When Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor, saw that women serving in the Missouri Legislature were being subjected to a new, stricter dress code, she was inspired to organize a day of solidarity in Vermont’s Statehouse.
But the stunt has raised questions about whether Vermont’s own House dress code is as progressive as lawmakers thought.
The Missouri House’s updated dress code, passed last Wednesday, requires that female lawmakers and staffers don a blazer or cardigan while on the floor. The change, passed in a larger rules package by a 105-51 vote, set off a social media firestorm. Critics called it sexist and antiquated to bar women from showing their arms.
“Okay- in solidarity with the women of the Missouri legislature I will be going sleeveless this upcoming Tuesday at the Vermont State House,” White tweeted on Friday. “Who’s with me?!”
White and three of her compatriots bore their arms on the Senate floor on Tuesday. But on the House side, members questioned: Are sleeveless tops even allowed?
“On the House side, it’s not clear actually if they are allowed to be sleeveless,” White told VTDigger on Tuesday. “So House members actually were not sleeveless on the floor, because we were unclear. And I know they’re also having some discussions about dress code in general, so it feels very apropo that we’re having this conversation.”
Four members did forgo sleeves: Rep. Edye Graning, D-Jericho; Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, P/D-Burlington; Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury; and Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski. But it was only after the House concluded its floor session that more members removed their jackets for a photo op outside of the Senate chamber.
A new dress code adopted by the Vermont House last year simply reads, “A member shall wear business professional attire in the House Chamber.”
Asked on Tuesday whether sleeveless tops are allowed under the new House rules, Conor Kennedy, who is chief of staff to House Speaker Jill Krowinski, told VTDigger, “I think so.”
“I don’t see why not, as long as it’s professional,” Kennedy said.
Perhaps the right to bare arms isn’t so inalienable, after all.
— Sarah Mearhoff
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IN THE KNOW
It’s here: A long-awaited, 117-page report, commissioned by lawmakers in 2021 and developed by analysts at the RAND Corporation, now pegs the cost of expanding child care subsidies at $179 million to $279 million, depending on a range of options.
Lower-end estimates included in the report would substantially beef up aid to families who make up to 3.5 times the federal poverty level, the current cut-off for state aid. That would cover about 60% of all young children, and allow child care programs to more fairly compensate their workers. Higher-end estimates would improve wages and expand aid to middle-income families making up to 5 times the federal poverty level, covering a little over 80% of all preschool aged kids.
— Lola Duffort
Vermont’s revenues are in boom times, state economists announced Tuesday, as public coffers are buoyed by what economic adviser Jeff Carr called “epic, unprecedented, off-the-charts” federal money — for now.
Those same economists predicted the state’s general fund revenues will drop nearly 9% in the fiscal year that begins July 1, a drop that would outpace even the 2009 downturn during the Great Recession.
The 9% decrease, which excludes health care revenues, is “without the assumption of a full-blown recession,” and assumes the Federal Reserve can achieve a “soft landing” for the national economy, Tom Kavet, the Legislature’s economist, told the Emergency Board on Tuesday.
— Riley Robinson
A tri-partisan group of lawmakers has endorsed a slate of zoning reforms that would remove barriers to denser development, particularly in town centers and areas served by municipal water and sewer systems. The reform contemplated in legislation crafted by Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, would effectively ban single-family zoning, a move that would make it legal to build at least a duplex anywhere a single-family home is allowed. In areas served by water and sewer, municipalities would have to also allow three- and four-unit homes.
Read more about the potential zoning changes here.
— Lola Duffort
At least three reporters were turned away from committee hearings at the Statehouse last week after members of the Vermont House of Representatives and state Senate said their meeting rooms had reached capacity limits.
In a letter sent Tuesday morning to House Speaker Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, leaders from Vermont newsrooms, including VTDigger, decried lawmakers’ actions last week, writing that “the restrictions fly in the face of centuries of precedent and tradition in the Statehouse and violate the Vermont Constitution.”
Legislative leaders and staff have said capacity limits, which lawmakers ordered the sergeant-at-arms to impose in November 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, are designed to keep people safe in cramped and aging meeting rooms with poor ventilation. But with the Legislature’s first fully in-person session in years underway, lawmakers’ decisions to turn away reporters raise questions about how they are balancing public access to the Statehouse — long called “the people’s house” — with public health.
— Shaun Robinson
These days, Vermont’s utility leaders are dealing with climate change in more ways than one. As they prep for broad-scale electrification, they’re also being pummeled by storms that can cause outages, threatening to cut Vermonters off from electricity they’ll increasingly rely on. Lawmakers are expected to soon take up a bill that would push more utilities toward renewable energy by 2030.
“It is important — if we want people to use electricity for heating and transportation, we need to keep rates at a reasonable level, and we need to make sure that power’s there when they go to use it,” Louis Porter, general manager at Washington Electric Cooperative, told lawmakers in the House Environment and Energy Committee on Tuesday.
— Emma Cotton
The Scott administration this month requested approval to reallocate $9.25 million from this year’s budget to support the rapid development of an inpatient youth psychiatric unit at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. However, the Bennington hospital has not yet committed to the project. Administrators with the Vermont Department of Mental Health now say they would like to see the legislative language broadened to allow the funds to go elsewhere if SVMC leadership decides not to move forward.
— Kristen Fountain
Anne Lezak is stepping down from her role as chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, effective in late February, the party announced in a Tuesday news release. The party has yet to set a date to elect a new chair.
According to the release, Lezak is leaving her post in order to return to Uganda with her husband, Harry Chen, who is currently the interim commissioner of the Department for Children and Families. The two previously served in Uganda as Peace Corps Response volunteers in 2017 and 2018.
Lezak has served as chair of the party since November 2021.
Under her leadership, Vermont Democrats notably swept 2022’s midterm elections, winning all but one race for statewide office and gaining a historic majority in Vermont’s Legislature.
“This has been a real capstone of my career; it’s been incredibly gratifying to head up our party as we’ve gone through an historic election season,” Lezak said in a written statement Tuesday. “We’ve emerged stronger and ready to support our legislature and their highly capable leaders, along with our topnotch statewide and federal electeds, and focus on further activating and energizing town and county Dem committees to be a real force in their communities.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
LISTEN UP
On our latest Deeper Dig podcast, six lawmakers — including the co-chairs of the Rural Caucus — discuss Vermont’s urban-rural divide and respond to Gov. Phil Scott’s pitch for a state fund to help rural towns get federal money.
Listen to the podcast, and read more about the governor’s proposal.
— Riley Robinson and Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT WE’RE READING
$189 charged, $15 collected: The life and death of a local independent drugstore (VTDigger)
ACLU-VT points to ‘troubling pattern’ in denials of access to public spaces and civil forums (VTDigger)
DHMC runs at 10% over capacity amid staffing shortage and high rates of respiratory viruses (Valley News)
Vt. towns that can’t afford school construction projects look to Montpelier for help (Vermont Public)
