Tuesday May 4, 2010

Today was by far the most interesting day I’ve spent in the statehouse this session. The full Senate started its morning with third reading of H. 470. Third readings are usually pro forma but today there were a number of amendments to be voted on. Some were procedural but two were substantive and important. The first, offered jointly by Senators Shumlin, Sears, Illuzzi, and Mullin, would strike the provision in the House passed bill that requires probate judges to be lawyers. This provision was a proposal of the Commission on Judicial Operation and was supported by the VBA in its position paper. Senator Sears said, on the first day the bill arrived in his committee, that he would vote against the bill if that provision remained. He tried to get the committee to remove it but lost in a 3-2 vote. Going back to the sponsors, they include the Pro Tem, Judiciary Chair, another Judiciary Committee member, and a Senator who has long championed the roles of lay judges. The floor debate was fascinating to watch; I was surprised by the positions taken by certain Senators. Perhaps most surprising was the support for that amendment by Senator White, a member of the Commission on Judicial Operation which recommended the opposite position. The opposition was really led by John Campbell, a lawyer, and Vice Chair (to Sears) of Senate Judiciary. You can see how this can get uncomfortable. Senators Peg Flory and Dick McCormack spoke eloquently in opposition also. The final vote was 14-16 and the amendment failed! Now, in theory at least, that should not be on the table in conference because there is no difference in the versions of the bill between the House and Senate. But that’s in theory; we’re dealing in reality.
The second amendment was a last minute move to help increase the salaries of the probate judges that were reduced in the committee’s version of the bill which passed yesterday. That amendment can be read here:
http://www.vtbar.org/Upload%20Files/WebPages/blawg/h470amendment.pdf
It increases the notary fee from $20 to $30 (every four years) and sends $10 of that to the state general fund. That should raise about $180,000 every four years. A little less that ¼ of that amount is used annually to add to the salaries of those probate judges that took the biggest hit. Good idea? Bad idea? Who Knows? Remember that under both versions of the bill, the judiciary will face a deficit in FY12. Should this money have been ‘set aside” for that? Anyway, as I left the building around 2PM, the Chair of House Judiciary was called into the Speaker’s Office to discuss the bill. I expect that, upon reconvening this afternoon, the House will refuse to concur with the Senate amendments and appoint a committee of conference. I’ll update later today or in the morning when I have news. Both bills will be available on the legislative website to read but refer to yesterday’s blog post to see the side by side comparison done by Erik Fitzpatrick. Even though the Senate bill is a ‘strike all” it doesn’t mean it’s 100% different. That’s done as much for drafting purposes as for the substance of the bill.
Changing the subject to H. 590, foreclosure mediation, the Senate has appointed its conferees: Senators Campbell, Illuzzi, and Cummings. Although the conference committee has yet to meet, there have been discussions about some minor changes (and maybe one not so minor) to the Senate version that the House could go along with and wrap this up. I’m still working with the coalition that managed this bill to set up our CLE to qualify the mediators. We’ve had to schedule it for judicial college week, June 7th and 8th, a Monday and Tuesday in order to accommodate out of state speakers. Stay tuned for a special announcement of this CLE. As soon as the bill is finalized I’ll post a link; you should read and understand it if you are interested in attending and offering your services as a mediator. This will be a somewhat different CLE, with stricter attendance requirements and confirmations before anyone’s name is certified by the VBA as having successfully completed the foreclosure prevention and loss mitigation course.
More either later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for reading.