Commentary: Seven Top Legislative Issues of 2023
The newly elected super-majority Democratic House and Senate are working at flank speed to pass the majority’s agenda, that Gov. Scott has no power to veto. Here are seven leading issues. There will be more.
Senators consider 55mph speed limits, gas guzzler tax and “Saving the World”
The climateers on the Senate Natural Resource and Energy Committee – that would be all five of them, Democrats, handpicked – seem to be getting desperate that Vermont is falling behind its completely arbitrary path toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050. Already they are thinking up new ways to make Vermonters suffer to make us comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement, that practically zero other countries are complying with.
Facial recognition threat to privacy rights
Last month Kelly Conlon arrived with her daughter's Girl Scout troop to watch a performance at Radio City Music Hall, but she abruptly was denied entry. Why? Conlon works for a law firm that Radio City’s parent company had blacklisted. Conlon was found out for an even more surprising reason: the venue's use of facial recognition technology.
Governor Scott Endorses School Choice week
Last week Gov. Phil Scott issued an executive proclamation recognizing this week as National School Choice Week. Its key clauses were “it is important for parents in Vermont to explore and identify the best education options available to their children; and research demonstrates providing children with multiple education options improves academic performance; and School Choice Week is a national celebration recognized by millions of students, parents, educators, schools and community leaders for the purpose of raising public awareness of the importance of effective education options for children.
Sloppy Climate Change Thinking from the Washington Post
A January 9 article in the Washington Post exemplified the sloppy reporting endemic to the debate over what the enviros and the media call “climate change.”
ACLU Lobbying to End School Choice in Vermont
Montpelier – As the Vermont legislature gears up for lawmaking in 2023, a big issue in the education arena is what to do about Vermont’s 150-year-old school choice system known as “tuitioning” following the Carson v. Makin US Supreme Court decision. Makin ruled that if a state offers a school choice program, as Vermont does, it cannot discriminate against religious schools from participating in the program.
NYC Building Emissions Standard Infiltrating Vermont?
While Vermont climateers are pressing forward their broad and costly agenda here, their counterparts in New York City are well down that same road. Just before Christmas the New York City Buildings Department released the first set of final rules for a landmark climate law passed in 2019 that aims to significantly slash [carbon dioxide ] emissions from buildings that are larger than 25,000 square feet — the city’s biggest source of emissions..
Commentary: Return of the Hidden Milk Tax
For over 40 years Sen. Bobby Starr has battled to get state or federal governments to set and enforce over-order (premium) prices paid to dairy farmers. His latest bill is a “hidden milk tax” that consumers would pay, but never know why.
Commentary: Clean heat ‘carbon tax’ 2.0 has a new name and number
Last year H.715, an act relating to the Clean Heat Standard, which would have mandated that fossil-based heating fuel dealers pay a carbon-based “credit” fee for selling their products, was vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott and that veto was sustained by one vote (99-51) in the state House of Representatives. Democrats and Progressives are hoping that newly elected supermajorities in both the House and Senate, along with a new name for what is essentially a carbon tax on home heating fuels, will ensure that that the Clean Heat Standard will become law this year.
Gov. Scott’s 2023 Inaugural Address
On January 4, fresh off a seventy percent reelection victory, Gov. Phil Scott gave his fourth inaugural address to the legislature and the people. As we have come to expect, it was a workmanlike address, emphasizing what is good about Vermont and what his administration has done in the past six years to restrain costly government while working to address real, continuing problems not of the governor’s making.