Legislative crossover day winners and losers

vtdigger.org March 17, 2012Committees in the Senate and House hurried Friday to vote on bills they had been tinkering with all session.
It was crossover day: the unofficial deadline for committees of jurisdiction to vote on their bills or leave them on the shelf for the next session.
Steve Marshall, assistant secretary of the Senate, said bills that do not come out of money committees like finance or appropriations should be on next Tuesday’s notice calendar.
There are, of course, exceptions to this rule in both chambers.
Here is a rundown of some of the bills VTDigger.org has been following this session.
Senate Bill 103: A bill that would have allowed terminally ill patients to request medication to end their lives will not make it to the Senate floor unless it’s tacked on as an amendment to other legislation.
The Senate Committee on Judiciary took testimony on the ‘death with dignity’ bill this week, and senators received dozens of calls and emails from Vermonters who opposed and supported the measure.
Sears said he had hoped to take a vote on the legislation Friday morning, but the committee tabled the bill when members heard that Sen. Alice Nitka had been in an accident and was in the intensive care unit at Central Vermont Medical Center. The senator from Ludlow, the vice chair of the committee, fell down a staircase at her apartment in Montpelier and apparently injured her spleen.
That created a void in the committee ‘ and a potential tie: four members, two for (Sens. Jeanette White and Diane Snelling) and two opposed (Sears and Sen. Ann Cummings). Rather than send a tie vote to the floor, Sears opted to table the measure.
Sears said Gov. Peter Shumlin, who is a staunch supporter of S.103, asked him to hold the hearing, to allow senators to consider the issue. ‘We all understood that unless someone (on the committee) changed their mind this week, it was unlikely to go forward,’ Sears said.
‘I appreciate Vermonters calling in on both sides,’ Sears said. ‘It was an important discussion that will continue into the future. The important thing I learned was Vermont is not a leader in hospice and palliative care. Twenty percent of Vermonters use those services. Nationally that number is around 40 percent. That’s an important issue for people to deal with.’
President Pro Tem John Campbell also opposes the bill, and so do a slight majority of his senatorial compatriots. A vote on the floor, he said, would have been 14 for, 16 against. There is a silver lining, he said: By keeping the legislation bottled up in committee, it has a chance of passage in the next biennium. Otherwise, it would be three years before the Legislature could take it up again.
Snelling, a Republican and a sponsor of S.103, said she didn’t think patient-directed death is going to go ‘anywhere this session.’ She had hoped to bring the bill out without a recommendation so that it could be voted on by all senators, ‘but it became clear this morning (Friday) that was not an option based on decisions by leadership and the chair of the committee.
‘It’s a difficult issue but I don’t come here to make easy decisions,’ Snelling said.
Shumlin wasn’t happy with the outcome. He said in a statement: ‘As a strong supporter of allowing Vermonters to make end of life choices, I am disappointed by today’s news that the Death With Dignity bill will not be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.’
The group Patient Choices at End of Life Vermont, which supports the bill, vowed to keep fighting. The Senate vote is too close to call, but if the bill got an unobstructed vote on the floor, there is a chance it could pass, the advocacy group maintains.
‘We are disappointed that Senators Sears and Campbell have decided not to allow a vote in the full Senate ‘ a vote that everyone has agreed this is a vote of personal conscience,’ Dick Walters said. ‘As advocates, we are prepared to fight for a vote on the Senate floor this year. We continue to see a path to passage. The Senate vote is too close to call. If the issue gets an unobstructed vote on the floor, there is a real chance it could pass.’
Several senators predicted that Sen. Dick McCormack would tack S.103 as an amendment on the health care reform bill.
~Anne Galloway
House Bill 468: The House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy voted 10-1 to support a bill that would require utilities to purchase 35 percent of their energy from ‘new renewable’ sources by 2032. The bill mirrors closely a proposal by the Department of Public Service introduced to the committee. It also includes a goal of 75 percent renewable energy by that same date. The 35 percent renewable portfolio standard would require utilities to ‘retire’ renewable energy credits that come with the power. They can sell the rest. Power from Hydro-Quebec would not count toward the 35 percent new renewable requirement.
The bill also expanded the state’s standard offer program, allowing for 10 megawatts a year for 10 years of new small renewable projects in the state. These projects will qualify for a set rate per kilowatt-hour.
Bill Driscoll, vice president of the Associated Industries of Vermont, said the bill would have a significant impact on energy-intensive industries. The Department of Public Service estimates the bill could result in a 4 percent to 5 percent rate increase. Driscoll said that’s a steep price to pay for a small reduction in carbon.
Ben Walsh, an energy lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said the bill is a smart investment in Vermont’s future that will keep Vermonters’ money in Vermont. The group said the bill could be more aggressive in its requirements for renewable power.
~Alan Panebaker
Senate Bill 15: An amendment to last year’s bill requiring insurance companies to cover home births passed out of the House Committee on Health Care 6-3-2.
Families receiving midwife services have found their insurance companies will not cover the care if the midwife does not have malpractice insurance.
To be an in-network provider, insurers like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont require the insurance.
The amendment would require insurance companies to cover midwifery even if the midwives don’t have the insurance until July 2014. At that point, the usual network requirements would go back into place.
Rep. Chris Pearson, a Progressive from Burlington, said midwives generally support the amendment because it will allow them to go to a national association to try to get a group insurance policy in the interim.
Rep. Jim Eckhardt, who voted against the amendment, said it could open the door for doctors to get sued when a home birth goes wrong. Since doctors have to have malpractice insurance and midwives don’t, litigants could go after a doctor who is trying to help a family when they come to the hospital, he said.
~Alan Panebaker
Senate Bill 172: What began as an act relating to a private activity bond advisory committee bill and turned into the VELCO bill received an adverse vote in the Senate Committee on Finance.
The committee will still report the bill on the floor but with an unfavorable recommendation.
Sens. Vince Illuzzi, Tim Ashe and Peter Galbraith proposed the idea of a study on whether the state should try to own up to 51 percent of the state’s electric transmission system. The governance of the system is up in the air as the state’s two largest utilities, the managing company’s majority owners, are trying to merge.
Sen. Ann Cummings, chair of the committee, struck a deal with Illuzzi that if he withdrew an amendment on the floor, the committee would report the bill later either with a favorable or unfavorable recommendation.
~Alan Panebaker
House Bill 745: An act dealing with law enforcement access to the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System got a last-minute tweak that jarred the Vermont Medical Society and the ACLU.
As voted out of the House Committee on Human Services, the bill would require a warrant before police could access the state electronic database that tracks prescriptions for controlled substances. The Department of Health and Department of Public Safety had proposed direct access to the database for specially-trained investigators based on a bona fide investigation.
The new language would require physicians to respond to inquiries by investigators by providing all information, including protected health information, if the practitioner believes in good faith the information constitutes evidence of diversion of a controlled substance.
~Alan Panebaker
Miscellaneous Tax Bill: The House Committee on Ways and Means approved an amendment Friday 11-0 that would ensure Vermont Yankee’s owner continues to pay money into the Clean Energy Development Fund, which supports renewable energy.
Rep. Oliver Olsen, a Republican from Jamaica, sponsored an amendment that would increase taxes on the plant that fund education and the general fund. A $6 million increase on these taxes would replace the Clean Energy Development Fund tax that expires March 21.
Olsen said the shift around in taxes makes it a net zero tax increase on Vermont Yankee.
Olsen said $3 million would go to the education fund, $1.5 million to the Clean Energy Development Fund and $1.5 million to a special fund to help the Windham County region plan for Vermont Yankee’s closure if that happens.
Olsen said he is neutral on the plant’s continued operation, but he said he was concerned by a proposal from the Shumlin administration to increase the plant’s thermal discharge fee. He said this was a better way to continue collecting revenue if the plant does not shut down.
~Alan Panebaker
Childcare unionization bill
A bill that would have allowed home child-care center providers to collectively bargain did not make it out of committee, according to Sen. Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans.
H.97 had passed the House last year and was taken up by the Senate this session.
Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell opposed the bill after he said he was strong-armed by an official from the American Federation of Teachers.
Gov. Peter Shumlin was endorsed by the AFT and appeared at rallies in support of H.97. On Saturday, the union held a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders who urged lawmakers to adopt the legislation.
~Anne Galloway
vtdigger.org March 17, 2012