Sen. Bobby Starr. VTD/Josh Larkin

What once appeared to be an easy legislative path allowing the Plum Creek company to keep its property tax break on thousands of Northeast Kingdom acres has hit rougher terrain. Instead of an open trail, the amendment keeping Plum Creek’s land in the Current Use program now must trek through some rough undergrowth, with perhaps only a forbidding thicket at the other end.

The amendment that would meddle with both a lawsuit and an administrative enforcement process remains part of the Senate “jobs bill” (H. 287, officially, “An Act Relating to Job Creation and Economic Development,” to which it may even be germane, having been inserted by the Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs.

But now it faces the possibly less friendly scrutiny of the Senate Finance Committee. If that committee keeps the amendment in the bill, the full Senate may not. If it clears both those hurdles, the amended bill would still have to go back to the House of Representatives for its concurrence.

Perhaps an unlikely prospect.

“It will not survive in the House,” said Speaker Shap Smith.

The amendment has already been lost and rescued once. Originally attached to the “must-pass” Budget bill by the Senate Agriculture Committee, it was stripped from that legislation last week after strong objections by the Division of Forestry and its parent Agency of Natural Resources.

But then it reappeared in the equally “must-pass” jobs bill. Though no individual senator’s name is attached to the amendment, it may be no accident that Sen. Bobby Starr, the North Troy Democrat, is on the Agriculture Committee, and Sen. Vince Illuzzi, the Derby Republican, chairs Government Operations. Both are from the Northeast Kingdom and often attend to the interests of its powerful constituents.

Sen. Vince Illuzzi. VTD/Josh Larkin

None would be more powerful than Plum Creek, the largest landowner in the United States — its website reports it owns 6,771,000 acres in 20 states — and in the Kingdom, if not Vermont. Plum Creek owns 86,000 acres in Vermont, 56,604 in Essex County.

That land is the privately owned portion — protected by an easement — of the former Champion lands. Both the state and federal government also own some of the land once held by the (now-defunct) Champion International Paper Company.

Plum Creek’s troubles began last year when the company cut some 140 of the 9,907 acres it owns in Lemington “contrary to its forest plan,” in the words of Michael Snyder, Commissioner of the Forestry Division of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.

After looking into the violation, the division ruled that Plum Creek’s Essex County holdings would be removed from the Current Use program, under which the land is assessed for its value as farm or forest, not on what it would be worth if it were developed. In Plum Creek’s case, not being able to keep that 56,000 acres in the Current Use program will cost about $167,000 a year. Under the law, the company may not apply to get the land put back into the Current Use program for five years, meaning the company’s total penalty for its violation would amount to about $835,000.

Snyder said Plum Creek did not deny that it had violated its plan, and the company’s Maine-based Community Affairs Manager, Mark Doty, effectively acknowledged that by saying (in an email) that “if the cut contrary determination is upheld, we will accept full responsibility for the approximately 139 acres involved.”

What the company objects to, Doty said, is that “the state’s determination removes 56,604 acres of our land from (current use) because of this contrary cut.”

Doty said Plum Creek urged lawmakers “to look at the intent of the Legislature” in establishing the Current Use program, and said to “consider how adverse consequences of such a large land removal…would greatly reduce the value of timberland and harm the viability of Vermont’s forest products industry.”

The amendment that resulted from the company’s complaint would reduce the amount of land taken out of Current Use to any company’s “contiguous” holdings within one town. Plum Creek owns 9,907 acres in Lemington, Doty said.

“I would feel really uncomfortable passing a law that would interfere with that (judicial) process. I don’t think bringing the Plum Creek issue to the Legislature to solve is the right thing to do.”
Sen. Virginia Lyons

Many lawmakers agree that future penalties for these forestry violations should be limited. What some of them — and forestry officials — object to is the provision in the amendment that the Current Use penalties “shall apply retroactively to December 1, 2007.”

Snyder said he “vigorously opposed” the amendment, arguing that it would damage the Current Use program.

“We have 2.48 million acres enrolled (in the program),” he said. “This would not be fair to other landowners. There was the potential risk of alienating 15,000-to-16,000 other landowners.”

Unlike huge corporations — Plum Creek’s annual profits are in the hundreds of millions of dollars — these smaller landowners don’t have the clout even to consider asking for special treatment from the Legislature.

Snyder said he “could live with” a change in future penalties, even though he was not convinced one was needed. Making the change retroactive, he said, was “not the way to do it.”

Snyder was reluctant to discuss details of Plum Creek’s violation because the company has appealed the department’s ruling in both the Essex and Orleans County Superior Courts. But from what he and other foresters have said about the violation indicates that they believe it was inexcusable and possibly willful.

The forester who found the violation, Matt Langlais, the county forester for Essex and Caledonia Counties, was quoted earlier in the Barton Chronicle as describing the violation as “strike three…where the line was drawn.” Snyder said Langlais had been working with the Plum Creek foresters for months urging them to stay within their forest plan. The foresters found it hard to believe that Plum Creek, which has forestry operations all over the country, did not know that it might be violating its plan.

It also may be significant that when Plum Creek first appealed the division’s ruling, the appeal was denied by Sarah Clark, the acting commissioner in the last weeks of the administration of Gov. Jim Douglas, whose appointees were not known for being excessively tough on natural resource producers.

One reason some legislators are reluctant to make a new penalty schedule retroactive is that it would interfere with a current court case. Sen. Virginia Lyons, the Williston Democrat who chairs the Natural Resources Committee, said that’s why she would oppose the amendment on the Senate floor.

“I would feel really uncomfortable passing a law that would interfere with that (judicial) process,” she said. “I don’t think bringing the Plum Creek issue to the Legislature to solve is the right thing to do.”

In general, legislatures are reluctant to intrude midway into judicial or administrative process, not because lawmakers have any qualms about expanding their own powers, but because such intrusions are often unpopular. Last year, for instance, the Legislature stifled an enforcement action by the Department of Fish & Wildlife in the matter of the celebrated “Pete the Moose.” This year, somewhat humiliated, lawmakers are on the verge of reversing last year’s action.

Plum Creek might also be penalized by the Vermont Land Trust, which holds the easement on the property. Elise Annes, the land trust’s spokesperson, said the trust had asked the company “to conduct a resource inventory,” after which the trust might require “mitigation,” — such as leaving more land uncut — “to keep them in line with the requirements of the easement.”

Sen. Ann Cummings, chair of the Finance Committee, said she did not think her committee could get to the Jobs Bill changes until the end of this week. Snyder said he is ready to repeat his strong objections to altering the Plum Creek penalty.

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File: Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Orleans. Photo by Josh Larkin.

The Vermont Department of Labor issued a stop-work order in January to Starr’s United, a trucking company in North Troy. The business is under investigation for an alleged failure to hold a workers’ compensation insurance policy on its 20 employees, according to Labor Department officials. An injury claim from an employee triggered the probe.

Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex-Orleans, is president of the company and has served as director of the Vermont Truck and Bus Association. When he was reached by phone last Friday, he said, “I really don’t know what you’re talking about — I don’t know anything about it.”

Starr said he is “gone most of the winter” and his son, Eric, who is the general manager, is “dealing with that.”

Stephen Monahan, director of the Workers’ Compensation & Safety Division, said the stop-work order was issued on Jan. 21 and remains in effect.

Under the order, no work can be carried out, Monahan said, “except possibly by the owner him or herself.”

The investigation, which began on Jan. 13, Monahan said, is moving toward the penalty phase. Starr’s United could be fined $150 a day for every day the company has operated without worker’s compensation insurance. The number of employees who went without coverage will also be factored into the penalty, Monahan said.

In July 2010 the Legislature enacted new penalties for businesses that fail to provide workers’ comp. Since then, the division has issued 15 stop-work orders, Monahan said. The penalty for violating a stop-work order is $5,000 in civil penalties or $10,000 in criminal penalties or imprisonment for up to 180 days.

Most workers’ comp investigations are triggered by complaints or referrals from other agencies or programs, such as the Tax Department, Unemployment Insurance program, Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Vermont Department of Buildings & General Services or Agency of Transportation, Monahan wrote in an e-mail. Most of the complaints have been filed through an online form on the Department of Labor website.

“Misclassifying workers or not complying with U.I. or W.C. coverage is considered fraud,” Monahan wrote.

Fourteen hundred insurers in Vermont offer worker’s compensation insurance.

Disappearances

Do you know where your governor is?

That was the question Anson Tebbetts of WCAX posed last Friday.

Tebbetts, a former Douglas administration official, reported that Gov. Peter Shumlin was “off” on vacation “two months into his first term,” and that the governor didn’t tell two members of his staff he interviewed — press secretary Bianca Slota (who was formerly employed by WCAX) and Jeb Spaulding, secretary of the Agency of Administration — where he was headed.

Later, Slota told Tebbetts she knew where the governor was, but she couldn’t disclose his location. Shumlin left for vacation last Thursday and is scheduled to return to Vermont Tuesday night.

“He’s been working really hard,” Slota said. “While the Legislature’s out of town, he thought it would be a good time to take a couple days off. Out of respect for his privacy, we’re just not telling people where he is.”

The news spurred Patricia McDonald, new chair of the Vermont GOP, to issue a press release taking the governor to task. The missive, titled “’I don’t know where the governor is’ is not an acceptable response,” blasted Shumlin for neglecting to inform key administrative officials of his whereabouts.

“Simply being reachable by cell phone is not an acceptable substitute for knowing the whereabouts of our head of state,” McDonald wrote. “Vermonters deserve better. Why is it that no one seems to know where Governor Shumlin is?”

In an interview, McDonald said she doesn’t “begrudge the governor a vacation.”

She did, however, find fault with the timing of the governor’s absence. A statewide public hearing on Shumlin’s health care legislation at Vermont Interactive Television sites around the state was scheduled on Monday, and this week his signature health care legislation is slated to emerge from the House Health Care Committee. She complained that “he will not be around to answer questions on the bill, or to hear Vermonters speak on the issue.” (The hearing has since been rescheduled because of Monday’s snow storm.)

“Vermonters need to know that the chain of command is intact and that the lines of communication are open and working for the security and safety of our state,” McDonald wrote. “From a transparency and confidence perspective, the process was handled very poorly.”

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who is the governor’s stand-in when he’s away, wasn’t worried. Scott summed up his take on the brouhaha with: “I don’t have knee-jerk reactions.”

Shumlin’s staff called Scott the day before the governor left for parts unknown. “I don’t know for myself that it really matters,” Scott said. “If he’s on vacation, it’s probably well-deserved. We have a lot to do in the next three to four weeks, and I would want his head to be clear.”

Chris Graff, a longtime reporter and Montpelier bureau chief for the Associated Press, said in an e-mail that other governors’ vacations were also private affairs.

“We don’t really know much about governors’ vacations,” Graff wrote.

Douglas spent time in Maine on occasion. Gov. Howard Dean went on a hiking adventure one summer, Graff said, and “that got attention because a trooper drove.”

Gov. Dick Snelling went off sailing and there was a crisis in his absence, Graff recalled. In the era before cell phones, members of his staff had trouble reaching him.

Drumroll, please …

The Vermont Democratic Party holds its annual celebrity dinner – the Curtis Awards — each spring, and this year the party has brought in a major player — Al Franken, the former comedy writer for Saturday Night Live-turned-senator from Minnesota. (Last year’s keynote was also given by a Minnesotan senator, Amy Klobuchar.)

Online registration for the event, slated for March 19, is closed.

The VDP also announces the political equivalent of the Academy Awards for Democrats who have played leading roles in setting the scene for the party’s successes. Sources say this year’s Curtis Award winners will be Mike Obuchowski, Arthur Berndt and Barbara MacIntyre.

Obuchowski retired from his seat in the House of Representatives in January, after 38 years in the Statehouse. He is the longest-serving member of the General Assembly in living memory. Shumlin recently tapped his fellow Democrat from Windham County as commissioner of the Department of Buildings and General Services.

Berndt is a major donor to the party who has given thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates ($51,000 in 2008, according to CampaignMoney.com).

He and his wife, Anne, were involved in a Greenpeace lawsuit against two taxpayer-funded entities, Export Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, for funding $32 billion in financing fossil fuel projects without assessing how the projects would contribute to global warming. Greenpeace won the suit in 2010.

MacIntyre of Shaftsbury tirelessly volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008.

Rallies, hearings and a public “churn”

Vermonters for Health Care Freedom canceled its rally on the Statehouse lawn because of the record-breaking storm on Monday, but the 75-100 protesters who planned to attend the event will attempt another protest in a week or so, according to Darcie Johnston.

The rally had been scheduled just before the state was scheduled to take testimony on the legislation tonight in a series of Vermont Interactive Television forums. (The hearings were cancelled because of Monday’s snow storm.)

Johnston, who runs a government relations and political fundraising firm, started Vermonters for Health Care Freedom for “free market” supporters who oppose Gov. Peter Shumlin’s single-payer health care bill.

Johnston’s clients have included Sen. James Jeffords, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, Ruth Dwyer, the Vermont Republican Party, the New Hampshire Republican Party, and the Rhode Island Republican Party.

She says she is spearheading the effort because she “feels passionate about this issue.” Johnston said her anti-single-payer activism is separate from her consultancy work. So far, Vermonters for Health Care Freedom has no financial backing; supporters are campaigning for the cause on Facebook and Twitter.

Johnston said VHCF is a loose association of 75-100 “leaders” who represent various interests. She declined to list members, but she said she’s “amazed” that many of the supporters of the new group feel they can’t publicly oppose the legislation because it might jeopardize their business with the state or with clients. She said they are as concerned as she is about the impact of a single-payer system on “free market” health care.

“I’m worried about what this legislation is going to do to Vermont’s economy,” Johnston said. “I’m worried about what it’s going to do to the quality of health care; I’m worried about doctors leaving the state; I’m worried about what it’s going to do to job growth; I’m worried about the stability of the economy.”

Johnston pointed to the Massachusetts health care reforms as an example of a system in which costs are “running away.”

“Businesses want to be able to plan,” Johnston said. “This doesn’t help that at all, if anything it makes it worse.”

A blockbuster mental health day?

Speaking of rallies, advocates are gearing up for a large turnout on Mental Health Advocacy Day, Wednesday, March 9. Ten organizations are sponsoring the event, and they plan to bus in more than 1,000 Vermonters with mental illness or developmental disabilities.

Floyd Nease, executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health (and former Democratic House Majority Leader), said last week that the advocates and “consumers” will be a presence in the Statehouse. They plan to testify at 9:30 a.m. at a joint meeting of the House Human Services and Senate Health and Welfare Committees in Room 11 and then rally in front of the Statehouse steps at noon. Nease said Christine Oliver, Department of Mental Health commissioner, has been invited to speak along with House Speaker Shap Smith, Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell and Doug Racine, now head of the Agency of Human Services.

“We ultimately want consumers to be heard,” Nease said.

Read the press release about the rally.

Lawmakers take testimony on Secretary of Ed

The House Education Committee will take testimony from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on whether the governor should have the right to appoint the state’s top education official.

The committee has been discussing this alternative as one of a menu of governance changes for the Department of Education, which also include transforming the department to an agency and altering the state board of education from a body with the authority to select the education chief to an advisory board.

Read the story, “A Secretary of Ed?”.

Churn, baby, churn

Raw milk being collected at a dairy farm. Photo by Josh Larkin.

Some Vermonters worry about the right to bear arms; others are concerned about the right to churn raw milk.

For the latter, there is the Butter Appreciation Day, brought to you by the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Room 10 of the Statehouse in Montpelier. Participants should bring their own cream, a small jar and “thoughts about raw milk.”

The churn-in is a protest of a recent decision by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to shut down raw milk, butter and cheese workshops that were sponsored by Rural Vermont, a nonprofit advocacy group.

For more about the raw milk “informational,” check out the press release from the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty.

Or, read Sylvia Fagin’s VTD story about raw milk rules.

Bills on the move

There are several key pieces of legislation on the House notice calendar for Tuesday, namely the jobs bill and an Internet sales tax proposal.

Read the March 8 notice calendar.

The Senate is taking up a bill for third reading that would prohibit sex offenders from using false names on social networking sites.

Senators will also consider two joint resolutions, both of which are directed at Congress. The Senate will consider a resolution asking the Congress to approve a streamlined sales tax agreement and another to maintain funding for Community Service Block Grants at current levels. The grants, which fund community action councils, are on the chopping block.

VTDigger

George Clain (802) 841-5864 ex.11 or ghc@ibewlocall300.org

Montpelier, VT/February 25, 2010 – Member associations of the Vermont Coalition for Employment and Prosperity, together with the IBEW Local #300 and Vermont Building Trades Unions today commended the political courage of the following four Senators who voted for the Vermont State Senate to take more time to evaluate whether Vermont Yankee should be part of the state’s electricity portfolio:

Peg Flory (R-Rutland)

Richard Mazza (D- Grand Isle)

Phil Scott (R-Washington)

Bobby Starr (D-Essex/Orleans)

George Clain, President of the IBEW Local 300 said, “We thought this was the jobs session, not the fewer jobs session. These four senators clearly understand the consequences of closing down Vermont Yankee; the 1,300 jobs and the more than $93 million in wages paid annually that will be lost,” said Clain.

Mike Ball, Chairman, Town of Vernon Select Board said, “It was good to see some senators looking out for the interests of Windham County. Listening to the debate I didn’t feel that there was a fair representation of all the issues.”

William Driscoll, Vice President of Association Industries of Vermont said, “These senators have shown that they care about jobs and are willing to make difficult and statesman-like votes to sustain jobs in the state, aid in its economic recovery, and secure its future prosperity.”

Jane Clifford, President of the Green Mountain Dairy Farmers Cooperative Federation said, “We thank Senators Flory, Mazza, Scott and Starr for not buying into the political grandstanding. Resolving the tritium issue and restoring trust are critical, but this vote speaks to our economic survival over the next 20 years.”

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