The Week Ahead: On Hiatus

This just in!

The Week Ahead is on indefinite hiatus. Actually, it's been placed on paid administrative leave. The Week Ahead declined to discuss the reason for the absence, but sources close to the situation said it related to an inappropriate incident in Montpelier last week involving the Scoreboard. And a Bengal tiger. And Mike Tyson. We'll have more on this developing story as we get it...

In the meantime, check back on Off Message often for the latest Vermont news and politics.

 

 

 

This Week's Issue: Did You Hear the One About the Legislative Wrap-Up?

This week's edition of Seven Days is our first-ever comedy issue. But it's chock full of news and politics too:

• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz reports on how House and  Senate leaders evaded a tax showdown with Gov. Peter Shumlin in the waning days of the legislative session.
• And in a special edition of our popular blog feature "The Scoreboard," Heintz looks back on the 2013 session and tallies the big winners and losers.
• Vermont law enforcement officers report that huge volumes of heroin are being trafficked into the state. But where are the drugs coming from?
• Middlebury College is divided over a proposed natural gas pipeline through Addison County. College President Ron Liebowitz says it would provide cheap energy to the region and create jobs. Students and faculty worried about climate change — including Bill McKibben — say there are cleaner alternatives.
• If all that leaves you depressed, meet some of Vermont's funniest people here, here, here and here.

As Vermont Senate Nears Adjournment, Nunchucks Are Swung

It's difficult to capture the loopiness of the 48 hours preceding adjournment of the Vermont legislature.

Confusion reigns. Recesses abound. Tensions rise and fall. Pizza is eaten. Budgets are passed. Reporters get confused and quickly lose interest. 

Such is the state of affairs at 8 p.m. Tuesday as the House and Senate labor to finish the people's business and get the hell out of Dodge. 

We'll have (slightly) more serious coverage of the 2013 legislature's thrilling conclusion in Wednesday's print edition of Seven Days, but to give you, dear reader, a flavor of the moment in Montpelier, we give you this gem of a video of Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (D-Windsor) demonstrating his totally sweet nunchuck chops:

[Full disclosure: This video was filmed late Monday afternoon, though we are quite sure the Windsor County senator would be more than willing to stage a repeat performance tonight.]

 

Statehouse Standoff: Shumlin and the Legislature Reignite Tax Fight

For three peaceful days this week, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Democratic legislature appeared to have resolved a months-long feud over taxes. But in a dramatic turn of events on Friday, that harmony dissolved into discord — stalling the legislature's adjournment and prompting the very real threat of a gubernatorial veto. 

Suffice it to say, "Kumbaya" is no longer playing on the Statehouse jukebox.

Dividing the Dems is a push by leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees — Rep. Janet Ancel (D-Calais) and Sen. Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) — to enact progressive reforms to the tax code in the closing days of the legislative session. While declining to fully describe their plan, they say it would lower income taxes for the vast majority of Vermonters and raise them for a small minority — all in a revenue-neutral manner.

But the governor deeply opposes the plan, saying it violates the terms of an agreement he reached with House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morrisville) and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (D-Windsor) earlier this week to avoid new taxes and spending. Shumlin claims that despite the legislators' assurances, their "on-the-fly" reforms would result in higher taxes overall and put at risk a recovering economy.

Throughout the Statehouse on Friday, the question on everybody's minds was whether the legislature would complete its business late Saturday and adjourn for the year. To do so, conference committees writing the budget and tax bills had to wrap up their work early Friday afternoon — but that deadline blew by without any signs of progress. 

At issue was whether Smith and Campbell would side with their committee chairs, Ancel and Ashe, and provoke a confrontation with the governor — or whether they'd pull the two back, close up shop and go home. 

A Question of Tediousness: Baruth Calls for Galbraith to Simmer Down

An hour after Sen. Peter Galbraith (D-Windham) took to the floor Friday morning, his colleagues were on the verge of bum-rushing him. 

With the Senate hoping to adjourn the next day, Galbraith (pictured at right) was making good on his pledge to stall the body's business in order to protest a campaign finance bill he has taken to calling "a sham." 

His colleagues, whose criticism of Galbraith is no longer off-the-record nor behind his back, had mostly drifted out of the room. But the Windham County senator kept at it, interrogating to no end his seat-mate and district-mate, Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham), who had written an earlier draft of the bill.

White was hoping to send the legislation to conference committee, where discrepancies between House and Senate versions could be worked out in time to be signed into law this year. But Galbraith, who says portions of the bill are unconstitutional and indefensible, was hoping to amend the bill or run out the clock.

All of the sudden, the mild-mannered majority leader, Sen. Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), stood up across the room to make a point of order. Describing it as "an airtight procedural motion," Baruth secured permission from the presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, to quote from Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure and the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

"An ancient rule governing debate is that, quote, 'No one is to speak impertinently or beside the question superfluously or tediously,'" Baruth said. "I would rest my motion on the word 'tediously,' which means 'tiresome because of length or dullness.' The reason why I believe it to be airtight is that I believe the senator has spoken tediously, and I believe the lieutenant governor would have two options: to uphold my motion or to rule that this has not been tedious—" 

"Mr. President, is this a debatable proposition?" Galbraith interjected.

"No it's not," Scott said and then declared a brief recess.

With Adjournment Nigh, One Last Tax Battle Looms

When he unveiled a deal Tuesday to balance the budget without raising taxes, Gov. Peter Shumlin seemed to have squelched the legislature's efforts to thrust a greater share of the state's tax burden on wealthy Vermonters.

But proponents of a more progressive tax code appear poised Friday to make one last stand.

In the days since the deal was struck, leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees have been talking up the idea of moving forward with proposals to limit income tax deductions that mostly benefit the wealthy. In keeping with the framework of the deal with the governor, any revenue gained by doing so would be returned to middle- and lower-income Vermonters through slightly reduced tax rates.

"The goal of my committee has been to make the tax code fairer, and we believe that can be achieved in a revenue-neutral framework," says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden). "While reducing the special advantages to some deductions, we can lower taxes for as many as 200,000 people."

While Ashe and House Ways & Means Committee Chairwoman Janet Ancel (D-Calais) have been pushing behind-the-scenes to build support for their proposal, Shumlin has indicated he opposes it.

"I have made very clear that the consensus that has been built in this building, which I have urged, is to not take action on tax policy, but to finish up the work that we have, balance the budget and get home," Shumlin said during a Wednesday press conference. "And I think Vermonters want the legislature to do just that."

Now the question is whether House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morrisville) and Senate President John Campbell (D-Windsor) are willing to risk a final confrontation with the governor by backing Ashe's and Ancel's plan.

Amid Calls for Campaign Finance Reform, the Vermont Legislature is Poised to Make it Worse

"Our representative democracy is broken," Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) told reporters at a Statehouse press conference Thursday morning. "As we look at Washington and ask Washington for help, we're frequently met with closed doors. But those doors are very much open to the influence of corporate money."

For that reason, Lyons said, Vermont must once again call for a constitutional amendment reversing Citizens United and other recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that abolished limits on corporate spending in politics.

But as Sen. Nero fiddled, Rome was burning all around her.

Just a day before Lyons' press conference, the Vermont House voted 96 to 49 in favor of a so-called "campaign finance reform" bill that actually increases the amount individuals, corporations and unions can donate to statewide candidates, political action committees and parties. 

Under the guise of stemming the flow of special interest money into Vermont politics, the House further opened the floodgates. And it didn't even consider the one provision that could realistically reduce corporate cash in Vermont: banning direct corporate contributions to political candidates.

By 17 to 13 Vote, Senate Backs End-of-Life Choices Compromise

In the end, as always, it was all about Sen. Peter Galbraith.

Throughout this year's labyrinthine debate over whether to allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives, the loquacious Democrat from Windham County has been behind every turn. 

Wednesday night was no different.

By a vote of 17 to 13, the Senate amended the ever-changing end-of-life choices bill to ameliorate Galbraith's concerns while still providing dying Vermonters a legal avenue to end their own lives. The latest version now moves back to the House, where it's expected to pass, and then on to the governor, who has signaled he will sign it.

"I think what we have found here is something that strikes a balance," Galbraith (pictured above) told his colleagues. "It isn't perfect. It isn't what I would like to have seen, but I think it accommodates what I think is in the best interest of Vermonters."

The compromise essentially enacts for three years a state-sanctioned process for doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients expected to live six months or less. In July 2016, that process would sunset, and be replaced by a stripped-down law simply indemnifying doctors who prescribe such drugs.

Gabraith and Sen. Bob Hartwell (D-Bennington) have long opposed the more comprehensive approach, which is modeled on a 1994 Oregon law. In February, they joined 13 opponents of the bill — along with the tie-breaking Lt. Gov. Phil Scott — in replacing it with the stripped-down version. But last week, the House voted 81-64 to return to the original Oregon-style language and send it back to the Senate.

That left the bill's proponents with little option but to find some sort of compromise that could appeal to Galbraith or Hartwell without alienating its stronger supporters in the House.

This Week's Issue: Why Vermont Domestic Abusers Keep Their Guns; Next Steps for Livable Wage in Burlington

In this week's Home & Garden issue of Seven Days...

• Federal law says domestic abusers are prohibited from possessing firearms, but Vermont has few safeguards to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
• Vermont and other maple-producing states are in the midst of a "liquid gold rush" — but is big maple a bubble in danger of bursting?
• No one checked on Burlington's livable wage ordinance for 12 years. What's next?
• It's commencement season, which means a few lucky folks will have honorary degrees bestowed upon them by Vermont colleges.
• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz breaks down yesterday's grand bargain on taxes and the state budget between Gov. Peter Shumlin and legislative leaders.
• Lastly, "Stuck in Vermont" features a character that might be familiar to lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and anyone else who makes the Burlington-Montpelier commute: Buddy Longworth, the most interesting bus driver on the road.

The Week Ahead: May 6-12, 2013

It's the last week of the legislative session in Montpelier — or so they say!

Here's what else is happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, May 6

• The House gavels in at 1 p.m. On the lengthy calendar: third reading for the immigrant driver's-license bill.
• The House and Senate set to work resolving differnences in their versions of the tax and budget bills. Conference committees begin at 2 p.m. (budget bill) and 5:30 p.m. (tax bill) and are scheduled to continue all week.
• The Legislature might be in crunch mode, but Gov. Peter Shumlin is apparently leaving the arm-twisting to his staff today. The gov's schedule: 9 a.m. in Johnson for a ceremonial lease signing, 10 a.m. in Morrisville for a library centennial, and noon in Montpelier for a state employees recognition luncheon at the Elks Club. 
• Live at 5:25 p.m., State Auditor Doug Hoffer will be on Channel 17. Watch live.
• At 7 p.m., the Burlington City Council meets at city hall, where they'll vote on the appointment of Bob Rusten as Mayor Miro Weinberger's pick for chief administrative officer.

 Rest of the week after the break...