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Lawmakers left Montpelier Saturday evening after a long day ofbickering and backroom negotiations. As most of the members of the General Assembly milled aroundwaiting for action on legislation and the final gavel, a handful ofof House and Senate leaders came to consensus — or not— on more than a dozen bills. Typically adjournment occurs when the money legislation —appropriations and taxes — goes through, but this year thesession ended with disputes over labor bills, immunizationrequirements for young children and a ban on pig gestation crates. The infighting in the hours before the gavel fell belied theLegislature s many accomplishments this session. Lawmakersbalanced the budget without raising sales or income taxes(statewide property taxes will go up 2 cents because of thedeclining grand list). They agreed to rebuild the state officecomplex in Waterbury after Tropical Storm Irene destroyed thefacility and to invest more than $100 million in Irene related roadrepairs. Legislators instituted reforms to the state s mentalhealth system and made plans to replace the Vermont State Hospitalafter Irene. They came up with a plan for Vermont s adoption ofthe federal health care exchange system, adopted mandatoryrecycling legislation, passed a renewable energy bill and made thecommissioner of education a member of the governor s cabinet. Still, on the last day, it was hard to remember those achievements.Lawmakers were tired, irritable and a few were nursing colds (andin some cases hangovers) as they waited for colleagues andlobbyists to make last ditch efforts to keep their pet bills alive. In one hurried move after another lawmakers scrambled forcompromise after compromise, watching some bills live and othersdie. Friday night Republicans and Democrats were deadlocked over whetherto suspend the rules and vote on a bill that would requirenon-union school and municipal employees to pay a fair share fee to the union. Republicans wanted to block the provision, whichwould have allowed the Vermont-NEA to collect about $300 a year indues from about 2,500 non-union members. Rep. Oliver Olsen, who brought up a point of order Friday thateventually led to political maneuvering to kill the fair share bill pointed out that a piece of the bill was missing. Somewhat mysteriously, when a conference committee report with theunderlying education bill came out on the House floor thatprovision never made it back into the bill. Just who is to blame is still unclear, but the bottom line was the fair share didn t survive, nor did 23a, the provision thatwould have allowed Olsen s district to take advantage of schooldistrict consolidation incentives. Olsen was in the hallway being interviewed by a WCAX reporter aboutthe issue when shortly afterward House Committee on Education ChairJoey Donovan began arguing with the Republican representative fromJamaica about what happened. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Cube Balloon Manufacturer , Inflatable Lighting Balloon for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Advertising Helium Balloons.
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