What will just over $71,000 in television, newspaper and social media ads get you?
Sometimes, not much at all.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the national group Represent.Us spent that sum in an advertising blitz to push for ranked choice voting for federal elections in Vermont. (Disclosure: VTDigger carried some of these ads.) The initiative plastered a 30-second TV spot in front of thousands of Vermonters featuring three of S.229’s eight Senate sponsors — two of whom, incidentally, are running for Congress. (That would be Senate Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, and Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden.)
But despite such apparently robust Senate support, the actual bill received hardly any attention at the Statehouse. In fact, it received only a single hearing — and that hearing only took place Friday afternoon, the deadline for bills to get an up or down vote in their committee of origin. Unsurprisingly, the bill did not make crossover, although all parties said they’ll try again next year. (A separate bill that would OK a charter change in Burlington allowing for ranked choice voting is being considered separately.)
So what went wrong? Balint pointed the finger — diplomatically — at Secretary of State Jim Condos, who raised last-minute objections, arguing his team had no capacity to undertake the initiative right now.
‘The last-minute revelation of bandwidth issues in our Elections Division was an unfortunate wrinkle,” Balint said in a written statement, adding that “the Elections Division does incredible work and … are supportive of an extended conversation about RCV.”
Paul Burns, the executive director of VPIRG, did the same. The organization worked for a long time to reach a compromise with Condos, he said, only to watch the secretary testify to the committee his office had just discovered it needed to replace its elections management system and was too swamped to handle any additional workload.
“Honestly, I don’t understand everything that he was saying about why that then suddenly prevented him from sticking to the deal that I thought we had, but that’s what happened,” Burns said.
Asked to weigh in, Condos rattled off a list of obligations already on his six-person election team’s plate: reapportionment, universal mail-in voting and training local clerks to use new tabulators.
“There was the TV ad that VPIRG put out that says ‘It’s as simple as 1-2-3.’ And that is the furthest thing from the truth. It’s not that simple. It’s simple on their side, but it’s not simple for us,” he said.
Condos said he strongly supports ranked choice voting. He even sponsored similar legislation back when he was in the Senate. But he argued lawmakers can and should revisit the matter in 2023 when there will be more time to get legislation about it right — something he said was impossible with a single hearing scheduled just hours before a key legislative deadline.
“I understand that Paul Burns spent a lot of TV money, a lot of Facebook money advertising for ranked choice voting. I understand that. But that’s not my job,” Condos said. “That was his choice to do that. Our job is not to check off a box so that I can go out and have a fundraising campaign. My job is to make sure that the elections are run … with integrity.”
— Lola Duffort
IN THE KNOW
Senators are working out more details of a relief fund for employers who pay their employees who cannot come to work because of Covid-19.
Businesses have been asking for the help.
The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs would allow municipalities as well as businesses to apply for grants.
They could apply for reimbursement of up to 67% of an employee’s regular hourly wage, up to a wage of $27.50 an hour. The maximum grant an employer could get per employee would be $2,000.
The grants would cover absences over the course of 2022.
Joyce Manchester, senior economist for the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office, estimated that if 45% of employers apply for the grants, the program would cost $15.7 million.
Committee Chair Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, suggested adding 5% to administer the program, for a total cost of $16.5 million. The money would come from federal funds Vermont has received through the American Rescue Plan Act.
— Fred Thys
ON THE MOVE
Lawmakers in Vermont’s House of Representatives preliminarily approved a bill that would establish a clean heat standard, a system that would eventually lower greenhouse gas emissions in the home heat sector.
With a vote of 96-44, the bill waits for official approval from the House before moving to the Senate and the governor’s desk.
The program was one of the most significant to come out of the Vermont Climate Action Plan, published in December, which recommended more than 230 actions that could help the state meet its required emission reductions, many of which required action from the Legislature. Around 34% of Vermont’s emissions come from the heating sector.
— Emma Cotton
The Vermont House is one more vote away from solidifying its legislative district lines for the next 10 years, having passed its reapportionment bill, H.722, by a 129-13 vote Wednesday.
And if the updated map continues to move forward, Vermont’s multi-member districts will have survived sometimes contentious debate this session.
The once-per-decade reapportionment process was tough to wrangle from the start. Vermont officials were forced to start behind schedule due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s extreme, nationwide delays in providing updated population counts.
With the Secretary of State’s Office needing the new maps inhand by April 1, Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, who chairs the committee tasked with drawing up the map, said the theme of redistricting this cycle was “really one of a tremendous time crunch.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
The House is likely to approve a bill that would expand health insurance coverage for hearing aids.
Vermont Medicaid already covers hearing aids, and the State Employees Health Plan will cover hearing aids as of this July, said Rep. Leslie Goldman, D-Rockingham. This bill, H.266, would codify that coverage in statute and require hearing aid coverage from large group health insurance plans — the last remaining segment of the health insurance market subject to state regulation.
Six percent of Vermonters experience significant difficulty hearing, according to a 2018 report by the Vermont Department of Health.
The House advanced the bill on voice vote, and it will now proceed to third reading.
— Riley Robinson
The House gave preliminary approval to H.399, a bill that would require courts to consider the impacts of incarceration on a person’s family. The bill would give defendants the right to present a family impact statement before sentencing.
It would also require the court to weigh a defendant’s responsibilities if they are a primary caretaker of a minor and to consider alternatives to incarceration.
One out of every 17 Vermont children has had a parent in prison, said Rep. Kate Donnally, D-Hyde Park.
The bill passed by voice vote and will continue to third reading.
— Riley Robinson
The House also moved ahead on a bill meant to streamline Vermont’s criminal code.
The bill, H.475, sorts crimes against people and sex offenses into classes of severity. It was based on recommendations from the Vermont Sentencing Commission, which is made up of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and law enforcement, said Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington.
The bill reduces the maximum sentence for some offenses, for which data showed Vermont judges rarely imposed the maximum sentence, LaLonde said. He argued the changes would decrease sentencing disparities among counties.
The commission had recommended sentence reductions for some sex offenses, LaLonde said, but based on witness testimony, the House Judiciary declined to make those changes.
The bill passed second reading on a voice vote.
— Riley Robinson
THE FIFTH FLOOR
Despite much prior grumbling, Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday quietly signed the nearly $370 million budget adjustment bill that lawmakers sent his way last week.
— Lola Duffort
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
Lucky you: Chef Bryant will be cooking up a corned beef and cabbage lunch in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. The dish will feature lots of butter, he tells us.
— Sarah Mearhoff and Lola Duffort
WHAT WE’RE READING
Vermont Business Leaders Plan to Establish a Bank (Seven Days)
Camels Hump 7th grader takes 1st as Vermont’s state spelling bee returns (VTDigger)
Bridgewater furniture maker’s ties to famous explorer Shackleton resurface with discovery of ship (Valley News)