 100vw, 2560px”/>State lawmakers file into “the bowels of the Statehouse” for a tour of the building’s HVAC system on Tuesday. Photo by Sarah Mearhoff/VTDigger</p>
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As Joseph Aja of the state Department of Buildings and General Services described it during a committee hearing Tuesday, caretakers of the Statehouse didn’t think much of their tiny, sporous companions right away, chalking the incident up to an innocent whoopsie with a mildly gross outcome.
The following summer was different. It was unusually hot and humid in Vermont and, according to Aja’s account, the mold situation got out of hand. “A loooooot” of mold grew in Statehouse seat cushions and desks, many of which needed to be gutted. In other words: Welcome to my own personal nightmare!
“All of a sudden it just bloomed, and it was a horrible outbreak. So we scrambled,” Aja told the House Corrections and Institutions Committee on Tuesday. “You all came back to work, those who were working that following year, and didn’t really notice a difference, other than the cushions might have been a little bit better.”
And thus, the Legislature’s scheme to overhaul the Statehouse’s HVAC system was born. Contrary to popular belief, the plan was in the works before the Covid-19 pandemic cast a spotlight on indoor air quality. Aja said the current system dates back to the 1970s, and the lifespan of these bad boys is estimated to be about 20 years. The Legislature last year greenlit $6.8 million for the replacement project, which should begin shortly after the gavel falls for the final time this session in May.
Aja during Tuesday’s hearing offered lawmakers an up-close look at what committee chair Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, deemed “the bowels of the Statehouse.” Committee members trekked up to the third floor and into the depths of the basement (a former Senate lounge of sorts, legend has it) to take a gander at the setup.
A certain intrepid reporter tagged along, prompting questions from lawmakers like, “Did you volunteer for this?” (Yes), and, “So, do you like buildings?” (Sure.)
Based on my limited knowledge of HVAC systems, here’s my summary of the current state of the Statehouse’s current system:
— Sarah Mearhoff
IN THE KNOW
We’re still in a pandemic, people! All five members of the House Clerk’s Office are currently out sick with Covid-19, House Speaker Jill Krowinski’s chief of staff Conor Kennedy confirmed to VTDigger on Tuesday. For those who don’t know, the House clerks steadfastly work behind the scenes to keep the lower chamber functional. While they recover, the House has appointed an interim clerk. Stay safe out there.
— Sarah Mearhoff
Gov. Phil Scott’s midyear budget proposal would shift $283 million in state spending toward broadband, health care staffing, rural infrastructure assistance and more.
The administration unveiled the plan, which is paid for mostly through federal funding and Medicaid savings, to lawmakers on Friday. Scott’s proposal would return about $1.3 million in savings to the state’s general fund.
The plan’s one-time expenditures are primarily “coming from state dollars that are available because of more generous federal funding — predominantly, but not exclusively, health care,” said Adam Greshin, the state’s commissioner of finance and management, after a presentation to state lawmakers Friday.
Read more about the Budget Adjustment Act here.
— Riley Robinson
The Legislature is considering whether to allow continued pandemic-era flexibility in how and when the state’s 247 cities and towns decide local leaders, spending and special articles.
Lawmakers passed several bills in the past two years letting communities make short-term, Covid-safe changes to Town Meeting — traditionally held on or around the first Tuesday in March — and to gather municipal governing boards solely online.
This week, the House Government Operations Committee is set to consider a bill modeled on the last biennial session’s Act 1 to continue the options of switching from floor voting to ballots, rescheduling Town Meetings to a later date, and holding public information sessions online.
Read more about this year’s potential Town Meeting changes here.
— Kevin O’Connor
Since 2007, Vermont has awarded more than $33 million in incentives to companies that are opening or expanding in the state — a program that supporters say brings in far more in tax revenue and economic value than it costs.
But little information is publicly available about the businesses that have received grants through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program, including whether they actually lived up to the promises they put in their applications. This year, some lawmakers are hoping to change that.
A new bill, H.10, would create new requirements for the incentive program to report on previously “proprietary” data — including on how much money businesses have gotten each year from the state, how many jobs they’ve created and how much revenue they’ve put in state coffers thanks to corporate incentives.
It would also change the administration of the program, eliminate additional incentives and pause incentives entirely when the state’s unemployment rate is low, like it is right now.
Read more about H.10 here.
— Erin Petenko
In October 2020, when Vermonters learned that Slate Ridge, a paramilitary training facility, had been operating in a remote part of Rutland County, a reporter asked Gov. Phil Scott why the state hadn’t shut down the operation.
Scott answered that there was little state law enforcement could do. The facility’s operators hadn’t violated any state laws.
A bill introduced last week by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, would grant the state new authority to intervene in such cases by banning paramilitary training camps in Vermont.
“No one can say, well, we don’t have this problem in Vermont,” Baruth said, “because Slate Ridge has been a problem for a while now.”
Read more about Baruth’s response to Slate Ridge here.
— Emma Cotton
ON (AND OFF) THE HILL
In one of her first official actions as Vermont’s lone, newly sworn-in member of the House, Democratic U.S. Rep. Becca Balint on Monday night voted ‘no’ on the new Republican majority’s rules package.
In a written statement Tuesday morning, Balint’s office decried the fact that the package includes a number of concessions that newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made to the right wing House Freedom Caucus. He made the concessions in order to finally win over their support for his speakership after a nearly unprecedented 15 rounds of voting, which put an international spotlight on the fractures within the Republican majority’s ranks.
Balint’s office said Tuesday that the Freedom Caucus is holding McCarthy “hostage to their agenda,” and that the rules package “would pave the way for the MAGA agenda to reach the House floor.”
“Here in Washington, I am focused on fighting for Vermonters by addressing the mental health crisis and the extreme housing shortage.” Balint said in Tuesday’s written statement. “This rules package obstructs progress on these urgent issues affecting working families. Democrats stand united in opposing the extreme right-wing agenda brought to the House floor this Congress.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
Moderna is reportedly planning to quadruple the price of its Covid-19 vaccine to roughly $130 per dose in a move that Vermont’s U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has dubbed “unacceptable corporate greed.”
The Vermont independent this year will helm the Senate’s powerful Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and was quick to condemn Moderna in a letter sent to the pharmaceutical company’s CEO Stéphane Bancel on Tuesday.
“The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect the health and lives of the American people, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires,” Sanders wrote.
Such a price hike, Sanders said, would be disastrous for government-funded health care systems like Medicare and Medicaid, ultimately forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. And for uninsured Americans, Sanders said, a $130 price tag would preclude many from getting inoculated.
“How many of these Americans will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these lifesaving vaccines?” Sanders asked in his letter.
As Sanders prepares to wield the health care committee’s gavel, usually powerful industry lobbyists are supposedly getting squeamish, as Politico reported last week. “This will not be business as usual for K Street,” one lobbyist told the publication.
— Sarah Mearhoff
In what he called his “first day” as a U.S. senator, Peter Welch, D-Vt., returned to Vermont on Monday to discuss the opioid epidemic.
“This has been an area of enormous bipartisan cooperation in Congress,” Welch said at an event at Rutland Regional Medical Center, praising the resources Washington has funded to support the firsthand addiction-treatment work of the clinicians on the ground. “My job is relatively easy — it’s about appropriating money to get those resources back to communities.”
The roundtable discussion included Rutland hospital staff and Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen, and included Xavier Becerra, the Biden administration’s secretary of health and human services. And while all had positive things to say about current efforts to fight the opioid crisis, the message was clear:
“We’ve got work to do,” Becerra said, summing up the afternoon, and “as much as we’ve got more money now than we’ve ever had before, it’s still not enough.”
Read more about Welch’s “first day” here.
— Ethan Weinstein
WHAT’S ON DECK
The Scott administration is holding a series of legislative briefings for lawmakers this week, in which members of the executive branch will outline their priorities in the areas of public safety, climate and economic development for this year’s legislative session. All three briefings will be held on the administration’s turf, in the Pavilion Auditorium.
- Public safety briefing: Wednesday, Jan. 11, 4:15-5:15 p.m.
- Climate and energy innovation briefing: Thursday, Jan. 12, 4:15-5:15 p.m.
- Economic revitalization and affordability briefing: Friday, Jan. 13, 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
WHAT WE’RE READING
‘It’s brand new and it’s mine’: Redeveloped Williston hotel provides new affordable housing — VTDigger
Why Bread and Puppet, the anti-war theater group, is curiously quiet about Ukraine — VTDigger
A Vt. company plans to process industrial hemp. Their first challenge? Convincing farmers to grow it — Vermont Public
Videos show Shelburne officer shoving driver; prosecutor maintains excessive force was used — VTDigger
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