Policy Issues Discussed at Legislative Breakfast

Details

Created on Tuesday, 01 May 2018 00:27

Written by Andrew Clark

ST. JOHNSBURY— The 2018 Legislative Session will soon be wrapping up. On Monday at the St. Johnsbury House, Northeast Kingdom legislators were speaking as part of the legislative breakfast series.

"We're trying to do something. My biggest concern is the last thing you want to do in the heat and the emotion of what's going on right now is to try and craft legislation in a short period of time," said Senator Joe Benning of Caledonia County, when talking about domestic terrorism. "Because what you end up with sometimes carries unintended consequences. And I am afraid what we are looking at right now is legislation that does just that.

Among other topics, was Governor Phil Scott's proposal of fines and penalties for school districts that exceed a ratio of 5.5 students to 1 teacher.

"For almost 20 years now, we have had irrational cost containment mechanism in Act 60 that we have tried unsuccessfully to use penalties to control spending decisions," said Representative Scott Beck, who represents the Caledonia's 3rd district. "My position is that we should [use] a rational cost containment mechanism and quit trying to control districts with penalties and fines and whatnot."

The next legislative breakfast is scheduled for May 21st at 8am.

Legislative Breakfast from NewsLINC on Vimeo.