The Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of S.209 — a bill prohibiting assembled firearms with no serial numbers, or so-called “ghost guns” — has turned into a debate over Vermont’s years-long delay to fully implement its Raise the Age law.
Raise the Age, or 2018’s Act 201, was set to gradually increase the age of offenders who are referred to family court instead of criminal court for committing nonviolent offenses. The first stage of the law — raising the age to the offender’s 19th birthday — went into effect in 2020. But implementing the contemplated second phase of the bill — raising the age to the 20th birthday in 2021 — has been on ice for years at the behest of the Scott administration.
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Sears, D-Bennington, called the administration’s initial request to hold off full implementation “somewhat reasonable.” The Covid-19 pandemic sent state government into a tailspin, and it was fair to pause major changes to the state’s criminal justice and family court systems, he noted.
But then the administration kept asking, and asking, and asking for one-year extensions, contending that the Department of Children and Families doesn’t have the resources necessary to handle the additional caseload. On Wednesday, DCF Commissioner Chris Winters came before the committee to make the perennial ask. Sears appeared ready to abide, asking Legislative Counsel to draft an amendment to S.209 — the ghost gun bill —- to delay implementation from this July until 2025.
But then Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, piped up and said he was not “fully compelled” to appease the administration’s request. He pointed to data reported to the committee earlier that morning by Columbia University’s Justice Lab, which found that the number of delinquency cases coming before Vermont’s family courts has been trending down since Raise the Age’s passage.
Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, added, “I would go so far as to say I am opposed to delaying this again.”
“I mean, we sat here last year and we had this exact conversation,” she said. “And as far as I can tell, we are just going to keep having this conversation.”
It’s not only the issue of resources: Republican Gov. Phil Scott said himself during his budget address in January that he “may have been wrong” when he signed Raise the Age into law. Tying the state’s current crime trends with the bill’s implementation in 2020, he said, “I wish I had better anticipated the challenge of implementing laws to raise the age of criminal accountability, because we weren’t ready.”
Back in Senate Judiciary, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, bemoaned what he called “the contradiction that’s buried in everything (the administration has) offered us so far this year.”
“They want more tough-on-crime statutes. They want higher penalties for fentanyl… They want convictions for violations of conditions,” Baruth said. “And when I ask them, ‘Are you prepared to fund the additional incarceration and detention that this will produce,’ the answer is no. The governor comes forward with no more resources.”
So Baruth proposed the committee call the administration’s bluff.
“I think either, we just do what we’ve done the last two years a third time, with the understanding that probably they’re not going to say they’re ready next year, or we hold them to what we put in statute and we offer them the budget process to articulate their needs,” Baruth said. “And at this point, that makes more sense to me, I have to say.”
The committee members did not make a final decision Wednesday, deciding that they need to hear more testimony. Asked about the committee’s discussion at his weekly press conference, Republican Gov. Phil Scott was brief.
“I wouldn’t say that approach is any different than I’ve seen over the last few years,” he responded.
— Sarah Mearhoff
On the move
A key committee has voted in favor of a bill that would increase the amount of renewable energy that Vermont utilities are required to purchase.
Lawmakers in the House Environment and Energy Committee voted to support the measure, H.289, by 9 to 1 on Tuesday afternoon. It heads to the House Ways and Means Committee next.
The bill would tighten a coming deadline for the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, a program that requires utilities to purchase more and more of their electricity from renewable sources over time. Right now, utilities are required to purchase 75% of their power from renewable sources by 2032. The bill would increase that amount to 100% by 2030.
It would also require utilities to purchase an increasing amount of energy from new renewable sources that came online after 2010.
— Emma Cotton
Full disclosure
Soon after gaveling in for the 2024 legislative session, the Vermont Senate voted to beef up its financial disclosure requirements, providing more information to the public about its members’ potential conflicts of interest.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, said at the time that the rules change had been inspired by VTDigger’s award-winning Full Disclosure series, which in April 2023 documented how little information lawmakers revealed about potential conflicts — and how hard it was to find that information.
After the January 2024 vote, Baruth asked his fellow senators to file new disclosures with the newly required information. The secretary of the Senate then published the latest disclosures on the Legislature’s website — in a single, 91-page PDF. VTDigger, which had created a searchable, sortable database of legislative filings for the Full Disclosure series, got to work updating its database.
— Paul Heintz
On the hill
In a dramatic evening on the floor of the U.S. House, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., opposed a pair of GOP initiatives that failed in the Republican-controlled chamber — one that would have provided military aid to Israel and another that would have impeached a member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet.
The first-term representative joined the rest of the Democratic caucus in voting against the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Republicans had drafted two articles of impeachment related to Mayorkas’ oversight of the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing that he had refused to comply with the law and breached the public trust.
But after several Republicans defected and a Democratic member appeared on the floor unexpectedly, the measure failed on a vote of 214-216.
— VTD Editor
Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.
Notable quotable
While discussing potential amendments to legislation in Senate Judiciary this morning:
Sears: “I’m not sure what I want.”
Baruth: “Are any of us?”
Amen.
— Sarah Mearhoff
Corrections section
Yesterday’s newsletter included the incorrect bill number for H.549, a bill that would prohibit siting outdoor cannabis cultivation in densely populated areas and misquoted Sen. Bobby Starr. We apologize for the errors.
What we’re reading
How many Vermonters are unhoused? The state’s best answer is likely incomplete, VTDigger/Vermont Public
Officer resigns after hot mic moment disparaging migrant worker in criminal justice council meeting, VTDigger
Opening date remains uncertain for long-awaited methadone clinic in Bennington, VTDigger
