They're Baaack!

They’re baaack! Happy 2014 everyone and thanks for checking in on this page. Today the second half of the biennium kicked off and most committees got right down to work. Although the first days contain their share of ceremonial events I think committee chairs are approaching their tasks knowing that time is limited. After tomorrow’s State of the State address by the Governor and next week’s budget message, the real work will begin.

I sat in on a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in which they set out their early agenda. Senate Judiciary will be doing pretty much the same thing tomorrow. as will come as no surprise I expect both committee to jump right into the issues surrounding opiate addiction and its effect on the crime rate in this state. the Governor will be speaking to this tomorrow also. Interestingly, he invited all State’s Attorneys to that speech tomorrow afternoon.

As is common at the beginning of the year, over one hundred bills were introduced today, the great majority in the Senate. Now just because a bill is introduced doesn’t mean it will pass or even get a hearing. But here are some of the topics that are covered in those bills. Both chambers now have a bill raising the jurisdictional limit in small claims cases to $10,000. The Senate has bills making bullying and aggravated bullying crimes, along with criminal threatening.

Senator Snelling has introduced S. 224, which would require an Act 250 permit prior to the construction of a new structure, the expansion of an existing structure, and certain clearing of vegetation within the shorelands of lakes.

Senator Sears has introduced S. 263, a bill that would permit an assistant judge to sit in a child support contempt proceeding presided over by a magistrate.

There are two bills which would affect the judicial nominating process- S. 276 and S. 305. The former deals with eliminating the requirement that the JNB use the APA to adopt rules. The latter, a bit more substantive would modify the policies of the JNB as follows: see (4) especially:

(c) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, proceedings of the Board, including the names of candidates considered by the Board and information about any candidate submitted by the court administrator or by any other source, shall be confidential.

(d) The following shall be public:

(1) operating procedures of the Board;

(2) standard application forms and any other forms used by the Board, provided they do not contain personal information about a candidate or confidential proceedings;

(3) all proceedings of the Board prior to the Board’s receipt of the first candidate’s completed application form; and

(4) at the time the Board sends the names of the best-qualified candidates to the Governor, the total number of applicants for the vacancy and the total number of best-qualified candidates sent to the Governor.

Finally, you’ve already heard about S. 270, Senator Sears’ bill to make the AG an appointed, not elected, position.

So, there’s a lot thrown on the table but May is a long way off. The budget challenges the state faces, the opiate addiction issue, the connection between that and precious metal dealers, Vermont Health Connect, single payer, etc., will take up most of the attention of the members.

As always let me (Bob) know if you want to know more about any issue that I may not be including in these reports. I’ll be in the building tomorrow but then out Thursday and Friday for the YLD Thaw in Montreal. 

Thanks for reading.