Legislators have tried for years to raise Vermont’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. A more modest increase went into effect Jan. 1, upping it from $11.75 to $12.55, but even that required the Legislature to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto back in 2020.
We might see a sequel to that fight this year with S.52, a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.
But given the dramatic rise in inflation over the past year and the effect workforce shortages have had on the labor market, lawmakers wondered Thursday whether they ought to try to raise the floor sooner.
“Even this draft bill is a little out of date, given where we are, where the labor market is,” Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, said Thursday in a meeting of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs. Members of the committee he chairs seemed to be in agreement that they’d need new data on current wages.
The committee also discussed universal paid family leave, as proposed in S.65, harkening back to a similarly intense fight two years ago. (The House fell just one vote short of overriding Scott’s veto at the time.)
Though minimum wage and paid family leave were hot issues in previous biennia, they seem to have dropped off the radar recently: Both bills were sent to committee last session and didn’t make it off the wall.
With President Joe Biden’s paid leave proposal in purgatory, maybe this year it’ll draw renewed attention?
It is an election year, after all.
— Riley Robinson
IN THE KNOW
Gov. Phil Scott has outlined his plans for a $50 million tax cut that would send relief to a broad swath of people, including retirees, child care workers, low-income working families, people with student loans and nurses.
Top Democrats in the House have responded by saying that rather than helping a great number of people just a little, they would rather help a smaller number of people quite a lot. Their alternative: a $1,200 child tax credit for families with kids age 6 and under. That plan comes with a price tag of $60 million.
Vermont Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio came to the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday to make his pitch for the governor’s proposal. The main takeaway? Scott’s plan would cut taxes for at least a quarter of the state’s households. The child tax credit, H.510, meanwhile, would help about 11% of all taxpayers.
“If the bill is too narrowly focused, it won’t have the statewide impact or the recruitment potential that we all hope that it might,” Bolio said.
— Lola Duffort
Prop 5, a constitutional amendment affirming Vermonters’ rights to access reproductive care, including abortion, is on its way to the House floor. It’s the amendment’s final legislative hurdle before it’s placed on the general election ballot this November.
After an hourslong public hearing Wednesday night during which roughly 60 Vermonters testified on the proposed amendment, the House Human Services Committee on Thursday morning gave its OK with a 9-2 vote.
Lawmakers are voting not necessarily on the contents of the constitutional amendment but on whether Vermonters themselves should be able to vote to amend the constitution come November.
Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, is in her first term in the Legislature, but said Thursday that she believes her vote on Prop 5 is already one of the most important she will cast. As Vermont’s first openly transgender legislator, Small said Prop 5 isn’t just about abortion access or women’s rights. The amendment covers health care access for a wider swath of Vermonters.
“I think of my own identities and the way that they show up in the access to the care that I’m able to receive here in the state of Vermont,” Small said. “To know that we would enshrine this in our Constitution means that not only would that be life-saving care for myself, but I think of the trans youth in our state, I think of other trans people who need this care.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
Senators are opposed to giving other car manufacturers the same deal given to Tesla last year.
Gov. Phil Scott signed into law an exemption that allows Tesla to sell directly to consumers in Vermont. Other manufacturers have to go through dealers.
Technically, it’s not just Tesla that could sell directly to consumers, but any manufacturer that has not yet sold vehicles in Vermont but now wants to sell electric vehicles. So other companies that only make electric vehicles could also get around having to sell through dealers.
Other car makers, which is to say those that make gasoline and electric vehicles, are also asking to be able to sell directly.
The chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, made it clear in an interview with VTDigger on Wednesday that no such change is in the cards.
Mazza said there is “no reason to change the law.”
— Fred Thys
ON THE MOVE
The House on Thursday gave preliminary approval to legislation banning guns from hospitals and strengthening background checks for people purchasing firearms. The vote was 97-49 in favor.
A more limited version of the bill, S.30, passed the Senate in March, but the House tacked on a provision closing the “Charleston Loophole.” That allows a person to buy a gun whether or not they pass a federal background check if the check takes longer than three days. The legislation would require a buyer to wait up to 30 days if a background check is not completed.
It’s unclear how Gov. Phil Scott would react if the bill reached his desk. Asked Thursday whether the governor would sign or veto S.30, Scott spokesperson Jason Maulucci provided an ambiguous answer.
“The Governor has said he’s not opposed to considering proposals that would close the ‘Charleston loophole,’” Maulucci said in a written response. But, he added, since signing the 2018 law, Scott has said he “believes new restrictions aren’t necessary and that we should instead focus on improving underlying causes of violence.”
Thursday’s vote margin of 97-49 suggests that the House is tantalizingly close to having the two-thirds support necessary to override a veto from Scott should he ultimately oppose the bill.
— Ethan Weinstein
The Senate Institutions Committee gave its approval Thursday afternoon to spend $1.5 million from the state’s general fund on plans to expand the Statehouse. The committee plans to backfill this expenditure with federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, who chairs the Legislative Advisory Committee on the State House, attended the meeting and outlined the proposed expansion. In broad strokes, the new design would likely add a floor above the cafeteria, move the cafeteria upstairs and put five new, larger committee rooms in the current dining space. The project would cost an estimated $20 million, Emmons said.
Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor; Sen. Corey Parent, R-Franklin; and Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, voted in favor. But each said that just because they approved the plans, that didn’t mean they would later support the proposed construction. Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex/Orleans, voted no, expressing concerns about using state funds rather than federal money.
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, was strongly opposed and suggested that once the plans were commissioned, it was unlikely the Legislature would ever hit the brakes on expansion.
“Once you go down that road, you’re never gonna turn back, I can tell you that,” the veteran legislator said. “I’ve never seen it happen yet. This is serious.”
The joke we’re hearing around the Statehouse? To get their expansion, lawmakers may need to name it the ‘Mazza-leum.’
— Riley Robinson and Lola Duffort
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Gregory Thayer, who previously served as chair of the Rutland City Republican Party, on Thursday announced his GOP bid for lieutenant governor.
Thayer is currently an accountant in private practice and formerly served as a Rutland City alderman. Standing on the steps of the Statehouse in Montpelier, Thayer told reporters at a press conference that “the state’s going to change” come November.
“We’re doing a lot of things around the state in a conservative fashion to make changes, make substantial changes,” he said, using air quotes with his hands when he said “conservative.” “So I predict right here and right now, that it’s going to be a new outcome in November.”
Also gunning for the Republican Party’s nomination in the race is Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, a longtime legislator and moderate Republican who announced his bid for lieutenant governor earlier this month. On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Charlie Kimbell, D-Woodstock, and nonprofit executive Patricia Preston have thrown their hats in the Democratic ring.
— Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
Tomorrow’s Statehouse cafeteria menu will feature roast pork loin, corn and mashed sweet potatoes, “kicking it a little southern-style,” chef manager Bryant Palmer said.
WHAT’S ON TAP
Friday, Jan. 28
After floor — House Commerce and Economic Development hears from the state auditor’s office on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Report.
10:30 a.m. — Senate Judiciary will mark up and possibly vote on S.184, an act relating to defense of others and justifiable homicide.
1 p.m. — Senate Gov Ops will hear testimony on S. 155, which would create an Agency of Public Safety.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Facebook user’s lawsuit claims Vermont statute violates free speech rights (VTDigger)
Burlington mayor nominates acting police chief to stay on the job (VTDigger)
‘Antiques Roadshow’ to Make Its Vermont Debut (Seven Days)
Correction: The item about Prop 5 misstated Rep. Taylor Small’s party identification. She is a Progressive-Democrat.
