“I don’t think that is going to fix what ails Burlington.”
That’s what Gov. Phil Scott told reporters Wednesday at his weekly press conference, speaking about a proposed change to the laws governing the state’s largest city that would ban guns from bars and other establishments that serve alcohol. He said he would veto the proposal — the only gun control measure legislators have advanced this year — if it makes it to his desk.
The charter change, S.131, cleared the Senate late last month. It has since been in the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, which took testimony on the proposal as recently as Tuesday afternoon. Asked if his committee would pass out the proposal in time to get it to the governor before the end of the session, Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, who is the panel’s chair, gave only a short answer: “perhaps.”
Regardless, a veto may spell the end for the legislation, since it didn’t pass the Senate with enough votes — just 17 — to rebuke Scott’s red pen. Charter changes, after being approved by local voters, must get a sign-off from the Legislature and the governor before taking effect.
The bill is Burlington voters’ second attempt in a decade at asking legislators to approve a ban on guns in bars. This year’s effort was prompted by a fatal shooting last summer outside a bar and nightclub in the city’s downtown that police said was preceded by a fight inside the venue.
Backers of the bill in the Statehouse, top among them Burlingtonian and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, have called the proposal a common sense change to keep bar patrons and staff safe. But the measure has drawn opposition from some gun owners’ rights groups, including the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.
Scott said his main issue with the proposal was that he did not think bar owners could effectively enforce it. He also said he was opposed to banning guns from bars in one municipality, while no such policy exists elsewhere in the state, though added he would oppose a statewide ban, too.
“Like, who’s going to stand at the door and frisk people?” he told reporters Wednesday. “Are you going to have a metal detector?” (Proponents of the bill have said that enforcement would ultimately be up to the Burlington Police Department, whom bar owners could call if needed.)
One reporter then contended that bars don’t often have someone posted at the door to check for other things that would be illegal to carry inside, such as illicit drugs.
“Well, I don’t think they see that as a problem in Burlington,” Scott replied, referring to illicit drugs. “I mean, it’s pretty flagrant around the community.”
— Shaun Robinson
In the know
Vermont legislators are struggling with what to do next with a major education reform bill, which Gov. Phil Scott is pushing them to pass this year.
Sharp disagreements among lawmakers have emerged in the Vermont Senate over the past week, as education leaders publicly lobby against the chamber’s latest version of legislation.
Both chambers of the Legislature and the governor see education reform as a key issue in response to last year’s double-digit average property tax increases. All three have put forward different versions of wide-ranging reforms.
The proposal, H.454, was originally slated for a vote on the Senate floor Wednesday after passing out of a key committee last week. But at a tense caucus meeting of the Senate’s Democratic majority Tuesday evening, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, pulled the plug on those plans and conceded that a majority of the caucus was not willing to support the current version of the bill, even after taking weeks of testimony.
“I made a promise to people in the caucus that I wouldn’t bring a bill that had a little bit of Democratic support and a lot of Republican support,” Baruth said Tuesday. “Currently, that’s the only way that (H.454) would make it through the process — would be for, you know, a handful, at best, of Democrats to support it, and then a majority of Republicans to support it.”
Plans were for the education bill to come up for action on the floor Thursday, said Ashley Moore, who is Baruth’s chief of staff, on Wednesday afternoon.
Read more about what educators and lawmakers are saying about the bill here.
— Habib Sabet and Shaun Robinson
On the move
A bill that would radically restructure Vermont’s response to homelessness is headed for a full vote in the Senate Thursday. But Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has expressed continued concern about the legislation, making its path to becoming law uncertain.
Asked at the press conference whether he would support the bill, H.91, Scott said he hadn’t seen its latest iteration. But he noted that he could not greenlight a bill that continues allowing the mass use of motel and hotel rooms for shelter, and maintains historically high spending levels.
“There’s a lot of conditions that have to be put into place before we do this,” Scott said.
H.91 would shift Vermont’s homelessness response system from one centered on state government to one administered by private nonprofit organizations. It passed the House in early April.
In its current form, the bill would make that transition in stages. Next summer, the statewide motel voucher program would end, and regional anti-poverty organizations would take over the task of providing emergency shelter under the banner of the newly-created Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program. The state would maintain an oversight role.
Read more about the bill and its next steps here.
— Carly Berlin
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