If you missed your favorite member of the House or Senate transportation committees during lunch on Thursday, fear not. Many spent the hour well taken care of aboard a set of vintage passenger train cars, dining alongside lobbyists from the Railroad Association of Vermont.
Never one to pass up the chance to hop on a train, I tagged along — though it took a couple tries to get a seat.
The railroad association had parked three cars on the tracks behind the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier. I stepped on board just before noon, but after identifying myself as a reporter, was promptly asked to disembark. The lunch was an invitation-only “social gathering,” said Allison Crowley, a lobbyist for the railroad association.
I pointed out that there was a quorum of lawmakers from at least one committee present — which constitutes a public meeting — and that the lunch was warned on the Senate Transportation Committee’s weekly schedule.
After lurking along the tracks for 15 minutes, I caught Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden-Southeast, stepping off the train. The senator agreed to plead my case inside, and shortly after, I was waved aboard.
The mood was lively inside the lime green-cladded cars. In one car, a sandwich and soup buffet was spread out for the taking. In another, lawmakers, state transportation officials and rail lobbyists chatted together in the dining booths. By 12:45 p.m., most of the lawmakers were heading back to the Statehouse.
Members of the railroad association peppered me with questions, but declined to answer the ones I posed about the organization’s agenda and the purpose of their meal on wheels. I was referred to Peter Young, the general counsel for Vermont Rail System, who called me Thursday afternoon. He dubbed the event “an opportunity to get together other than through Zoom.”
“There’s no agenda,” Young said.
— Shaun Robinson
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IN THE KNOW
Today’s installment of VTDigger’s Full Disclosure series is a double-dose. In the first story, reporter Lola Duffort asks the question: Is the Vermont Statehouse the ‘people’s house’ or the ‘house of landlords’?
For years, it’s been known as the latter, according to Tom Proctor, a housing organizer for Rights & Democracy.
In the Legislature’s upper chamber, that reputation is not without warrant. A third of the Senate’s 30 members have made money buying, selling or renting real estate, according to 2023 ethics disclosure forms compiled and analyzed by VTDigger. Seven state senators disclosed income from rental property, and two others own or have a stake in real estate companies. Yet another is a retired realtor.
Amid a crushing statewide housing crisis, Vermont lawmakers have continually declined to take up legislation that would improve tenant protections for the state’s renters. Could lawmakers’ landlord statuses lower their appetite for such change?
In our second story of the day, data whisperer Erin Petenko found that Vermont legislators are far more likely to be retired than the average resident.
More than 40% of state senators and at least one-third of House members draw income from retirement savings and Social Security, in addition to legislative pay, according to ethics disclosure forms filed by lawmakers over the past year.
By comparison, only 22% of the adult Vermont population is retired, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Of the legislators who did record some sort of employment in 2022 candidate forms, the most common categories included education, advocacy, and retail and hospitality.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation is asking state lawmakers for permission to sell the Caledonia County State Airport — and it may not have to look far to find a buyer.
Beta Technologies, the South Burlington electric aircraft manufacturer, has expressed interest in taking the Lyndon airport off the state’s hands, Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn told members of the Senate Transportation Committee Thursday morning.
— Shaun Robinson
Where and how should Vermont provide care and oversight for a person deemed incompetent to stand trial for a serious crime?
Those longstanding questions are back before state lawmakers, as two related bills already approved in the Senate are now being reviewed by the House Judiciary Committee.
S.91 addresses the competency process, while S.89 would transform part of the state psychiatric hospital into an adult forensic facility. They both attempt to provide more direction to state agencies about what should happen after a court finds that someone cannot stand trial for an alleged crime because they are unable to participate in their own defense due to a severe mental illness, developmental disabilities or both.
Read more about S.91 here and S.89 here.
— Kristen Fountain
ON THE MOVE
House lawmakers have taken their first pass at a sweeping measure that would inject tens of millions of dollars into Vermont’s child care system, moving to further increase reimbursement rates to home-based providers while also raising co-pays for families.
The House Human Services Committee on Wednesday afternoon advanced an amended version of S.56 by a 10-1 vote, with Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, the lone ‘nay.’
— Lola Duffort
ON THE FIFTH FLOOR
Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill into law on Thursday, raising the legal age for marriage in Vermont from 16 to 18 years old, making Vermont the eighth state in the United States to ban child marriage.
“The governor believes that it’s more appropriate for such an important life decision to happen when someone achieves the age of majority,” said Jason Maulucci, the governor’s press secretary.
Before the law was enacted, minors who were 16 years or older could legally get married in Vermont with the written consent of at least one parent.
According to data from the Vermont Commission on Women, nearly 300 children were married in Vermont between 2000 and 2021. Of those, 80% were girls, nearly half of whom were married to individuals more than four years their senior, most often grown men, according to the commission.
— Olivia Q. Pintair
WHAT WE’RE READING
‘Out with his boots on’: Friends and colleagues remember the vigorous life of Ed Koren (VTDigger)
A Marshfield Man Is Giving Away Sunflower Seeds to Inspire Hope for Ukraine (Seven Days)
Natural burials haven’t been allowed at many New England cemeteries. Now, they’re catching on (Vermont Public)
