It’s been more than three years since municipal officials got wind of a paramilitary training center operating in the hills of West Pawlet — or as its owner preferred to call it, a center for “professional gunfighting” — and began the long legal process to shut it down.
Over the years, according to court cases and a VTDigger investigation, Slate Ridge owner Daniel Banyai gathered members of local militias at his property, detonated explosives while hosting paramilitary trainings, posted publicly about stockpiling weapons, threatened local officials and harassed neighbors.
Neighbors repeatedly asked local and state law enforcement to put a stop to the behavior. Officials said they didn’t have evidence that Banyai had violated state laws and therefore couldn’t respond.
This session, lawmakers are trying to make it easier to intervene, should a similar situation arise again.
The proposed legislation, S.3, would ban paramilitary training in Vermont. It flew through the Senate, passing with a single “nay” vote.
At the time, Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, told his colleagues that the bill’s reception “has been almost uniformly positive.”
“I expected that there would be pushback when it went in, but I have been given to understand that there is a large, silent majority of people out there who want this activity stopped,” Baruth said.
On Tuesday, the bill passed its first House committee in a stronger form — members bumped up a $5,000 penalty in the Senate bill to $50,000.
But the bill, which will soon be considered on the House floor, did run into resistance from Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee. Reps. Kenneth Goslant, R-Northfield, Thomas Oliver, R/D-Sheldon, and Tom Burditt, R-West Rutland, all opposed it.
Burditt said last week that he believed the Slate Ridge case was “more of a local zoning, Act 250 problem.”
“If the people there weren’t so — what word do I want to use? I’ll just say, if they weren’t such ass hats, I don’t think we would be in this situation right now,” he said. “Or, if they were just a little more agreeable and amenable to the local people and the local government, I think they probably could have continued to operate where they were.”
A controversial opinion, indeed.
In testimony before the committee, Billy Clark, a litigation attorney for Giffords Law Center, an organization that advocates for gun safety, referenced the stories of those who live near Slate Ridge and “just wish to live in peace in their homes.” Those neighbors have been going through a long process through the state’s Environmental Court to find protection. To date, Banyai has still not complied with some of the court’s orders.
“In my view, yes, this bill may have arisen from one particular instance, but it’s a pattern that is occurring across the country,” Clark said. “And unfortunately, I don’t think this will be the last time we see something like this arise in our state.”
The bill addresses an existing gap in the law, he said, and would create another, more immediate mechanism to stop the activity.
“As a resident of Vermont, it’s going to help me sleep better at night to know that there is a way, if armed militia groups are training with the purpose of engaging in civil disorder, the attorney general can seek injunctive relief to prevent that from continuing,” Clark said.
— Emma Cotton
IN THE KNOW
The Senate’s Appropriations Committee chair, Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, is requesting a change of venue.
An amendment to this year’s transportation bill, H.479, includes a nearly 20% increase in Department of Motor Vehicle fees. But during a popover in Senate Finance on Tuesday, the chamber’s chief budget-writer told her colleagues she thought the Big Bill, H.494, would be a better place for that discussion.
“Those fees do have a direct nexus to the budget,” said Kitchel, who added that, like Gov. Phil Scott, she felt strongly that Vermont needs to set money aside now to draw down federal funds from the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021.
Scott’s administration has said the one-time (and historic) surpluses Vermont has enjoyed of late should be used to pay for any required federal matches. But Democratic lawmakers have proposed leaning on fee increases, arguing Vermont needs to address a structural deficit in the state’s Transportation Fund — one that has required the state to leave federal dollars on the table many times before. And Kitchel echoed those concerns again Tuesday.
“We have got a structural problem when you’re using one-time general funds to be the match for your ongoing transportation program. And we have said before: One-time money for ongoing obligations is how you fall off the cliff,” she said, using a formulation oft-repeated by the governor.
— Lola Duffort
The Agency of Transportation is not on board with a proposal to lower the state’s statutory speed limit from 50 mph to 35 mph on unpaved town highways that do not otherwise have a posted speed limit.
Proposed by Sen. Kitchel, the measure was included in S.99, the miscellaneous motor vehicle bill, which cleared the Senate and is now under review in the House.
VTrans officials told members of the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday that while 50 mph is, shall we say, ambitious, for many dirt and gravel roads, the agency is wary of creating potential logistical challenges for the state’s smallest towns.
Following federal highway guidelines, Vermont posts signs near the state’s borders that show the existing 50 mph statutory speed limit — which applies to roads of any surface. But Ian Degutis, VTrans traffic operations engineer, said S.99 would likely require additional signs specifying that the default limit is 35 mph on unpaved roads.
The agency thinks it would be confusing to just add more signage at the state’s borders, Degutis told committee members. Another option, he said, would be to post signs on every unpaved (and otherwise unposted) town highway in the state. But, he noted, that could be a heavy lift for small towns.
“If we passed this the way it is, it could become an unfunded mandate on the towns,” said Rep. Charles ‘Butch’ Shaw, R-Pittsford.
Shaw suggested hitting the brakes on the speed limit language to give VTrans time to take stock of the sign situation. Several committee members, and the VTrans officials present, said they’re warm to that idea.
— Shaun Robinson
OFF STAGE
Cabaret is back, baby! Well, at least for some members of the Statehouse inner circle. I’m told the soiree, scheduled for Thursday night, is closed to Vermont’s free and fair press.
Your loss. I’m a delight at parties.
— Sarah Mearhoff
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
During a break in the action over in House Corrections and Institutions on Tuesday afternoon, members were griping about the Capitol cafeteria’s chronic Diet Coke shortage. (Now, this is a cause I can get behind!)
But according to Rep. John Arrison, D-Weathersfield, some members seem to have no issue securing their low-cal bevs of choice.
“I’ll tell you what, those women in the education committee, they make sure they have their Diet Coke every day,” Arrison said.
— Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT WE’RE READING
With abortion pill access in the hands of federal courts, Vermont providers prepare to pivot (VTDigger)
Trout season begins in Vermont (VTDigger)
Vermont’s aging homes put extra strain on state’s housing crisis (VTDigger)