Editor’s note: We need your help this week. If you value this newsletter, please join VTDigger’s Spring Member Drive today and help keep it coming to your inbox. The drive is critical to meeting our budget needs, and we still need 780 members to contribute by the end of the week. As a nonprofit, we rely on donations from readers like you to make our political reporting possible. Whether you can give $10 or $100, we’re so grateful for your support. Join the drive by donating today.
Legislators may be breathing easier after advancing funds for a grab bag of construction and maintenance projects on state-owned properties.
The Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to the capitol budget adjustment act, H.739. (A final vote Thursday was delayed due to a last-minute amendment.) The $144 million spending plan updates the capital bill, passed every two years, which funds projects at sites ranging from state college facilities to dams to parking garages to … fish hatcheries, apparently. (The Lake Champlain Walleye Association, affectionately known in the Statehouse as “the Walleye Guys,” got $50,000 from the Senate for spawning tanks.)
The bill also would increase funding for Statehouse HVAC renovations from $2.5 million to $6.8 million.
Those ventilation improvements have been in the works for about five years, said Erik Filkorn, principal assistant for the Department of Buildings and General Services, but the price tag increased dramatically with inflation. During the summer, humidity has caused mold problems, Filkorn said, so his team plans to install a summer boiler to dry out the air. The renovation would also replace the building’s air handling units, most of which date back to the 1970s.
Running dehumidifiers throughout the Statehouse during the summer costs the state about $17,000 per year in energy costs, and $26,000 per summer in labor costs, according to data from the department.
The renovations will be spread out over three years because crews pause work while the Legislature is in session, Filkorn said. He expects BGS to start work this summer.
At the same time, H.739 cuts the funding for HVAC renovations in state prisons in half, from $1 million to $500,000.
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, chair of the Senate Institutions Committee, said on the floor Wednesday that the Department of Corrections “was not shovel-ready” to begin work on prison HVAC systems.
The conversation on prison air systems will continue next year, Benning said, as in the summertime, “many of them become, literally, a baking oven.”
Air conditioning in state prisons gained more political traction last summer, said Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, after corrections officers started a petition.
Any work to install or upgrade air conditioning in state prisons is still in the planning stages, Filkorn said, which is why the price tag is far lower than the Statehouse HVAC renovation in this bill. BGS simply couldn’t complete $1 million worth of plans before the next legislative session.
Plus, earlier this spring, the Legislature commissioned proposals that could result in major changes to the state prison system.
“Some of these buildings may be retired in another five to 10 years,” Filkorn said, referring to the state’s correctional facilities, “so we want to make sure that if we are doing this project, that we do it in the right order, at the right places.”
Third reading on H.739 was delayed Thursday after a group of senators offered a last-minute amendment. The change would require all new heating systems installed in state buildings after July 2023 to not use fossil fuels, unless a commissioner deems it financially infeasible. The conversation is set to resume on Friday.
— Riley Robinson
IN THE KNOW
A House committee has gutted a bill that was supposed to be about stopping robocalls, replacing all the language in the bill to use it instead as a vehicle to promote economic and workforce development.
It’s not clear what, if anything, the Legislature will do now to protect Vermonters from robocalls.
“It’s dead,” Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry, chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, told VTDigger on Wednesday, though he allowed that the proposal might be revived in some other bill.
Marcotte said his committee needed a vehicle to expedite workforce development, which is contained in H.703, a bill the House sent to the Senate weeks ago but that the Senate is still taking testimony on.
— Fred Thys
There’s a new Top Gov in town.
According to updated polling from Morning Consult released Thursday, Gov. Phil Scott has slipped from his No. 1 spot on the podium. Now, he’s second to Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker, who has been crowned America’s most popular governor.
I’m being a bit dramatic; Scott still has the polls on his side, with a 72% approval rating. He, Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan — all Republicans — are the only three governors in the country to surpass the 70% mark.
Now, if only Scott would tell us his reelection plans… ?
— Sarah Mearhoff
ON THE MOVE
Lawmakers in the state Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill on Thursday that many consider the most significant piece of climate legislation in the Statehouse this session.
The bill, H.715, proposes a clean heat standard, which is designed to radically reform the state’s thermal sector.
Many lawmakers and climate advocates have underlined the importance of passing the bill this session to help Vermont meet the mandated emission reduction targets outlined in the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act. The first deadline is coming up in 2025.
As approved Thursday by the Senate, the bill includes a “check back” amendment, which was requested by Gov. Phil Scott’s administration. The provision requires the Public Utility Commission to report back to the Legislature in both February 2023 and January 2024, when its members know more about, for example, how the program will impact ratepayers and reduce fossil fuel usage.
While the amendment makes the bill more likely to clear the governor’s desk, some environmental groups say the measure adds uncertainty and makes Vermont’s 2025 target less reachable.
The governor’s press secretary, Jason Maulucci, said that because there have been many recent changes to the bill, “it’s too soon to say whether (Scott) will support the final product.”
— Emma Cotton
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
A veteran legislator from Bradford has joined the Democratic primary for secretary of state.
Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, told VTDigger on Thursday that she intends to make her first run for statewide office, in hopes of succeeding retiring Secretary of State Jim Condos.
“I know the threats that we are facing to our democracy across the country and even here in Vermont and I want to be a champion for democracy,” she said in between roll-call votes on the House floor.
— Lola Duffort
Vermont’s newest state Senate district comprising the northernmost towns of Chittenden County has its first contestants vying for a seat in Montpelier.
Republican Leland Morgan has represented Milton in the Vermont House since 2019. Now he’s seeking a seat in the upper chamber. Given that the Senate has just 30 members, compared to 150 in the House, Morgan told VTDigger, he’s hoping to forge closer relationships and wield greater influence, should he prevail in November.
From the other side of the aisle, longtime local activist Irene Wrenner of Essex is stepping into the ring as a Democrat. She will be most familiar to voters in her hometown, where she served on the Selectboard from 2007 to 2019 and made headlines for her unique methods of activism.
This year’s election will be the first for the newly created Chittenden North district, thanks to Vermont’s recently redrawn legislative district maps. Compared to other portions of Chittenden County, such as Burlington’s progressive hub, the area is rural and politically moderate.
— Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
The caf intel you’ve scrolled this far for: Friday’s special will be bacon mac and cheese with maple glazed carrots and a homemade roll. The grill will have three kinds of wings — honey BBQ, cajun and buffalo — and a dressing with local blue cheese. The deli will have smoked chicken breast wraps.
Chef Bryant Palmer informed us he recently bought a smoker for the Statehouse kitchen, and next week they plan to launch their house-made pastrami. (We hear there may also be some maple bacon coming soon?)
— Riley Robinson
WHAT WE’RE READING
Charting the Final Course of the Soon-to-Be-Retired 1862 Replica Canalboat ‘Lois McClure’ (Seven Days)
Burlington School Board selects $181 million design for new high school (VTDigger)
Universal school meals. PCB remediation. Tech education. Can a $95 million surplus pay for it all? (VTDigger)
A Life: Jon Appleton (Valley News)
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated how much it cost to run dehumidifiers in the Statehouse.
