So, my last report was on February 28th, the day
the general assembly began their one week Town Meeting break. Although I said
I’d report again the week of the 18th, I did not do that. So,
in my defense it was a short week- on
Thursday and Friday I was at the VBA Mid Year Meeting. Because of the size of
the calendars in both chambers right after the crossover deadline most of the
week was spent in floor debate in order to move bills. In fact, the House
Judiciary Committee made the decision to not schedule any witnesses other than
members of the legislative council. That really helped people like me who need
to be elsewhere.
This week started off with news that the House
Appropriations Committee has released the FY 15 budget, which, does contain
$50,000 for Vermont Legal Aid to continue to offer foreclosure defense
services. You may remember that funding for that work came from mortgage
foreclosure settlement funds the state received. Those funds run out on June 30th.
it’s only about a fifth of what is being lost but at least it’s something and,
given, this year’s budget challenges I’m sure VLA is happy to get it. Now the
challenge is to hold it in the Senate. The budget and the tax bills should be
up for floor debate Thursday and Friday of this week. That will no doubt
preempt any house committee time later this week.
As I continued to write during the first two months of the
session I followed bills mainly in the House Judiciary Committee. Well, now
those bills are in the Senate Judiciary Committee where I will be camped out
more than anywhere else for the remainder of the session. Actually, on Thursday
the committee will take its first look at the guardianship of minors bill, H.
581. There has been some input into the bill sent to the committee by the Probate
Bench-Bar committee of the Franklin Grand Isle Bar Association. Judge Davenport
responded to those points by letter this morning. For those of you in the
Family Section and the Probate and Trust Section, Amber Barber sent it to your
list serve. If anyone else who has not received it wants a copy, just email me
and I’ll forward it to you. the committee has set aside all Thursday morning to
work on the bill.
There are a couple of other things in the works. We have
been asked to comment on sections of the
economic development bill (H 736) in House Commerce that deal with computer
crimes. We’ve also asked to be heard on H. 497, a bill dealing with open
meetings. That bill passed the House and is in Senate Government Operations. It
has some language of interest to the members of the Municipal Law Section about
legal advice to public bodies and when an executive session is permissible. We don’t
have a schedule for that bill yet but we’ve asked to be on the witness list.
That pretty much brings you up to date. I’m waiting to hear
more detail about how the budget writers treated the Judiciary and the Office
of the Defender General. I may add to this post if I hear or will report later
this week. As always, thanks for reading.
