Saturday, May 11, 2019

Legislative Update, May 12, 2019


Legislative Update
Rep. Anne Donahue
May 11, 2019

In theory, the current legislative session ends on Friday, May 17. There’s healthy skepticism about achieving that date, given that the major, “must pass” bills are not yet or just coming out of the Senate and will still need to be reconciled with the House versions.
These include the budget bills (operating and capital), taxes and fees.
Most of the other stated priorities for the session have not yet passed out of their second body, let alone reached a conference committee to iron out any differences between the two.
These include minimum wage, paid family leave, regulation of marijuana sales, and a gun purchase waiting period. They are not “must pass” in order for the session to end, and could stay in play for next year instead.
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School Merger Delay
One bill that appears completely stuck is the effort to allow towns who are under forced merger orders (like Berlin) an extra year to work out the details of the merger agreements. The House and Senate cannot agree on who should be permitted a delay, and who should not.
If no agreement occurs before the end of the session, the mergers will take effect on July 1.
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Clean Water
Everyone wants water clean up (it is hard to even think of Vermont as a state with water pollution problems), but the challenge has been to figure out how to pay for it.
I have agreed that we cannot get the funding by squeezing more money out of our existing budget responsibilities, and this week I voted in support of the House proposal to raise $7.7 million for this purpose.
I have had big concerns about whether we are making effective use of the funding, and the House bill does a lot of restructuring, hopefully to improve that system.
There are shifts being made in terms of which taxes go to which funds, but the area that the new money is being drawn is a “cloud tax.” The language of our new world – we’re taxing clouds?!
Only a few years back, if you wanted a new program for your computer, you’d go buy the CDs at the store to download it, and pay tax for that. Now you “buy” it by getting access to it in the “cloud” of cyberspace, and that has been tax exempt.
So the intent is to recapture that sales tax revenue. The overall clean water bill, including the tax, passed on a vote of 124-14.
This major bill is now on its way back to the Senate, which will respond by agreeing with our changes – unlikely – or asking for a conference committee – likely – to try to achieve agreement.
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Plastics Ban
The other big bill last week was the proposed ban on single-use carryout plastic bags and other plastics.
It’s been at least a decade since I first co-sponsored a bill that would have placed a fee on plastic carryout bags. The momentum never developed for that, and I think it’s high time we started addressing our current throw-away society habits that spread trash around the world.
This bill bans bags at point-of-sale (so they are still permitted at the vegetable bins or to wrap meats, for example.) It also bans sale of the plastic foam containers that we use for takeout food and coffee, stirrer sticks, and plastic straws (unless by direct request at a restaurant.)
For many years I thought I was being eco-responsible by asking for “paper, please” at the grocery store, but it turns out they aren’t much good either. While they may biodegrade over time, production and transport is very resource-intensive. We could do a lot better by bringing our own bags.
This bill still allows them if they are from recycled products, but permits stores to charge 10 cents apiece. Oddly, not less than 10 cents.
That price tag may push more stores to stay with giving them out for free, which would be counter-productive to the intent, but the committee that proposed the bill pushed back against proposals for a lower charge.
Despite extended debate, the bill passed on a healthy 120-24 vote, and heads back to the Senate for review of the House changes.
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Abortion Access
Proposition 5, the so-called abortion rights amendment to the state constitution, passed on a vote of 106-38. Under the rules for constitutional amendments, no change from the Senate proposal was permitted, so that was the final step for this year.
It must be passed again by the legislature in the 2021 session, and then be adopted by a public referendum.
The language appeared on the surface to be more balanced than the abortion rights bill that passed earlier this session (and which has now also passed the Senate.) That bill sets no limits at all, while the constitutional amendment proposal allows for the state to act if “justified by a compelling State interest,” similar to the Roe v. Wade balancing standard.
Our constitution, however, makes the premise of rights based on the fact that “all persons are born equally free and independent,” which may not allow for the state to claim any interest in a child not yet fully born.
Of greater concern is the language of the new right, which is a right to “reproductive autonomy.” That’s a fairly new term of art that the presenter of the bill said means abortion, contraception, sterilization, and the right to bear a child.
It isn’t defined anywhere, and once language is in the constitution, its interpretation is fully in the hands of future courts. It is a term that could take on a lot of meanings, whether intended or not.
This could backfire even for proponents of unrestricted rights of women, since a man’s right to reproductive autonomy would become co-equal. What happens if a man does – or does not – want to become a father and has a different opinion from that of a woman carrying his child?
I think that in the rush to protect women’s rights (which are not currently under any threat in Vermont), too little was done to carefully consider what the wording for this proposal should actually be.
As someone who believes we must continue to confront how to balance two important issues in the abortion debate – both a woman’s bodily autonomy and the autonomy of the genetically distinct life growing in her body – I could not have supported it, regardless.
The precise wording, as passed, states:
“That the people are guaranteed the liberty and dignity to determine their own life’s course. The right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty protected by this Constitution and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
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Medical Records
In my last update, I discussed the issue of medical records privacy and our state’s health information exchange, which allows health providers to access a patient’s records from across the state through a single database.
The issue was a change being proposed from our current consent system, which requires your consent for your providers to use it, into a system where access is automatic unless you specify that you do not want other providers to be able to access it.
If the legislature did not act this year, the change would have gone into effect under criteria the Green Mountain Care Board decided upon. I felt strongly that the legislature had a responsibility to make a decision of this significance.
My committee did agree to tackle it. We started the discussion with widely disparate views. Our discussion process was the kind we would all wish for when tough decision-making is at hand. We heard all views. We really listened to one another. We brainstormed options.
The final result was an 11-0 vote to approve the change, but setting stringent standards for a transition plan that will fully inform Vermonters of their rights. If we decide the transition plan isn’t strong enough, we have a window of time next year where we could pull the plug.
Our proposal was adopted on the House floor this week, and the Senate has already indicated informally that it supports the approach.
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It is truly an honor to represent you. Please contact me with your concerns and thoughts; I’m best reached via email at adonahue@leg.state.vt.us. My past legislative updates are available at representativeannedonahue.blogspot.com.