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On February 20 members of the Vermont House of Representatives voted 88 to 50 not to take a 5-percent pay cut. Fast forward in time and now there is a bill in the works that, if passed, will pay for a laptop for every legislator – apparently from the pockets of taxpayers.

During the debate about whether to accept a pay cut, most of those who spoke in favor of the cut insisted that in such dire times, when so many Vermonters are making sacrifices, that legislators should also make sacrifices. However, of those who voted against the cut, most of those who spoke insisted that they work far too hard for anybody to think they should be paid any less than the pay they already earn serving in legislature.

There is now a bill creeping forward, which if passed, will provide each legislator a laptop computer – apparently courtesy of Vermont taxpayers. House bill 385 is sponsored by four Democrats, all who voted against the pay cut. They are Ken Atkins of Winooski, Richard Howigan of Fairfield, Tim Jerman of Essex, and Kathy Keenan of St. Albans City. The following is the “statement of purpose” as recorded on the bill.

“This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.”

If this bill comes up for debate on the House Floor it will certainly be interesting to know why the legislators promoting this bill think we all need a laptop computer at taxpayer expense when many taxpayers can’t afford their own.

To find out how your legislators voted on various “roll call” votes, votes that are recorded, go to www.leg.state.vt.us.

The author of this article, Scott Wheeler of Derby, represents Brownington, Charleston, Derby, Holland, and Morgan in the Vermont House. He serves this district along with Representative Robert Lewis of Derby.

Unbelievable. Despite a deepening recession and 100′s of people losing their jobs in Vermont, the Democrats refused a pay cut and now want Vermont taxpayers to buy them laptops. To add insult to injury, Democrats are also proposing new taxes to take money from YOUR pocket. I guess it’s ok for Vermont legislators to take your hard earned money but they certainly don’t want to part with theirs!

From the VTGOP newsletter:

Just 2 weeks ago, House Democrats voted against cutting their own pay by 5%, but now some in the Democratic caucus want you, the taxpayer, to buy them their very own laptop computer. See the text of the bill below. You just can’t make this up.

BILL AS INTRODUCED
H.385
2009
Page 1

1 H.385
2 SHORT FORM
3 Introduced by Representatives Atkins of Winooski, Howrigan of Fairfield,
4 Jerman of Essex and Keenan of St. Albans City
5 Referred to Committee on
6 Date:
7 Subject: Appropriations; legislature; laptops
8 Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the
9 purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.
10 An act relating to laptops for legislators
11 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
12 (TEXT OMITTED IN SHORT-FORM BILLS)

Please forward this to your friends and family or take the time to contact your legislator. It is up to us to show Vermonters how out of touch the Democrats in the Legislature really are.

Thankfully, the rain held off during a fantastic Elton John concert at the Essex Junction fairgrounds on July 21. 2008. The concert started off with an old classic, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding and continued on at full steam for the rest of the night. For a guy in his sixties, you wouldn’t know it. Elton John still has a few acrobatic tricks left and he didn’t hesitate to use them. The music itself was fantastic and his voice only began to show signs of wearing out during the beginning of the finale. His voice was a bit hoarse on his last DVD, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case during this performance.

Near the end of the concert, I was down front shooting some video near the stage. All of the sudden, all hell broke loose and the crowd rushed to the front of the stage. The security guy tried to restrain people but he was soon overwhelmed by the crowd. I was actually pushed to the front of the stage by the crowd but unfortunately, my video camera battery died just as I was 6 feet away from Elton John, preparing for some close-up shots.
After a few minutes, I struggled back through the crowd to my seat. Better to leave the space for the number of kids scrambling to get to the stage for autographs. I was surprised to see Elton John take several minutes to autograph everyone’s items just before the finale and at the end of the show. Most artists are pretty aloof and don’t bother to interact with the audience. To see a legendary performer such as Elton John take the time to be so gracious with his fans was the icing on the cake after one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.
Sir Elton John indeed!

A new lighthouse for the Lake Memphremagog waterfront came rolling down Newport’s Main Street early Wednesday morning with a State Police escort.

Lighthouses typically light the way for boaters around obstacles. Early Wednesday morning a lighthouse was placed on the shores of Lake Memphremagog, not to light the way for boaters, but to light the way for a brighter future for downtown Newport.

“This is awesome,” Newport City Mayor Ellwood “Woody” Guyette repeated numerous times as he watched the replica of the old-fashioned light house being erected on the lower end of Main Street near the railroad bridge in the general area of what will become known as Steamboat Wharf (the name of a dock that once stood there). The lighthouse is a dream come true for Bill and Nancy Cook of Newport. In addition to having the lighthouse built, the couple are in the final stages of bringing the days of the tour boat back to the lake that stretches from Newport, Vermont, about 30 miles north to Magog, Quebec. Hopes are that the Newport Belle, a 70-passenger tour boat, will set sail on the lake in July. A new website is also in progress at http://www.newportbelletours.com/
“This is just the beginning of the downtown revitalization,” Guyette said optimistically, commending the Cooks for making their dreams become reality while bettering the city.

Read the full article with photos at the Vermont Northland Journal.

From the Caledonian Record:

BY JEANNE MILES, Staff Writer
Saturday April 14, 2007

ST. JOHNSBURY — Business at Weidmann Electrical Technology in St. Johnsbury is booming. So much, the company is looking to expand its operations.

But that expansion will not take place in Vermont due to high taxes and a strong impression by investors that Vermont is unfriendly to business, according to a letter sent April 2 by John Goodrich, vice president and general manager of Weidmann Technology.

“The paradox of the situation is this: we are extremely busy but are unable to expand in Vermont,” Goodrich wrote.

Read the full article here

New Vermont made movie starring Kris Kristofferson coming in May 2006, from Kingdom County Productions:

“Based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher, Disappearances is a spellbinding tale of high-stakes whiskey-smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage.

Quebec Bill, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered cattle herd at the end of a long winter, resorts to whiskey smuggling, a traditional family occupation. He takes his son, Wild Bill, on an unforgettable journey that will long remain etched in the viewer’s mind, through vast reaches of the Canadian wilderness and into a haunted and elusive past. What they find is the stuff of genuine legend.”

Also, be sure to check out the fantastic book by Scott Wheeler “Rumrunners and Revenuers: Prohibition in Vermont” for the true story and it’s effects on the state of vermont.