“I think the message that our budget sends to Vermonters is that we have your back,” said House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington. “That we are supporting you with affordable housing, with child care, with paid leave, with workforce development and other supports for health care and community providers.”
S.32 comes after a different, more robust ranked choice voting bill melted away last year. Lawmakers came back this year with the idea to limit implementation of the system to presidential primaries as a trial run.
Spokesperson Jason Maulucci told VTDigger on Friday that the Governor’s Office is watching as lawmakers scale back some of Gov. Phil Scott’s highest priority items.
“If folks are fighting, spending so much money, to prevent access to these tools and materials, there's probably a lot at stake here,” said Rep. Katherine Sims.
The governor stopped short of threatening a veto, saying “I think that we need to make sure that we give legislators the ability to make changes.”
Friday was the deadline for bills to clear their committee of origin. Those that didn’t are unlikely to become law this session.
“Our laws should protect people, not push them further toward the margins of our society,” Sen. Becca White said at a press conference calling on Vermont to decriminalize sex work.
As Vermont lawmakers attempt to beef up protections to reproductive health care within the state, lawsuits across the country threaten to impede access to care nationwide.
Committee chair Kesha Ram Hinsdale is committed to passing bills to expand union organization protections and beef up workplace discrimination legal protections by Friday.
Numerous bills before the Legislature this year have shone a spotlight on the many forms that intimate partner violence, both domestic and sexual, can take.