Current News

by Tom Brown and John Herrick vtdigger.org In a wide-ranging news conference Wednesday, Governor Peter Shumlin repeated his commitment to single payer health care but promised to listen to Vermonters who feel he’s moving too fast on that and other issues. Holding his first full-blown news conference since his narrow victory over Republican Scott Milne in last week’s election, Shumlin promised to “talk, listen and learn” from the results. Shumlin said he remains an advocate for publicly financed health care but is more concerned with finding alternatives to rising health care costs.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The Vermont Health Connect website will go back online on Saturday, November 15, the first day of the open enrollment period. State officials made that announcement Wednesday, and expressed cautious optimism that they will soon be able to put past failures behind them. Agency of Human Services Secretary Harry Chen and Lawrence Miller, chief of Health Care Reform, said they have the systems and processes in place to get it right.

Vermont Health Connect has resolved the security issues that forced it offline in September, and has been reconnected to the federal hub for several weeks, Miller said.

But he cautioned: “No matter how good testing goes, and how good everything else goes, there will be the unexpected.”

by Bruce Lisman Good public policy badly executed is not better than bad public policy executed well. The outcome is often the same for Vermont citizens—bad. And, of course, bad ideas executed badly are a special hell for Vermonters. We’ve just re-elected a government that has made bad ideas, bad management, and bad leadership seem ordinary. No whining here. The people voted to return many of them to office—but protested by withholding support for our Governor and reducing the ruling party’s majorities in the House and Senate.

It’s a rebuke and a fair warning to those just elected. The Governor is wrong: we don’t want ‘bold’ leadership; we want competent leadership. We expect them to act as fiduciaries for the public’s money. We want them to take seriously the embedded philosophy of Vermont that would offer a helping hand or a comforting hand to those in need but balanced with those other great Vermont characteristics, frugality and commonsense.

It pays to read this list. Whether online, or in the annual published list of unclaimed property, searching for your name in Vermont’s unclaimed property database could mean money in your pocket. The State Treasurer’s Office is currently holding more than $67 million in unclaimed financial property. From November 13-19, Vermont’s daily newspapers will carry a 28-page insert that lists new unclaimed property claims of $75 or more turned over to the Treasurer’s office within the past year. There are 6,929 entries in the insert, with listings that span the alphabet and addresses statewide. While the bulk of the listings are individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations are also included. Last fiscal year, there were 14,055 claims paid. The average claim amount was $383. In the past 10 years, the Treasurer’s office has returned more than $48 million to the rightful owners.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell is warning electric power consumers of a re-occurring telephone scam. The Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program has received reports of fraudulent calls to Vermonters from individuals claiming to represent a power company and threatening imminent disconnection of power if funds are not sent immediately. Caller ID for these calls may show a number the same as or similar to a power company phone number, even though they are not originating from a utility. If you receive a call from someone claiming your power is about to be disconnected, hang up. If you want to verify the claim, call the customer service number on your utility bill. If you need assistance in resolving an actual disconnection issue with your utility, you may contact the Vermont Department of Public Service at 800-622-4496.

Vermont could dramatically reduce its climate pollution while improving the state’s economy and growing jobs, according to a new economic study released Wednesday by a diverse coalition of environmental, business and low-income groups. The benefits would be achieved by putting a price on carbon pollution and returning the revenue to Vermont citizens, businesses and municipalities through tax cuts and investments in clean energy.

The Power-Gen 2014 Women in Power committee has announced that Green Mountain Power's Mary Powell has been named a finalist for the Power-Gen 2014 Woman of the Year Award. The finalists were selected from nominations received from members of the power community and represent diverse facets of the industry. Along with Powell, the finalists are Diane Drehoff, Director of Maintenance Marketing at Siemens Energy, a global technology company that is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization; and Colleen Layman, PE, Associate Vice President and the Resources Business Group Water principal for HDR Inc., an architectural, engineering and consulting firm with 8,500 employees in more than 200 locations around the world. Powell is president and CEO of GMP, an electricity utility based in Colchester, Vermont, that serves approximately 265,000 residential and business customers.

A series of agricultural land use planning modules are now available as a resource for land use planners on such topics as farmland conservation, farm and property taxes, commercial composting, agritourism, and food system planning. The planning guide is a project of the Vermont Farm to Plate Initiative’s Agricultural Land Use Planning Task Force. Municipal officials, local and regional planning commissions, and agriculture advocates will be able to use the modules to guide land use planning for farmland, including ways to update zoning regulations that can sustain and spark more agricultural economic activity in Vermont communities.

The Burlington School Board of Commissioners announced today that it has selected Dr Howard Smith to be the Interim Superintendent of Burlington Schools. Recently retired as Superintendent of the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns in New York, board members said Smith brings to Burlington a record of strong instructional leadership around student-centered learning, demonstrated results in improving student achievement, a passionate commitment to equity and closing the achievement gap, and a deep focus on building partnerships between communities and schools — a body of work that solidly aligns with Burlington School District’s priorities and current major initiatives.

The Public Service Department today announced that it is seeking written public comments on the Vermont Yankee Site Assessment Study (SAS), and draft Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) recently published by Entergy. Public comments on the draft PSDAR received by November 25, 2014 will be considered for inclusion with the Public Service Department’s comments that will be provided to Entergy for incorporation with its PSDAR submittal to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. All public comments received on the draft PSDAR and the SAS will be considered for inclusion with the State’s evaluation of the Vermont Yankee Site Assessment Survey, and may also be considered for discussion at a future Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel meeting.

SPARK-VT, an initiative that helps bring promising research discoveries to the marketplace piloted in 2012 by the UVM Department of Medicine, has been expanded to engage faculty across the University of Vermont, launching this week with a Call for Proposals to all UVM researchers. David V Rosowsky, UVM provost, and Dr Richard Galbraith, vice president for research, are champions of the SPARK-VT program, which will accelerate the translation of new knowledge into tangible benefits to society.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org The legislative Joint Fiscal Committeee got a double dose of bad news Wednesday: The state faces shortfalls in the current budget cycle and an anticipated $100 million gap for the next fiscal year. That estimate is subject to change — and is likely to increase, further tightening the financial straits most agencies are facing as the state’s budget continues to grow faster than Vermont’s revenue base. Four months into the fiscal year, overall General Fund revenue is $12 million short, Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding reported Friday.

Higher than expected spending this year will require legislative action through the Budget Adjustment Act, to be taken up immediately when newly elected representatives and senators convene the next legislative session in January. And the $100 million gap for Fiscal Year 2016 will be taken up in 2015, too.