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Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Posted By on Tue, May 25, 2021 at 3:36 PM

click to enlarge Vigil in Burlington Marks Anniversary of George Floyd's Death
Colin Flanders ©️ Seven Days
Attendees at a vigil for George Floyd on Tuesday
A solemn crowd of about 50 gathered in Burlington on Tuesday to honor the memory of George Floyd, a Black man whose murder by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year ignited a reckoning on race and policing.

The event marked the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death and drew elected officials, community leaders and others to City Hall Park, where attendees held a silent vigil lasting nine minutes and 29 seconds — the same amount of time that former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.

C D Mattison, who organized the vigil, briefly addressed the crowd to reflect on Floyd's final moments, which were captured on video by a 17-year-old bystander and quickly seared into the national consciousness.

"George Floyd should be alive today. We know that," Mattison said. "And what pained me so much for his family — and most certainly for George Floyd, as he cried out for his mother — was the gathering of people who were there in witness, and how excruciating it was for them that they felt they could not intervene on his behalf and save him, because their very own lives were at risk as well."

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Monday, May 24, 2021

Posted By on Mon, May 24, 2021 at 11:34 PM

click to enlarge Burlington Council Approves Electric Rate Increase, Appoints Pine as CEDO Director
Courtney Lamdin ©️ Seven Days
Burlington Electric Department general manager Darren Springer
The Burlington City Council on Monday approved a 7.5 percent rate increase for Burlington Electric customers, the first rate hike since 2009.

Also Monday, councilors approved new water rates, appointed a city department head and passed a resolution encouraging young Burlingtonians to serve on city boards and commissions.

Burlington Electric Department general manager Darren Springer said the rate increase — which the state's Public Utility Commission also must approve — will make up for revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic. The department brought in $2.1 million less in sales than was budgeted for during the current fiscal year and is owed more than $1.3 million in unpaid customer bills. Expenses next year are expected to be 8.5 percent more than the current year, according to Springer.

The average residential customer’s bill will go up $4.92 per month; low- to moderate-income customers are expected to pay an additional $4.27 a month.

Customers will see the new charges on their August bills.

"We understand the challenge of the moment for the community, and we definitely view a rate increase as a last resort," Springer said.

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Posted By on Mon, May 24, 2021 at 6:31 PM

click to enlarge Bill to Establish a Vermont Rental Property Registry Falls Short — for Now
Julie Marks
Julie Marks at her short-term rental property in Jericho.
A bill that would have required the owners of short-term rentals to register their properties with the state fell short of the final approval needed to become law. Advocates are hopeful they can breathe life into the measure when they return to the Statehouse in January.

The bill is part of a larger measure aimed at improving the quality of long-term rental housing and setting up a professional health and safety inspection system to replace the one that is now largely staffed by volunteer town health officers.

“We’ve been trying to get something like this across for essentially 12 years,” said Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury), a longtime housing advocate who is chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs. He said the bill was rejected by many Republicans who saw the proposed registry as government overreach.

Friday, May 21, 2021

Posted By on Fri, May 21, 2021 at 10:00 PM

A family of Norwich dairy farmers has sued the Vermont State Colleges System following a failed cheese-making partnership.

The suit, filed Friday in Washington County Superior Court, alleges that Vermont Technical College, which operates within the state college apparatus, lured Chris Gray and his wife, Laura Brown, into the partnership under false pretenses, then entered into a secret contract with the Upper Valley Land Trust that nearly forced the family off the property. The suit seeks $500,000.

In the summer of 2015, Gray and Brown moved from West Pawlet to the 358-acre Norwich Farm Creamery to teach cheese-making classes to Vermont Tech students. The educational component of the operation had allowed Vermont Tech to secure the 358-acre farm, then valued at some $2.5 million, as a donation from the previous owner.

The thinking behind the venture, according to the suit, was that the program would generate student revenue for Vermont Tech; Gray and Brown, in turn, would enjoy access to free labor and a state-of-the-art facility built, in part, with grant funding from the college. Gray and Brown signed a five-year lease with Vermont Tech, and the two parties developed a business plan, with the eventual goal of producing a line of European-style cave-aged cheeses to be sold for profit, a portion of which would go to Vermont Tech.

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Posted By on Fri, May 21, 2021 at 6:34 PM

click to enlarge Lawmakers Pass Historic $7.3 Billion Budget Laden With Stimulus Funds
File ©️ Seven Days
The Vermont Statehouse
Vermont lawmakers on Friday passed a $7.3 billion budget swollen with nearly $600 million in federal dollars to stimulate the pandemic-battered economy, accelerate broadband internet availability, invest in new affordable housing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is a lot of money going into the Vermont economy in a lot of ways,” Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) told colleagues shortly before the Senate passed what lawmakers refer to as the “big bill.”

That move, and a subsequent vote by the House, marked the last consequential action of the legislative session, after which lawmakers formally adjourned the first year of the biennium.

The close of the first — and likely last — fully-remote legislative session of the General Assembly was accompanied by congratulations from leaders for all they’ve accomplished this session.

"We demonstrated so clearly that we still have a healthy democracy here in the Green Mountain State, and soon we will all be back in the People’s House
click to enlarge Lawmakers Pass Historic $7.3 Billion Budget Laden With Stimulus Funds (5)
Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint
 together," Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint (D-Windham) said before adjourning.

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Posted By on Fri, May 21, 2021 at 3:24 PM

Scott's Bargain: No More COVID-19 Restrictions Once Vermont Hits 80 Percent Vaccination Rate
FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR
Gov. Phil Scott
Gov. Phil Scott said on Friday that he will lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions and limits as soon as 80 percent of eligible Vermonters — age 12 and older — have received at least one dose of vaccine.

The governor initially set the Fourth of July as the date to lift all restrictions. But he said during one of his twice-weekly COVID-19 news briefings that he hopes to be able to lift restrictions sooner than that. Bars and restaurants, for instance, remain limited in the hours they can operate.

“Vaccines work, and we’re vaccinating faster than I think anyone imagined,” Scott said.

As of Friday, 88 percent of all Vermonters were eligible to be vaccinated. Of that population, 74.9 percent had received at least one dose, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means an additional 27,954 people need to be vaccinated to reach the 80 percent threshold, according to Scott.

The highest proportion of people who had received one dose was 77 percent, in Chittenden County, according to the state Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard. The lowest was Essex County, with 54 percent.

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Thursday, May 20, 2021

Posted By on Thu, May 20, 2021 at 10:46 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Lawmakers Approve Pared-Down Unemployment Bill
Designer491 | Dreamstime
After months of discussion, the matter of how much Vermont employers will have to pay toward the state’s unemployment trust fund came down to some late-in-the-day changes to a bill that won unanimous approval in the House.

Employers will not face extra insurance charges if they laid off workers as a result of the pandemic in 2020. The bill, S.62, was sent Thursday to Gov. Phil Scott's desk for his signature.

Lawmakers and lobbyists started talking last October about how to charge employers under the state’s “experience rating” system, which effectively penalizes companies for laying off workers. The rating system charges employers high rates of unemployment insurance if they frequently lay off workers; the money goes to the state's unemployment trust fund, which is used for benefit payments.

In 2020, many companies laid off workers because the state ordered businesses to close to limit the spread of COVID-19. Employers and business groups had argued that businesses shouldn't see their insurance rates rise as a result of that anomalous year.

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Posted By on Thu, May 20, 2021 at 8:36 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Lawmakers Opt to Continue Funding Newcomers' Moving Expenses
File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
The Turner family, who got a moving grant after relocating to Cambridge
Vermont will continue to reimburse some newcomers’ moving expenses through its new worker program, but lawmakers have called for a study to determine whether it actually attracts people who wouldn’t have moved to the state otherwise.

The House on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of a bill that includes $630,000 for the program. The bill has been sent to the governor for his signature.

The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs had proposed this year to make the popular program permanent, and to spend $1 million annually to reimburse workers who were new to the state up to $5,000 for moving expenses. That amount could rise to $7,500 for someone who moved to an area with a higher-than-average unemployment rate or lower-than-average annual wages.

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Posted By on Thu, May 20, 2021 at 7:36 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Senate Declares Racism a Public Health Emergency
Screenshot ©️ Seven Days
Vermont Senate in a virtual session
The Vermont Senate on Thursday declared racism a public health emergency, vowing to redouble its efforts to eradicate systemic inequities for people of color that the pandemic has laid bare.

The joint resolution passed easily, advancing on a 29-1 vote to a final reading of the bill. The House had previously approved it by a 135-8 vote.

Sen. Ruth Hardy (D-Addison) introduced the resolution by saying that systemic racism was “inextricably intertwined" with COVID-19, citing a “disproportionate negative impact of the pandemic on people of color."

Hardy cited infection rates of nearly 13 percent among people of color compared to 6 percent for white residents. She also highlighted two outbreaks — one in Winooski affecting a New American community and one in Shoreham among Jamaican agricultural workers — that she said illustrate the connection between the pandemic and economic status.

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Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Posted By on Wed, May 19, 2021 at 8:44 PM

Legislators Strike Compromise on $150 Million Broadband Bill
TIM NEWCOMB ©️ Seven Days
Vermont lawmakers ironed out their differences on how best to spend public money to expand broadband service, clearing the way for a $150 million infusion to speed the deployment of high-speed internet across the state.

The conference committee formed to reconcile Senate and House versions of the much-anticipated broadband bill, H.360, hammered out a compromise on Tuesday. Both chambers signed off on the deal on Wednesday.

“This represents, I hope, a finely tuned vehicle that will get us much further than we could ever imagine going,” Sen. Ann Cummings (D-Washington), told her colleagues, who passed the compromise unanimously.

Rep. Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) said the original bill promised a "paradigm shift" in funding the "historic infrastructure project" of bringing broadband to every corner of the state.

"The report from the committee of conference delivers that shift, with a new community broadband model to connect all Vermonters," Sibilia said.

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