IN AUGUST 25’S FINAL READING:
— Kicking off the proceedings Tuesday morning, Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex-Orleans, called on members of the upper chamber to apologize for calling him a homophobe.
Rodgers was referring to the blowback he received in mid-June for using the term “snippy little bitch” in an all-Senate email to refer to fellow members of the Senate Natural Resources committee.
“Everyone listening knows I can be controversial at times,” Rodgers said. “But I feel there are some things that still need to be addressed in other folks’ response to my email in the fact that I was categorized as homophobic by three senators inappropriately.”
“I find that much more insulting than the snippy little word that I used — to be referred to as a homophobe,” he added.
– Kit Norton
— At the time, Ashe had responded to Rodgers’ email with his own note, calling it unacceptable for the Essex-Orleans senator to use such language in his role as a senator.
Ashe also said it appeared Rodgers had directed his remarks at committee Chair Chris Bray, D-Addison, panel member Brian Campion, D-Bennington — who is gay — “which raises larger concerns about your choice of words.”
– Kit Norton
— Lawmakers asked the Scott administration about the governor’s decision to not directly include bridge funding for the struggling state college system in his budget proposal.
Two reports released in June found that state colleges need $30 million in “bridge funding” in the current fiscal year to cover a budget shortfall.
The governor has proposed using federal dollars to pay for the bridge funding. But Vermont doesn’t currently have flexibility from the U.S. Treasury to use the dollars for this purpose.
– Xander Landen
— Vermont Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin said Scott wasn’t willing to commit additional dollars to the state colleges until the task force appointed in June to make recommendations to improve the sustainability of the system proposes a plan.
“To the extent that that requires appropriation and requires additional money to be put in, we will be happy to listen,” Greshin said.
“But at this point, we’re not willing to make that commitment until we see a plan.”
Sophie Zdatny, the chancellor of the college system, said that without the funding, the colleges would have to take action that is “comparable to what was proposed back in the Spring.”
In April, former chancellor Jeb Spaulding recommended closing three of the state college campuses to keep the system afloat.
– Xander Landen
— Sean Brown, the commissioner of the department for children and families, briefed a joint Senate and House committee on the Scott administration’s proposal to create online education “hubs” at child care centers for K-6th grade aged kids.
Brown said there are 40,000 kids across the state who fall into that age group who will be asked to do some form of online learning throughout the school year and that out of that number there are potentially 7,000 kids that could need an additional place to go during the day for online learning throughout the week.
The “hubs” would be funded through a startup grant of $95,000 to become operational in the first month and then would have to charge tuition of $125 per student each week.
“This is truly uncharted territory for us,” Brown said.
— Josh Hanford, Vermont’s housing commissioner, told lawmakers on the Housing General and Military Affairs Committee that since the Covid-19 crisis, homes in the state that cost over $1 million have seen a 300% increase in sales.
“A lot of those are sitting on the market for over a year in the past and they’re selling like crazy right now,” Hanford said.
But he said that on the flip side, there are fewer people putting their homes on the market, which is driving up the costs of more affordable housing.
“People are foregoing their normal listing and moving right now because of COVID, and are just staying put,” Hanford said.
He added that realtors have estimated a 30-40% reduction in new housing stock going on the market.
– Xander Landen
— Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor took the opportunity during the time on the Senate floor to proclaim that if schools are to reopen — as they are scheduled to do — then the Legislature must also seriously consider returning to in-person proceedings at the Statehouse.
“We should open schools if we can do so safely, but the measure of whether or not we trust the protocols for opening our schools safely — in my view — is whether or not we trust those protocols for ourselves,” McCormack said.
If we are not prepared to trust those protocols for ourselves,” he added. “Then we should not be trusting them for the schools as well.”
– Kit Norton
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