Affordability for working Vermonters
Rep. Mike Yantachka Last May the 2019 legislative session ended with a sense of frustration that we couldn’t get…
What is a caucus?
While the first week of a new legislative biennium is filled with pomp and circumstance—the swearing in of new members, election of the speaker, appointments to standing committees and the inauguration of the governor—the next two weeks are generally spent introducing the committees to the agencies and departments they will be working with, as well as to nongovernmental stakeholders in the policy areas they will be dealing with.
Report from the Legislature A case for raising the minimum wage
We are now in the last weeks of the 2018 legislative session. Barring any surprise demands by the governor or legislators, like the call for passing a bill taxing and regulating marijuana sales that occurred last week, we should be finished by mid-May.
The Doyle Poll 2018
The Doyle Poll, created and still conducted by former Senator Bill Doyle, has been a Town Meeting tradition in Vermont for decades. This year 113 Charlotte voters shared their opinions, about the same as last year’s number. Of the 15 questions, three dealt with affordability.
Report from Legislature: A Practical Approach to Pricing Carbon Pollution
Most people recognize that climate change is happening, that it is caused by burning fossil fuels and that it has serious environmental and health consequences. The challenge to our generation is how to counter the trend of increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. The most obvious action is to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels.
Report from the Legislature: 2018 Session Preview
Patience and persistence: these are two qualities that I learned are essential to working in the Legislature. The issues that the Legislature has to address are often very complex and do not lend themselves to simple solutions. Measures that are enacted sometimes fail to have the desired effect and have to be tweaked by subsequent legislation.