News from Montpelier 2019 week 6

This is a milestone week in the 2019 session. On Friday the first group of Pages were honored and thanked for their service by the Speaker of the House. Members of the Boy Scouts of America presented the Colors, and many were in the gallery to hear the reading of the resolution honoring those who have achieved Eagle rank in the past year. Two young men from Fairfax were on the rolls, Robert Dearborn and Eli Silman.
The remaining empty seat in the House was filled on Thursday with the Governor’s appointment of Lisa Hango from Enosburg Falls. The Franklin County delegation is now at full capacity. New bills were introduced every day this week in such quantity as the deadline nears for that opportunity to end, that House Rules were suspended, and they were read the first time by number only and referred to committees.
Committee time was given to providing an opportunity for bill sponsors to present the members with an introduction to legislation which has been assigned to Transportation. The intent of this process is to ensure every bill has a chance to catch the attention of the committee and potentially gain momentum. The current main effort of the committee is to move forward the piece of legislation that is titled 19-1006, An act relating to the Transportation Bill, affectionately titled the T-Bill. Several sections have received testimony and the committee has begun checking off those that it is finished with.
The House and Senate Transportation committees held a Joint Hearing for members of the Vermont league of Cities and Towns to provide testimony. Many members of municipalities took the opportunity to address the panel and the comments echoed common concerns. The theme of road condition was a constant including the desire to limit the salt application in winter maintenance, a request for legislation mandating the use of snow tires and a request to implement a dedicated increase to the gas tax for additional funding to Town roads. A repeated positive comment stated by many was regarding the support that AOT District divisions are providing to town highway departments.
Please continue to contact me at bmurphy@leg.state.vt.us, 802-849-6545 or through the Sergeant at Arms office at the State House 802-828-2228