Notes
From Montpelier
2002

Dear Constituents,
Please scroll down and click on the highlighted links to find out what has been happening up here at the Statehouse.

Please feel free to contact me at anytime with questions, concerns, or comments. Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely, Carloyn Partridge

The 2002 Legislative session opened on Tuesday, Jan. 8.The major issues this year will be the budget, reapportionment, and the Champion Land issue.
It is also my hope that the very important issue of health care will be discussed.

Please click on the links to read the complete story of the issues to be discussed this 2002 session...
more 1-11-2002 - The Session Begins info

As promised last week, I will report about the Champion Land issue....
Please click on the links to get the complete story...
more 1-18-2002 - Champion Lands info

This week I would like to begin reporting on a subject that is on everyone's minds. Health care is a subject that came up repeatedly while I campaigned during the last election...

Please click on the link to get the complete story on Health care.
more 1-25-2002 - Healthcare info

Recently, I reported about the healthcare situation in our state. I received so many positive letters, emails, and phone calls that I would like to spend a little more time on that subject...
more 2-15-2002 - Healthcare - Part 2 info

My report this week will focus on Act 60 and potential changes to it. Last year, several plans were formulated to change Act 60. All of these plans were rejected on a bipartisan basis because the funding source would have included a 1% increase in the sales tax. That was viewed as extremely regressive, particularly for the eastern side of the State and especially since we, during the last biennium, removed the sales tax on clothing and footwear valued at less than $110...
more 2-22-2002 - Act 60 info

By the time many of you read this we will have already had Town Meeting Day. Town Meeting is one of my favorite events of the year for several reasons. As a strong believer in democracy, I feel that Town Meeting is the place where every Vermonter has a voice...
more 3-01-2002 - Town Meeting Day info

Though the Legislature was not in session, I have chosen to write a report because I am concerned that taxpayers are not taking advantage of the income sensitivity element of Act 60. I want people to know about this aspect of Act 60, because otherwise they are paying more than they should for taxes...
more 3-08-2002 - Act 60 Prebates info

This week I would like to report on the issue of prescription drugs, their high price, and possible solutions. During the last biennium, a bill that would have included a price regulation element. The regulation component would have come into play only after several other mechanisms to lower drug prices had been tried. The Conference Committee report was rejected in the House...
more 3-15-2002 - Prescription Drugs info

This week has been a busy one on the Floor of the House. A variety of bills including one that would allow the first and last vehicle in a funeral procession to have a purple light on the roof passed the House...
more 3-22-2002 - Prescription Drugs - Part 2 info

My report this week will focus on the Budget Bill. There are three areas about which I am concerned. They are the absence of a Medicaid budget, the gutting of the funding for the Northeast Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Pricing, and the gutting of the budget for the Governor's Commission on Women...
more 3-29-2002 - The Budget Bill info

This week I would like to report on a bill that recently passed the Senate and is now in the House Commerce Committee. It is S.264, the renewable energy and energy efficiency promotion bill. It has several components including the establishment of renewable energy programs, expansion of the net metering program, and an expansion of sales tax exemptions for renewable energy systems. We heard about one of these components in the Agriculture Committee..
more 4-05-2002 - Renewable Energy Bill info

This week's report will focus on an update of legislative action. Many of the major bills the Legislature works on are stuck in the House Appropriations Committee. These include the Capital, Transportation, Fee, Act 60, and Medicaid Bills, among others. Having stayed here until 7:30 PM one Friday evening several weeks ago to pass the Capital Bill, some of us wonder what the hurry was...
more 4-12-2002 - Legislative Update info

This week we spent long hours on the Floor of the House. A couple of the large bills that were stuck in House Appropriations were debated. These includ the Act 60 and Medicaid Bills. I will focus this week on the Medicaid Bill.
more 4-19-2002 - Medicaid Budget info

The big breakthrough this week was an agreement on the Reapportionment Plan. It seems that all the powers that be, realized that a compromise would be necessary or we could have been here well into the summer. This is the first time that reapportionment has been done with the House and the Senate under the control of two different parties. This created a situation where compromise and cooperation were necessary.
more 4-26-2002 - Reapportionment info

The Legislature is clearly winding down. Now that a compromise has been reached on reapportionment, other important bills seem to be making their way through the process. The Capital, Transportation, and Fee bills have been worked on and are in committees of Conference, though it seems that the Committees aren't meeting. The members of the Committees have been posted but the meeting times and places haven't, so if someone wanted to attend, it would be difficult to do so...
more 5-10-2002 - Winding Down info

The Legislature seems to be heading towards adjournment in fits and starts. The Appropriations Budget Bill was passed this week. The two major sticking points preventing adjournment are Reapportionment and the Capital bills. Both are in Committees of Conference and both have major points of contention. The hope was to adjourn midday on June 8, but at the time of this writing, that looks more and more impossible.

One of the few highlights of the budget is that higher education will see an increase in its budget of 3.25%. Recognizing that good education is the key to a more successful future for Vermont's children, it is good that we have included that increase while many areas are level funded.

On the down side, at a time when we have increased concerns about security, we will have less State police protection. Also the co-pays for the prescriptions drug programs for the very low-income elderly have been increased. The increases are not as dramatic as originally proposed in the House version, however, for folks on a fixed income, they are substantial.

We now know that projected revenues will be $15-30 million less than originally thought so we voted on a deficit budget. The Appropriations Bill contains language that gives the Governor unprecedented power to deal with the deficit. So essentially, cuts in yet-to-be-known areas may be made by a handful of people, for the citizens of Vermont, rather than by their Representatives.

Another area that concerns me a lot is the policy change regarding the Governor's Commission on Women. New language prohibits the Commission from hiring a staff person "whose primary function is to influence legislators or state official with respect to pending legislation or regulations". All other administrative areas have the right to advocate on policy issues except, now, for the Governor's Commission on Women. In my view, this is a travesty and, perhaps, discriminatory. For this and several other reasons, I voted against the budget, though it did pass.
more 6-07-2002 - Winding Down - Part 2 info

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