time on her side -- and plenty of clay -- she played around with her newfound craft, watched videos, and honed in her skills, focusing mostly on earrings and jewelry. “I just kept building confidence with what I was doing and now I feel really confident in it,” Foster said.

Before long, she was ready to take a leap of faith, launching Letty’s Lovelies Co. in September of 2023. The namesake is a nod to her daughter, and her kids were a huge reason for taking the jump. Now, she’s the proud owner of her own small business. If nothing else, Foster wanted to make sure her earrings checked all the right boxes, from wearability to affordability. “The biggest compliment and thing that people when I do markets, when they’re touching it they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t realize it was going to be so lightweight,’” she says. “I really wanted people to come back every month, every couple of months and buy something and not have it be like a once-a-year splurge.”

Typically, her earrings take the spotlight. She offers clip-ons and custom work, as well as other jewelry online and at about a dozen stores. She also has her work listed on Faire, where shops can buy her products wholesale. As Letty’s Lovelies Co. grows, she’s started to dabble in décor, too. “I’ve got a million ideas of things that I want to do... trinket dishes, more wall hangings. It’s endless,” she laughs. With nothing but support from the community, friends, family, and other Vermont small businesses, Foster has the backing to shape this newborn business any way she’d like.

“I’m just excited to come down here every day and make something new and exciting and have people respond to it. It’s all about doing it for everybody else,” she said.

Burlington mayor proposes tax hike for public safety

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:33:08 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Burlington voters will be asked to approve a property increase to help close a proposed $9 million gap in the city budget. The mayor says the hike is needed to fund public safety improvements, but that’s only one factor in the growth of city spending.

Miro Weinberger is in the final months of a 12-year run as mayor. His final budget includes a proposed three-cent property tax increase that would equate to around $150 for the owners of a $500,000 home

The mayor also wants to raise the hotel portion of the gross receipts by two percent, apply a million dollars of one-time funds, and look for $3 million in cuts to city departments other than public safety.

“We’re taking this on with a variety of strategies. We are looking to make substantial cuts in city costs. We have a couple studies underway that are gonna help us target those costs and make those reductions and that’s gonna solve about a third of the problem,” Weinberger said.

The mayor says the tax increases are needed to offset budget pressures from soaring inflation, the loss of pandemic relief funds, and growth in city government, including the creation of three new departments and big investments in fire, police, and police support staff.

Former GOP council member Kurt Wright says with taxpayers also facing a huge school tax increase, the mayor needs to find more to cut from the municipal budget. “Affordability is probably the number two issue after public safety and policing issues. The gaps closing, I think, because it’s becoming so expensive to live in a city that we love. So, I think they need to honestly redouble their efforts and see if they can squeeze more than $3 million out,” he said.

When Weinberger took office in 2012, the General Fund budget was $65 million. By 2021, it had grown to $78 million. But since then, spending has ramped up more quickly -- to $87 million in FY22, $96 million in FY23, and $101 million this year -- a 30% increase in just four years.

Weinberger says that growth in spending has not all been on the backs of local taxpayers. “Wome of those budget years include substantial federal funds for costs that go away. Some of them include new services but that are being entirely paid for by new sources of revenue, whether those are opioid settlement dollars or ongoing federal funds,” he said.

The proposed tax increase comes as the school district is asking for a 14% tax increase to help build the new high school. That would add $1,000 to the tax bill of a $500,000 home.

The mayor is presenting his proposed tax rate increase to the council on Monday night. The council is expected to vote next week on whether to put it on the ballot for March.

Standoff at Burlington bar prompts school lockdowns

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:25:48 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A police standoff in Burlington’s Old North End Monday afternoon prompted authorities to lock down local schools.

The Burlington Police say an armed man ran into T-Ruggs bar near the corner of Elmwood Avenue and North Street. Police Chief Jon Murad says the man was “barricaded inside” and that there are two other people in the bar. He says they are attempting to negotiate with the man.

Schools in the Old North End were placed on lockdown but students were released to go home at 3 p.m.

People are being advised to avoid the area.

There were no immediate details on what prompted the standoff.

Pro-Palestinian protesters confront Burlington City Council over Gaza crisis

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:08:26 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - The Burlington City Council Monday night is expected to face another standoff with pro-Palestinian protesters over the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

The group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine has gathered 1,500 signatures and wants the council to approve an advisory question on the Town Meeting Day ballot opposing all forms of racism and an end to “Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.”

It comes after the council last year split 6 to 6 on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. That measure originally started simply as a resolution condemning the shootings at Thanksgiving of three college students of Palestinian descent

Protesters Monday hope to pack City Hall to push their point.

Burlington City Council split on resolution calling for Gaza cease-fire

Triple-shooting in Burlington leads to controversial resolution before City Council

Vermont public transit system faces funding crisis

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:01:43 +0000

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - What will it take to make Vermont’s public transit system financially sustainable?

Vermont has seven transit providers in different parts of the state. Pandemic stimulus funds have dried up and they have been taking on higher costs caused by inflation, staffing shortages, decreased riders, and other factors.

In a new report to state lawmakers, officials estimate more than a $3.5 million deficit by 2027. They stress that keeping regional public transit afloat is critical for people without transportation.

“People still need to get where they need to go, whether it’s to work, medical appointments, social services, legal services, school -- people need to get where they need to go to be members of society,” said Jim Moulton with Tri-Valley Transit.

To draw down federal funds, the report suggests lawmakers pass new fees on electric utilities, vehicle registrations, retail deliveries, or a new tax on rental cars.

Green Mountain Transit holding public meetings for bus fare feedback

Bus service offers new route for displaced Rochester shoppers

Vt. lawmakers push for 32-hour work week

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:47:24 +0000

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - There’s a push in the Vermont Legislature for a shorter work week.

What would it take to increase the productivity and the mental well-being of Vermont’s workforce? At least one lawmaker in the state Legislature says a 32-hour work week could be the answer.

Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford, is thinking about the American work week in a post-pandemic world. “People are trying to reassess their values and how they are spending their time as their most critical resource,” Priestley said.

She has introduced a bill setting Vermont’s work week for full and part-time employees at 32 hours. That’s four, eight-hour days, or five 6.5-hour days.

“A scheduling nightmare, I think, but from a mental health perspective we have so many people dealing with burnout, especially coming out of the pandemic and remote work,” said Rhonda Oaxaca, a Barre resident.

The idea is modeled on research from Europe showing increased productivity and reduced burnout.

J. Peterson of Washington says he used to work in a private school out of state where they had three-day weekends. “It was a harder four days but it opened up for a lot of extra life to happen in the three days off,” he said.

But the proposal may not work for all professions, including first responders, and it could lead to higher labor costs for businesses or lower-income hourly workers. “I question how do we protect those that are already struggling to get hours they need in a 40 hour work week limitation if companies are already holding that at bay, are we now dropping the number there to where companies are hiring even more people at even lower hours,” Peterson said.

Similar proposals have been floated in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, and on the federal level. Ultimately, Rep. Priestley says this bill is a jumping-off point for a larger discussion about Vermonter’s work-life balance.

Police seek suspect in South Burlington pepper spray attack

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:41:10 +0000

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Police are seeking to identify a man they say was involved in a pepper spray attack at a South Burlington hotel Sunday night.

It happened at the Smart Suites on Shelburne Road. South Burlington Police say two men were involved in a fight around 8 p.m. and that one used a “substantial amount of pepper spray” pepper spray.

Police say the men were familiar with each other but that the attacker’s name is not known.

Littleton Police investigate 3 overdose deaths

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:40:30 +0000

LITTLETON, N.H. (WCAX) - Police are investigating three overdose deaths in Grafton County, New Hampshire, Sunday.

Littleton Police says they responded to a medical call Sunday afternoon and found three individuals in their 20s -- two from Dalton and one from Littleton -- had died together from apparent overdoses.

Police say they are working with the Grafton County Attorney’s office and other authorities to find those responsible for the sale of narcotics that were involved.

“I first want to express my heartfelt condolences to the families impacted by this devastating event,” Littleton Police Chief Paul Smith said in a statement. “These deaths highlight the dangers associated with drug use. I also want to urge the public to be aware that these and other recent overdoses may be linked to a hazardous substance currently circulating in the region.”

Anyone with information is urged to call the police.

Vt. reaches $2.3M settlement over cleanup of former Hartford dry cleaning business

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:39:20 +0000

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) -The state of Vermont has settled with the estate of a Hartford property owner who owned the site of a former dry cleaning business contaminated by dangerous chemicals.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office Monday announced the $2.3 million settlement in the long-running case that dates back to 2010. It involves a property at 7 Union Street that operated as a dry cleaner from around 1977 to 1995 and became contaminated with perchloroethylene and other dangerous chemicals. Richard Daniels bought the property in 1995 and later transferred it to a company he set up to avoid liability for the contamination, according to the AG’s office.

The state in 2006 took steps to remediate for dangerous chemicals that threatened the property and surrounding homes. In 2014 they filed a lawsuit to collect from Daniels and eventually won in court, requiring Daniels to pay for the cleanup. The Vermont Supreme Court later upheld that ruling. Daniels started but did not complete the corrective actions before he died in 2021, clearing the way for the December settlement with his estate.

The state had previously settled for $100,000 with the second owners of the dry cleaning business.

UVM Medical Center wants to buy Fanny Allen campus

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:36:19 +0000

COLCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) - The UVM Medical Center wants to buy the Fanny Allen campus in Colchester.

The facility is currently owned by Covenant Health but leased by the hospital. UVMMC Monday announced they submitted a plan to the Green Mountain Care Board to buy the facility for $17.3 million. They say the campus is needed to ensure the continuity of care for thousands of patients.

“The Fanny Allen is a critical piece of our plan to meet the health access needs of Vermonters over the next decade, and preserving uninterrupted access to the wide variety of services on the campus must be a top priority,” UVMMC President Stephen Leffler said in a statement. “We refuse to gamble on that future, and so we must move now to secure this essential asset that serves the health and wellbeing of our patients.”

The hospital spent more than a year -- and a lot of money -- working to solve air quality issues at the facility over the past several years.

UVM Medical Center pushes for new outpatient surgery center

UVM Health Network faces $21M in losses

Return of mystery smell prompts closure of Fanny Allen operating rooms

UVM Health Network still dealing with cyberattack, mysterious smell

Problems at Fanny Allen campus persist

Fanny Allen rehab set to reopen

Rehab patients moved from Fanny Allen after mystery staff sickness

Fanny Allen officials say equipment will monitor for future mystery odors

Haley makes final pitch to NH voters ahead of primary

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:19:19 +0000

FRANKLIN, N.H. (WCAX) - In less than 24 hours, Granite State voters will head to the polls for the state’s first-in-the-nation primary. On Monday, Nikki Haley made her final pitch, telling voters that she has the best shot to beat President Joe Biden in November.

Caroline Butler, an undeclared voter who can vote in the GOP primary if she chooses, was first in line Monday to a Haley event at the Franklin VFW. “It’s just wonderful that we have this great opportunity to come out and meet and see all the candidates,” said the Alton woman. Butler hasn’t made up her mind yet about who she’s voting for.

Dale Spaulding is also undeclared but is all in for Haley. “I also think she is decent. She is trying to do the right thing for our country. I think she can unite us and I don’t think others can,” Spaulding said.

“People want to go in a new direction. They want a new generational conservative leader,” Haley said.

Donald Trump has led in the polls in New Hampshire and nationally. He won last week’s Iowa caucuses with 51% of the vote. But in an exclusive interview before the rally, Haley said her party is ready to move past Trump. “Now it is about how do we get people out to vote. We think it is going to be a strong showing tomorrow. The weather is going to be great. We are excited,” she said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign over the weekend, throwing his support behind Trump, which has essentially turned the race into a two-person contest.

“I voted for Trump and I would vote for him again if he was running against a Democrat,” said Brad Marshall. But in the primary, the registered Republican from Boscawen is backing Haley. “His personality is so abrasive to so many that it’s costing him some of the votes.”

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu says Haley can grow the GOP. “I was talking to a lot of these young republicans that walked away from the party. They want back in with Nikki Haley. A lot of these suburban moms, good Republicans, walked from the party. They want back in with Nikki Haley,” he said.

Butler says she’ll decide who to support on Tuesday. “It will be the energy from the candidates that will make my final decision,” she said.

Haley was holding several events in New Hampshire on Monday. Donald Trump had a rally scheduled in Laconia.

AI-generated robocall impersonates Biden in an apparent NH vote suppression effort

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:46:54 +0000

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- The New Hampshire attorney general’s office on Monday said it was investigating reports of an apparent robocall that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice and discourage voters in the state from coming to the polls during Tuesday’s primary election.

Attorney General John Formella said the recorded message, which was sent to multiple voters on Sunday, appears to be an illegal attempt to disrupt and suppress voting. He said voters “should disregard the contents of this message entirely.”

A recording of the call reviewed by The Associated Press generates a voice similar to Biden’s that includes his often-used phrase, “What a bunch of malarkey.” It then tells the listener to “save your vote for the November election.”

“Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again,” the voice mimicking Biden says. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

It is not true that voting in Tuesday’s primary precludes voters from casting a ballot in November’s general election. Biden is not campaigning in New Hampshire and his name will not appear on Tuesday’s primary ballot after he elevated South Carolina to the lead-off position for the Democratic primaries, but his allies are running a write-in campaign for him in the state.

It’s not known who is behind the calls, though they falsely showed up to recipients as coming from the personal cellphone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic Party chair who helps run Granite for America, a super-PAC supporting the Biden write-in campaign.

Sullivan said she alerted law enforcement and issued a complaint to the attorney general after multiple voters in the state reported receiving the call Sunday night.

“This call links back to my personal cell phone number without my permission,” she said in a statement. “It is outright election interference, and clearly an attempt to harass me and other New Hampshire voters who are planning to write-in Joe Biden on Tuesday.”

It was unclear how many people received the call but a spokesperson for Sullivan said she heard from at least a dozen people who got it Sunday night. The attorney general’s office said anyone who has received the call should email the state Justice Department’s election law unit.

Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement that the campaign is “actively discussing additional actions to take immediately.”

“Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand, and fighting back against any attempt to undermine our democracy will continue to be a top priority for this campaign,” she said.

The apparent attempt at voter suppression using rapidly advancing generative AI technology is one example of what experts warn will make 2024 a year of unprecedented election disinformation around the world.

Generative AI deepfakes already have appeared in campaign ads in the 2024 presidential race, and the technology has been misused to spread misinformation in multiple elections across the globe over the past year, from Slovakia to Indonesia and Taiwan.

“We have been concerned that generative AI would be weaponized in the upcoming election and we are seeing what is surely a sign of things to come,” said Hany Farid, an expert in digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, who reviewed the call recording and confirmed it is a relatively low-quality AI fake.

Katie Dolan, a spokeswoman for the campaign of Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who is challenging Biden in the Democratic primary, said Phillips’ team was not involved and only found out about the deepfake attempt when a reporter called seeking comment.

“Any effort to discourage voters is disgraceful and an unacceptable affront to democracy,” Dolan said in a statement. “The potential use of AI to manipulate voters is deeply disturbing.”

The Trump campaign said it had nothing to do with the recording but declined further comment.

Burlington tech entrepreneur dies in Calif. plane crash

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:46:36 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A University of Vermont graduate and former member of the Burlington business community has died.

Cassidy Rae Petit’s family says the 26-year-old died in a plane crash in Oakland, California, on January 14th.

She was flying with her fiance, Lochie Ferrier, 27, a former test pilot at Beta.

Petit graduated from UVM in 2019 and was a founding member at Hula and then at lab-grown-meat start-up Burlington Bio.

Local services will be held for her on January 28th at Hula.

Vt. lawmakers expected to look at CTE funding reforms

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:37:07 +0000

ESSEX JCT., Vt. (WCAX) - Not everyone learns from tests and PowerPoint presentations. Tech ed is a popular alternative for hundreds of Vermont students. The Center for Technology in Essex Junction is one of those programs that Governor Phil Scott has said are key to helping solve Vermont’s workforce crisis.

The Center for Technology Essex offers a different kind of learning for high school students. From cosmetology to creative media to engineering, students say the programs helped them find their passions.

“It’s helped me explore art options. But the good thing about this program is it gives you a lot of time to focus on your passions and think about what you want to do in the future. And I realize while I love art, it may not be something that I want to do as a career,” said Hto-Lwee Wah, a 17-year-old Essex student.

CTE Principal Bob Travers says students from across the region enroll in their junior and senior years. In the past two years, the numbers have remained stable, with about 370 students. “What makes that unique in the learning experience is that there’s relevance to the work they’re doing and we all know that relevance really makes a difference around motivation,” Travers said.

He says 30% of their students go on to college and about 40% leave with post-secondary credits, and that’s important to further develop Vermont’s workforce.

The Vermont Department of Labor’s Jay Ramsey says they are looking to grow these types of programs over the next five to ten years. “I think the tech centers in Vermont -- and actually across the nation -- are great resources and some would say they’re underutilized in Vermont,” he said.

Ramsey says Vermont has made major efforts in training for jobs in the trades. “We should keep up the investment and technical education for the state, it’s sort of the backbone to the economy,” he said.

Ramsey says a study last year found that funding challenges and how courses are offered could help to enhance the experience for students and grow the programs. “The General Assembly has the opportunity this session to take up how the tech centers are funded and address some long-standing issues that create a situation for some students not to be able to go to them or to find out about them sort after they’ve graduated high school,” he said.

Attracting industry professionals to teach and more opportunities for younger students to learn about the offerings also remain a challenge for CTE programs. To help that, CTE Essex is planning to hold two workshops in February for parents to learn more.

Can Vermont achieve technical education equity?

Vt. officials spotlight critical need for trades, construction training

CTE brings back building trades program to help fill gap in labor force

Man arrested in connection with Winooski apartment fire

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:29:29 +0000

WINOOSKI, Vt. (WCAX) - Winooski Police have arrested a man in connection with a fire at an empty apartment house last week.

The fire early Wednesday destroyed the building at 246 Main Street as well as a nearby apartment on Stevens Street. It was the second time both locations had caught fire in about a year.

City officials on Monday said that police have arrested Patrick Ibbotson in connection with the fire. He faces multiple charges including setting fires and reckless endangerment.

Officials say the fire last year at the same location is still under investigation.

Winooski fire that damaged 3 buildings sends 1 to hospital

Sheldon farm hopes to rebuild after devastating weekend fire

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:22:55 +0000

SHELDON, Vt. (WCAX) - Twenty animals were lost and hundreds displaced after a barn fire in Sheldon over the weekend. Now, the owners of a Sheldon farm are trying to recover from the devastating fire.

The fire happened around 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning at Kane’s Scenic River Farms. “It was a really tough day,” said farm co-owner Ashley Swainbank.

Fire officials rushed to East Sheldon Road and found the 400-foot barn fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Swainbank says 415 animals were saved, but that not all of them made it out, “I think we lost around 20 small animals. In the main barn, we got everything cleared, had the door shut. There were a few chickens that didn’t make it.”

She and her husband were not home at the time, but when she got there she rushed to action. “‘Get the animals out of the barn, get the animals out of the barn,’” Swainbank recalled shouting.

Conner Kane, a neighbor, says he woke up and ran out to go help. “A little bit nervous and it was pretty scary because cows were running everywhere everything was hectic and just terrible,” Kane said.

While the fire is heartbreaking in the moment, Swainbank says she still feels hopeful, ”It’s a lot of work to do what we do every day, and then something like this happens and you just... we’ll be okay but it’s tragic and it’s hard and it breaks my heart. I don’t know what else to say than it breaks my heart,” she said. “The silver lining is this wasn’t perfectly set up for us. Now, we can make it be what we want, but I didn’t want it to be like this.”

Katie Morits, another neighbor, says Kane’s Scenic River Farms meant a lot to the community. “The initial part of the barn that was there is really a landmark. It brought a lot of memories to a lot of neighboring people and the residents. It’s just extremely sad to look over and not see it anymore,” Morits said.

Swainbank says they still don’t know what caused the fire, but she’s grateful to those who helped. “I can’t thank the people that showed up enough. There were so many hands here, it was incredible how many people came at such short notice. All of a sudden 100-200 people were here, there were a lot of people,” she said.

Community comes together after barn fire forces hundreds of cows into cold

New opportunity for small farms to change operations if needed

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:36:12 +0000

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - There’s a new opportunity for small farms looking to change up their operations.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets recently announced a $150,000 grant to help small farms diversify or transition from one form of farming to another. Small farms can receive up to $15,000 for their projects.

State Director of Agriculture Development Abbey Willard hopes the grants give small farms the freedom to take big steps. “Take some of those risks of transitioning or adding a new aspect to their business that they may not have had the cash flow or the confidence to try on their own,” Willard explained.

The grant application is open now through March 4.