Aaaaannnnnd they’re back — sort of. The House has made a partial return to Montpelier, debuting a hybrid part-in-person, part-remote model Tuesday morning.
Everyone who attended in person watched the proceedings on their own screen, with headphones. (There were boxes of earbuds up for grabs in the hallway.) House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, led the body on-screen — from her office down the hall, not her customary podium.
The resulting scene on the House floor was like some kind of bizarre legislative silent disco. The room was as quiet as a gymnasium of SAT-takers until one member would pipe up, their voice echoing through the largely empty chamber. Occasionally, seemingly out-of-the-blue (unless you were listening in on YouTube), the lawmakers would chant ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ in unison.
It was weird.
Many lawmakers had multiple devices up at once: Some used a second screen to pull up documents or navigate the Legislature’s website. Others were texting or even scrolling through their Facebook feed while on the House floor. For shame!
Technology being the blessing and curse that it is, there were some technical difficulties. The House had to pause and restart when the Zoom stream began skipping, and members had to spread out beyond the chamber into the cafeteria and conference rooms.
Kevin Moore, the Legislature’s director of information technology, explained that it wasn’t that the Wi-Fi was overloaded; the air was. Wireless noise — caused by various wireless gadgets — bounces through the air. Those signals get trapped and bounce around inside the regal granite halls of the Vermont Statehouse. (This message is not sponsored by the state of Vermont.)
Asking lawmakers to spread out in the building allowed the House to continue business Tuesday morning. More permanent fixes could vary “from simple to highly complicated,” Moore wrote in an email.
The Statehouse building, constructed of stone in the 1850s, simply wasn’t designed for an era of online legislating.
— Riley Robinson and Sarah Mearhoff
IN THE KNOW
With unprecedented levels of federal aid and record surpluses at the state’s disposal, Gov. Phil Scott outlined a $7.7 billion budget proposal on Tuesday “to make the most of this historic moment.”
Big-ticket federally funded items in the governor’s budget include $145 million for housing initiatives, nearly $200 million to expand broadband, $51 million for cell towers and another $72 million for water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure.
His proposed budget does not raise taxes and pitches several tax relief initiatives. They include a combined $50 million in tax cuts for military veterans, retirees, low-income workers, people with student loans, nurses and child care workers.
Democratic leaders in the Legislature expressed ambivalence about Scott’s tax cut proposals when he offered a sneak peek of them in his State of the State address earlier this month. And they are already mulling an alternative: a nearly $60 million tax cut targeted at families with young children.
Read the full story here. The full text of the budget address is available here.
— Lola Duffort
In 2020, Rutland students, alumni and residents led a successful push to retire the longtime Rutland High School mascot, the Raiders.
Critics said the symbol, which featured an image of an arrowhead, was racist and an appropriation of Native American culture. Last February, the school board voted to adopt the Ravens as a new mascot.
That move sparked an angry backlash, fueling the election of two pro-Raider school board members a month later. Last week, the school board voted to readopt the Raiders as the school’s mascot.
But now, some critics are seeking to eliminate the Raiders mascot through another means: lawmaking.
A new bill introduced Friday into the Vermont House of Representatives would prohibit schools from using “a name, symbol, or image that depicts or refers to a racial or ethnic group, individual, custom, or tradition” as a “mascot, nickname, logo, letterhead, or team name of the school.”
The bill, whose primary sponsor is Rep. William Notte, D-Rutland — the husband of a Rutland school board member who has opposed the Raiders mascot — would give schools three years to comply with the requirements.
After that, schools would be barred from events organized by the Vermont Principals Association, which oversees all middle and high school sports.
— Peter D’Auria
IN CONGRESS
Rep. Peter Welch held a press conference today at the Elmore Store, which could possibly lose its post office boxes.
Last week, U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Steve Doherty said in an email that post office boxes would be moved from the Elmore Store to the Morrisville Post Office, about a 10-minute drive north, by Feb. 25. But the Elmore Community Trust is now negotiating with the postal service and hopes to get that decision reversed, said Trevor Braun, a member of the trust’s board of directors.
Read more about how residents are rallying to preserve the historic store.
— Shaun Robinson
IN THE FEED
A Celine Dion ✨moment✨ from Rep. Becca White, D-Hartford:
@beccawhite4 First day back in the Vermont State House and on the floor, and it’s all coming back to me… #vtpoli ♬ It’s All Coming Back To Me Now – Céline Dion
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Vermont Democrats are starting to pick their teams when it comes to this year’s U.S. House race. On Tuesday, the campaign of Senate President Pro Tempore and congressional candidate Becca Balint, D-Windham, released the names of 37 current and former state legislators who have her back this election year. Twenty-two are legislators currently serving.
According to her campaign, Balint’s endorsement list is in total more than 400 entries long, encompassing “the full spectrum of views within the Democratic Party.” Elected officials, current and former state employees, business owners, activists, teachers and more offered their stamps of approval.
Also in the race’s Democratic field are Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and state Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden. At her campaign launch last week, Ram Hinsdale was joined by current state Reps. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, Hal Colston, D-Winooski, Jim McCullough, D-Williston, and Mari Cordes, D/P-Lincoln.
— Sarah Mearhoff
Another state senator is hitting the campaign trail. Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, on Monday announced his candidacy to serve as Vermont’s lieutenant governor.
Benning is the first Republican to declare his candidacy for the position, now open after current Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, a Democrat, announced she would vacate her seat in order to make a run for Congress.
“I know that I will have hurdles in the primary as a result of not being a fan of Donald Trump, but I want to move us as a party beyond the 2020 election and start to concentrate on where the Republican Party should be,” Benning said Monday.
Two Democrats have announced their candidacy for LG so far: state Rep. Charlie Kimbell, D-Woodstock, and nonprofit executive Patricia Preston.
— Riley Robinson
COVID CORNER
Vermont reported its greatest number of Covid-related hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic on Tuesday, as well as a new boom in cases at long-term care facilities in the state.
Over the past week, according to new data from the Department of Health, the number of active outbreaks in such facilities has jumped from 10 to 15. The number of cases associated with long-term care facility outbreaks exploded in that time — from 58 a week ago to 268, according to a report from the Department of Financial Regulation.
The governor did not host the regular weekly Covid press conference Tuesday because he was giving his budget address.
— Erin Petenko
MAILBAG
Were you in the Statehouse on Tuesday? How did the hybrid format go? What was the strangest thing you saw?
You can submit to us by emailing rrobinson@vtdigger.org, smearhoff@vtdigger.org or lduffort@vtdigger.org.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
The Statehouse cafeteria has a new chef manager. Bryant Palmer assumed the role earlier this month.
Today, Palmer and his team served mac ‘n’ cheese with spicy broccoli and vegetarian baked beans. Palmer said Wednesday’s menu would depend on how business went today.
WHAT’S ON TAP
Wednesday, Jan. 19
9 a.m. — House Ways & Means will hear testimony from advocates on H.510, a bill to establish a Vermont child tax credit.
1:15 p.m. — House Ways & Means will walk-thru its cannabis fee bill.
1:30 p.m. — Senate and House Education will discuss the rollout of new Covid guidelines for public schools with Education Secretary Dan French and Health Commissioner Mark Levine.
1:30 p.m. — Senate Government Operations will discuss pensions with state Treasurer Beth Pearce, the Joint Fiscal Office and union leaders.
WHAT WE’RE READING
USDA refuses Vermont’s request for more on-farm slaughter (VPR)
The wonders of having a cat (Young Writers Project)
