Category Archives: Politics

MONTPELIER — Vermont lawmakers are getting an earful about a proposal to levy a penny-an-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages like soda.
Supporters of the measure says the state needs the revenue to pay for health programs, and that Vermonters need to be encouraged to drink less of the beverages, which have been tied to the increase in obesity nationwide in recent years.
Opponents of the tax say it would prompt many Vermonters — especially those living near the state’s borders — to travel out of state to do their shopping.
Both the House Ways and Means Committee and House Health Care Committee are taking testimony on the issue Wednesday.

By DAVE GRAM | The Associated Press
MONTPELIER — Gov. Peter Shumlin’s plan to cut a key welfare-to-work program by limiting the amount of time people get benefits will increase poverty and homelessness, advocates and beneficiaries said Thursday.
“It’s not only an attack on low-income parents, mostly females, but it’s an attack on children,” said Shela Linton, a mother of two who got benefits while working as a waitress for minimum wage and attending college.
Shumlin, a Democrat, defended his plan to put time limits totaling five years over a lifetime during which someone would be eligible for a monthly check from the state’s Reach Up program — three years initially, with later periods counting toward the balance if needed.
Shumlin has angered many advocates for low-income Vermont residents with his proposal to fund increased child care subsidies with cuts to the earned-income tax credit program, which provides benefits to about 44,000 low-income working households.
He said on Thursday that his proposals have a unified purpose: to help people finding it difficult to enter the workforce due to a lack of affordable, quality child care so they can go to work. Continue reading →

MONTPELIER — More than a year after U.S. immigration authorities sought to split up a same-sex, bi-national couple living in Vermont, Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Susan Collins of Maine are pushing legislation to protect such couples.
After a threatening letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 14 months ago, Frances Herbert and Takako Ueda of Dummerston got a follow-up letter in May saying the agency would hold off for two years before trying to deport Ueda to her native Japan for an expired visa.
Now legislation introduced by Leahy and Collins — backed by President Barack Obama — would halt such deportations by allowing Americans to sponsor their same-sex “permanent partners” who are immigrants for permanent residency.
There are an estimated 36,000 same-sex, bi-national couples in the country.

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate is gearing up for a vote on legislation that supporters call “end-of-life choices” and critics call “physician-assisted suicide.”
The Senate is set to vote Tuesday whether to follow a recommendation of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the measure.
The Judiciary Committee on Friday came out against the legislation a week after the Health and Welfare Committee voted unanimously to support it.
If the measure clears the Senate, it still would need action in the Vermont House. Both the House leadership and Gov. Peter Shumlin have expressed support for the bill.

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate is expected this week to give final passage to a bill that calls on public employees who don’t join their union to pay the union an agency fee for representing them in collective bargaining.
The bill would affect teachers, state and municipal employees whose pay and working conditions are negotiated by unions. If the employee doesn’t join the union and pay dues, he or she would be required to pay 85 percent of what members pay in dues.
The Senate voted 26-3 to support a committee’s version of the bill and then advanced it on a voice vote on Friday. It’s expected up for final approval on Tuesday before moving to the House.