IN APRIL 30’S FINAL READING:
— An Essex County Democratic Committee forum for lieutenant governor candidates was “Zoom bombed” with swastikas Wednesday evening.
Candidate Brenda Siegel said that the meeting was first Zoom-bombed twice by individuals who drew swastikas, wrote “Hail Satan” and told Siegel and the host, Martha Allen, the chair of the Essex County Democratic Committee, to “shut up bitch.”
“There’s a rise of hate across this country and across the state,” she said. “We can’t just go forward without naming what happened, and as the Jewish candidate, I’m really shook, and that showed.” – Aidan Quigley
— Department for Children and Families Commissioner Ken Schatz told Senate Econ lawmakers that the state will be extending funding for its motel voucher program past May 15 to keep homeless people housed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The motel voucher system has typically been used by the state to house the homeless during inclement weather months. Since the pandemic, the program has been expanded so that people being housed in shelters could self-isolate in individual motel rooms.
Because many shelters have come to rely on this voucher system across the state, Schatz said, the number of households in shelters has decreased by 58%. – Grace Elletson
— Senate Education lawmakers have posed a potential solution to inequality concerns about the state’s child care bailout. Parents are currently being asked to pay 50% of the tuition they were paying before facilities closed to keep their spot in a program. The other 50% is being funded by the state.
In some cases, child care centers are encouraging parents to pay 100% of their typical tuition, something Committee Chair Sen. Phil Baruth encouraged the programs to stop doing. “Personally I think that’s wrong,” Baruth said. “It’s far more than I would have ever imagined that we ask people to pay thousands of dollars for something they’re not getting.”
The committee is planning to draft a proposal that would give families a tax credit for next year’s filing to compensate them for the money they’re continuing to pay child care centers so the industry survives the pandemic. – Grace Elletson
— Vermont’s undocumented workers may be able to access Covid-19 treatment for free under new federal guidelines.
House and Senate Health committee lawmakers heard from Devon Green, with the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, that the newly propped up federal provider relief fund was authorized to cover Covid-19 treatment for those who are uninsured.
“We’re still trying to figure out the details,” Green said, but the current understanding hospitals have is that this would cover those who are undocumented. The committees have heard concerns, specifically from undocumented farmworkers, that they are particularly vulnerable to the virus with no way to afford treatment. – Grace Elletson
— A House panel began its review Thursday of legislation that would make changes to probation in the state.
The measure is part of the justice reinvestment bill, S.338, which aims to help keep people out of prison and reduce recidivism. The House Judiciary Committee took up a provision that would allow people on probation to earn a day credit off their minimum sentence for each day they are on probation.
Assistant Attorney General David Scherr said the Attorney General’s Office supported the proposal, and added that he wanted to dispel a worry that sentences would be increased to account for the added credit. “That is not a concern that worries me and I don’t think it is really going to change sentencing behavior,” he told the panel. – Alan Keays
