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Senate committee budget vote delayed until next week
As the end of the week approached, the Senate Appropriations Committee was still finalizing FY 2022 budget details, and a planned Friday vote was pushed until Monday. On Wednesday, Committee Chair Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, expressed repeated frustration that she was still receiving bills and specific appropriation requests from committees, including H.171 (a child care bill) and H.360 (a broadband bill). Those attempting to follow the budget deliberations were likewise frustrated by the lack of documents and transparency in the process.
Some of the delay in the always-complex legislative budget process is due to the influx of federal funding coming to Vermont from the American Rescue Plan, and disagreements between the administration and the legislature on how and when ARPA money should be spent. The House-passed budget included $650 million of ARPA dollars, and the administration immediately opposed what they viewed was a prema
[co-author: Jessica Griswold]
Legislative Chess
It’s the time of year when the legislature plays chess. Sometimes it even plays speed chess, with programs, initiatives, and tax code changes flying in and out of bills as they move back and forth between chambers. Each chamber attempts to position its priorities to its best advantage, sometimes by holding the other chamber’s priorities as hostage.
A House committee may remove a section of a bill that its Senate counterpart spent months discussing. And vice versa. A committee may also attach one of these pieces to a different bill, using it as a “vehicle” to shore up its chances of survival. In non-COVID times, legislators play a version of three-dimensional chess, with players sitting on different floors in the Statehouse working their own individual chess boards.
gneese@mininggazette.com
HOUGHTON Local and downstate lawmakers visited sites damaged in the 2018 floods last month as part of an effort to encourage the Department of Natural Resources and the state legislature to provide more funds to restore trails.
State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, and Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, organized the event.
“I thank Chairman Ed McBroom and Rep. Markkanen for bringing some pretty heavy hitters up to take a look at the properties we have here that unfortunately we still have not addressed,” Commissioner Glenn Anderson said.
Also in attendance were state Sens. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, and Jon Bumstead, R-Newaygo, both members of the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee. From the House sides were state Reps. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs and Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain.
TOM LUTEY
Another attempt to shift Colstrip Power Plant expenses onto NorthWestern Energy customers surfaced Friday as Senate Republicans hijacked a water and sewer bill, amending it with language benefiting the stateâs largest monopoly utility.
The title of House Bill 695 still suggests it remedies public water supply disputes, but seven lines into the bill, thereâs now an abrupt turn toward NorthWestern Energy and its ongoing challenges at Colstrip Power Plant. The amendment was made Friday morning by the Senate Natural Resources Committee and passed on a partisan vote of 7 to 5.
The bill now guarantees that NorthWesternâs 379,000 Montana customers will pay for replacement power, should Colstrip break down or go offline for testing as is has twice in recent years.