This week several stories developed at the Statehouse: lawmakers put a deadline on the Shumlin administration to provide a financing plan for a single-payer health care plan, and they also passed a bill to requiring genetically modified foods to be labeled.
Members of the House voted to study a tax on marijuana sales, while in the Senate, lawmakers looked at whether fraternity and sorority houses should pay property taxes.
Meanwhile, mud season has some back roads in its grip, but it’s not as bad as in years gone by. And several Vermonters returned to the Boston Marathon on Monday to run the race that was stopped abruptly during last year’s bombings.
These were some of the voices in the news this week.
Lawmakers Set New Deadline For Single-Payer Financing
(Shap Smith) “But if we’re not going to have finance plan next year, then there have to be some consequences to not getting a finance plan,” Smith said. “So basically we’re saying, ‘hey, if you don’t get a finance plan to us, let’s call a complete timeout on what we’re doing.’”
GMO Labeling Bill To Become Law
(Governor Peter Shumlin) "We want Vermonters to know what's in their food. They've a right to know what they're eating, what they're buying. But also didn't chicken out by saying they were going to wait for twenty or thirty other states to get this done."
House Votes For Marijuana Tax Study
(Rep. Kesha Ram) “Substance abuse costs, corrections costs, things that we know we’re hearing from other states,” said Ram. “Or we know that are general concerns from members of this body should we move toward taxation and regulation of marijuana.”
Frat Houses Fret Over Statehouse Tax Bill
(Sen. Tim Ashe) “Really, the question is, what about the person that lives in the building next door that doesn’t enjoy the tax advantage? They’re already paying in excess of what their neighbor in the fraternity house is paying in their rent,” he said. “So some of the doom and gloom scenario is based on a math that doesn’t quite stand to reason in light of the experience of other college students.”
A Dirty Little Secret: Some Towns Are Beating Mud Season
"I don't know if it's because cars are lighter now or because the roads are better, but it just seems that it's not quite as bad as it used to be." - Bob Eddy, Herald of Randolph photographer
Vermonter Aims To Finish What He Started At Boston Marathonhttp
(Ryan Polly) “First and foremost, to be able to show the world, that we’re not afraid. That this kind of thing isn’t going to stop us from celebrating and doing what they’re passionate about and being fit and healthy,” Polly said. “I didn’t get to finish that race, and I’ve worked even harder this year to get to finish.”
