IN JAN. 14’s FINAL READING…
State Auditor Doug Hoffer’s search for fiscal accountability, lawmakers in hot water for offensive comments and a preview of the 2020 gun debate.
THE TOP TAKE
State Auditor Doug Hoffer, Vermont’s foremost Voice in the Wilderness, is on a two-day futility tour of legislative committees, offering testimony on some of his more unpopular audits.
Hoffer is a Progressive who strongly believes that public funds should be spent wisely and efficiently. He often finds himself popping balloons of conventional wisdom — and being more or less ignored by the legislative and executive branches.
On Tuesday morning, Hoffer spoke to the Senate Economic Development Committee about Vermont’s remote worker grant program. Later in the day, he addressed the Senate Finance Committee about Vermont’s Tax Increment Funding (TIF) program. On Wednesday morning, it’s on to the Senate Agriculture Committee to discuss water quality improvement efforts.
All three have been subject to his scrutiny in recent months, and all three came in for criticism from his office.
This is a new verse of a familiar song. Hoffer publishes an audit or other findings; he testifies to a legislative committee; said committee hears him out politely and then quickly moves on; Hoffer walks back across State Street to his office, bloody but unbowed.
Does he ever gets discouraged? “I guess not,” Hoffer said Tuesday. “I’m here. I’ll be running for reelection.”
There’s a bit of news. Hoffer has been the subject of retirement rumors for years. “It is odd,” he said of those persistent rumblings. “There’s a lot more to do that I’m interested in.”
And he doesn’t mind the occasional confrontation. His November report was critical of the remote worker grant program, which offers relocation grants to out-of-staters who move to Vermont to work remotely for out-of-state employers. Hoffer found no evidence to prove the program’s effectiveness. The chair of the Economic Development Committee, Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, was a chief sponsor of the program.
“We got into it,” Hoffer said of his appearance before Sirotkin’s panel. “He’s the proud father of the program. It’s understandable.”
Hoffer is not done rattling cages. “We’re on to OneCare Vermont,” he said of the accountable care organization at the center of the state’s health care reform efforts. “There’s no bigger train coming down the track.”
Hoffer plans to produce a full performance audit of OneCare this spring. You can expect him to pull no punches, the political fallout be damned. – John Walters
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
— House leadership are criticizing comments Rep. Bob Helm, R-Fair Haven, made about protesters who disrupted the governor’s State of the State address last week. When protesters were brought out of the House chamber, Helm said, “I’d like to smack one of them.”
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson met with Helm last Friday to discuss it with him, and said he apologized. But when VTDigger asked Helm about the comment Tuesday, he said, “I don’t know where you guys got your information.” – Grace Elletson, Xander Landen
— Lawmakers in House Judiciary are expected to vote down the recently introduced sex work decriminalization bill this Thursday in favor of moving another bill forward that would further study how the idea would work in Vermont. H.568 proposes this study along with protections for witnesses of human trafficking who come forward to report these crimes. – Grace Elletson
— Rep. Dylan Giambatista, D-Essex Junction, announced Tuesday that he’ll be running for a Chittenden County Senate seat in 2020. A few hours later, former Rep. Kesha Ram, D-Burlington, made the same announcement. – Grace Elletson
— The dates for a possible veto override session have been set for June 24 and 25 — if they are needed — Krowinski announced to House Democrats Tuesday. “And aren’t those great veto session dates,” Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, said to laughs from the caucus. – Kit Norton
— Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans, said the blowback from his bill proposing a ban on smartphones for people under 21 sent him over the edge this weekend. Responding to an email critical of his motivations, Rodgers called the sender a “clueless f—k.” – Colin Meyn
— At the beginning of a conference committee on paid leave Tuesday morning, Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, jokingly sat on a VTDigger reporter as she struggled to get into her chair in the cramped room. Clarkson was able to find her way into an actual seat. – Grace Elletson
— The 2020 gun debate begins tomorrow. House Judiciary will take testimony throughout the day on a bill proposing a number of firearm reforms, including a proposal to automatically seize firearms when a relief-from-abuse order is issued.
Adolphe Lumumba, the brother of slain nurse and mother Anako Lumumba, is on the witness list. So is Shawn Burke, chief of South Burlington Police, the agency that briefly tried to take away her suspected killer’s guns. – Colin Meyn
— All six of the security cameras monitoring the entrances of the Golden Dome were replaced ahead of this session. The total cost for the update came to $17,000. “And that’s cheap,” said Capitol Police Chief Matt Romei. Romei said the old cameras had security vulnerabilities. – Grace Elletson
— Rep. Marybeth Redmond, D-Essex Junction, was named 2020 Mother of the Year by American Mothers Inc., according to The Essex Reporter. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, led her Democratic Caucus in congratulating Redmond for winning the honor.
“I blew it again this year,” joked longtime state Rep. Joey Donovan, D-Burlington, who is also the mother of Attorney General TJ Donovan. – Kit Norton
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Back in November, VTDigger reported that the Department of Motor Vehicles has made millions of dollars selling the personal information of Vermonters to insurance agencies, private investigators and other groups.
Now, lawmakers are trying to figure out what action they can take to restrict the practice. Grace Elletson caught up with VTDigger reporter Xander Landen who explained what solutions lawmakers from the House Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees are considering.
GE: What happened at today’s meetings?
XL: So lawmakers in the House are basically probing the DMV’s practice of selling personal information that drivers give the department. There’s proposed legislation to restrict the practice in very broad terms. The governor has already moved to curb the practice after we published the story. But now lawmakers are trying to find out more information about who is getting the data and why they’re getting the data.
GE: What new ideas do they have? Would their actions be repetitive to what the governor has already done?
XL: That’s the thing — there’s a bill on the table to generally restrict the DMV and other agencies that sell information about Vermonters. The problem here is that federal law requires the DMV in some cases to give this information to insurance companies and others. And the governor has already instructed the DMV to stop giving this information to private investigators who use it. So lawmakers are trying to see what avenues they have, if any, to curb the practice because there have been a lot of privacy concerns raised after the story came out. The DMV is also pursuing an internal review and will likely be making recommendations about whether there should be reform soon.
