Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Introductory introductions. We can do that, or we can save that for tomorrow depending how people feel. I think the letter is not yet on letterhead. It will go on letterhead with our Committee letterhead? Yes. Committee letterhead. Yeah. And it'll have everyone's name on it. In other words, a full committee, I hope. Yep. I think people are very good about turning that around quickly. Yep. So let me just say thank you to everybody for your input and participation in putting this budget letter together for appropriations. It's not the easiest thing, and I had really hoped that we would have been able to wrap it up by Friday so that none of us were still thinking about it into the weekend and into today and didn't quite get there, but there's always next year. So I'll make some notes about how to move process along a little bit more for whoever's here next I

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: find that Tuesday through Friday, especially because I'm ignorant and drive home every day, That sometimes you need that time in the weekend to do a deeper dive to read and give thoughtful consideration, write notes Yep. And then read it again and then make recommendations.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: Yep.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: So I didn't have a problem with that Okay. Good. At all. It was before. Good.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Any any comments? Any thoughts? Anything anybody has second thoughts on?

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: So slow camp is not in the governor's recommended. Slow camp is not, right? So who's the is it the professional loggers of the Northeast and others, sort of a coalition who recommended the seven fifty as a one?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I think it was not Yeah, I think it was that organization and maybe. All of it

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: was the result also of committee discussion when it was presented both by FDR and the ELC and others who felt it was the historically effective program.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Right, but

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: FDR been illegal so far because it's not. Correct.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Right. So their presentation was really on here's what's happened, it's been effective, and then

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: If that was their figure, that's 100% of what they asked for?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yes. Okay.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Which was three quarters of last year.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: It was a million last year in one time. Right.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: A lot of the investment in setting up the program has already been done. So And

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: we, you know, I we have heard several times and keep hearing new stories about the challenges that the industry is facing, and even with the pretty ideal weather conditions that we've had this year, I mean, going back into last year too with drought and then the cold, that finding somebody to buy your who will accept your mills, who will accept your trucks has been a challenge.

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: Yes, representative. Just a question you had in the sentence about match for working lands, recognize the grantees provide a match. Do we need to say a percent or are we leaving that open or match might imply 50% or match

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: might Yeah, imply think we're better off leaving it open, honestly, that And look and see next Yeah, and let them apply their expertise to it because they, I think, are in a better position to make that call. But I think understanding that it's a concern that has come up pretty consistently.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: The board has for our the value of managing.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Alright.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: I saw the same thing you thought, and I said, well, oops, I'll go wait and see, you know, on how they apply matches. And some some might match 60%, some might match 50%, some might be deserving and only can match 15%. Guess, I don't know.

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: You go by this trick definition of words match would be equal. It would be. So it's kind of that what does that match word really mean? Yeah. And we

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: can I know that the working lands folks in the agency are more than happy to come back and have more conversations about what would be helpful for us to What can they do that would help us better understand what would work better?

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: Dave, do the other committees

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: On the

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: sort of co recommendation or the committee that more has jurisdiction that we approve of those monies being spent, do they do the opposite to house ag too? They say, oh, house ag likes this, you know? Hopefully. Okay. Yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah. So, I mean, there aren't maybe as many obvious ones, but

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: Benefit assisters, what committee is that?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Trust the whole. Okay, because

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: it doesn't say that here, but they know that. Excellent. But they recommended, I assume.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yes. I see now that that's not there. Well, we can add that in before we mail it off to.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: And we don't put dollar numbers on any of these, even though they have specific dollar numbers.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yes. I think that historically, we haven't, partly because some of these may not have sent their had they're still having this conversation in some of our committees. The

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: The letter is due Wednesday? It's due last Friday. How about she changed that? The speaker changed that. Oh. She changed it to Wednesday. Yeah. It's good

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: to see. Maybe. Well, in any case, I will check. That will make me feel better if they change it. Sure.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: You're looking at strong holds today

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: here. Yeah. And this can just be a show of hands. So anybody yeah, I'll take a motion to send this letter, the one that we're looking at on our page, to the Appropriations Committee. So

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: moved. Second.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Thank you. Any further discussion? All All those in favor, just raise your hand. Okay. I see everyone present. Zero. Yeah.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: We add Michelle? Or because you're

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: here yet. Because it's a stronghold. Yeah. The the letter will say that everyone present supported the letter, and Michelle, strictly speaking, is a hero. I know she's supported.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: She wanted eight zero zero.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: No. Let's leave it so that it's yeah. Okay, good. I know it's been a long day. I know it's getting a little bit late. Anybody want to stay for some introductions or should we do that first thing in the morning?

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Oh, we should do. Yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Good. Well, welcome to our newest member officially. And if you wanna go first, Jack, and just tell us a little bit about yourself. Okay.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: My name's Jack Friggum. I'm from St. Albans Town. I was a dairy farmer up until 2020 and retired from that business. We have a maple sugar bush that we operate as one the main sources of income. 73 graduate of Vermont Technical College and I've served the town of St. Holland's for thirty, thirty five years on zoning, development, review, two times as selectmen, this is my second program. Elementary board, high school board, and the tree ward. Yeah, so and I'm on the district six environmental action at 250. Oh, that's good. District 6. Yeah. Yeah.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: And you're probably located right there.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: Exit 19. We drive right through it when you come in to the same office. We drive right through the middle of it. Yeah. There's detail where the radar dome ends and I own a good chunk of that is where we cap our trees. How many taps? Yeah. About 6,000 right now. We just bought some honey and got there so Addison, 73 years old, must be out of my mind.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So that made a good transition to Greg, yeah.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: That's how

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: we had on the sugar maker too, we used 30,000 in Cabin. We got an apple rupture, when I was young we had dairy cows.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. A little bit of beef, a little bit

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: of vegetables. This is only my second year here. And then my father, you know, my father-in-law because they have even some St.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Albans today.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: He's on our recreation and trip in Midstair. All the world.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: John O'Brien, rep from Tundra, where I live on the same farm I

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: grew up on, cheap farm,

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: and more often. And I guess I'm an agritourism representative for this committee because we couldn't make any money raising sheep. So we turned to a farm wedding venue. Oh, yeah. So we all booked out for this upcoming season.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: Hanging out at Tundra And Shere every year. I wanna

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: let me show a friend. He

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: also was the dude behind his

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: hand for with the plan. Oh, Fred.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: Yeah, played at the well then.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: Oh yeah, I got Kate.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: And he's also a black man and he's also a black

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: man too.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: You go.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: We can see him.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: We all do a lot of things for

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: our families, that's for sure.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So there's a major court decision there today.

[Rep. John O’Brien (Member)]: Yes, too. Yeah, we will.

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: John Bartholomew. I live in Portland. My district also includes Windsor and West Windsor. Grew up in a Navy family, so we lived all over the place and finally ended up in the public health service, patient officer at National Institutes of Health. I was an institute veterinarian for one of the institutes there. Retired, moved to Vermont. I've been here twenty years. This is my eighth term. And see, live in a cohousing community, which I can't claim to be a farmer, but we have a lot of farming activities. Are dairy farmers who live right next door. They run a commercial garden. We have maple sugaring operation, very small, only a thousand taps.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: It all makes maple syrup.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: It does, all of it matters.

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: Mushrooms, bees, some chickens, used to have sheep.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: David Durfee. I live in Shaftsbury, just down Bennington County, just north of Bennington. I'm not a farmer, can't claim to be a farmer. I do have two taps that I put out a week ago, and it was enough. My wife collected it and boiled it on the wood stove and pancakes. Wow. Nice. Saturday. It was nice. Yep.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Beat me out.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We're a very nimble operation. I was first elected in 2018, so this is my eighth year and fourth year on that committee. Before I came here, I was running a food co op, so that's sort of the most obvious connection to the world that we work in here. We had chickens and we've got a garden, so I guess there's that too.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Richard Nelson. Gary Farmer. School board member for fifteen years at North Lenture High School. I was on the zoning board, was chair of the zoning board, got the last billboard pulled down off Interstate 91. My big claim to fame, I served on the Vermont Waterfowl Advisory Board, been a member of several different sportsmen's organization and whatnot, and got elected last year and here I am, been drinking from a fire hose ever since. Yeah. And I look forward to learning from you and the knowledge that you obviously have from all the different civic duties you've done.

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: I don't know if I can teach you.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: I'm pretty sure, and I knew your father-in-law. Yeah. And your brother-in-law. I don't have any. Great family. Yeah. Jack, my name is Jed Lipsky. I represent more than one skull. And like you and most others, I've spent a lot of my life serving on boards, nine years on select board, fifteen years on planning boards, eighteen years on conservation commissions, school boards, nine years on land trust boards, other unity boards, but was elected four years ago, and I'm a lifelong logger, and so I actually earned money from 15 on, started skiing trails and that sort of thing, but, and I am professionally, I'm not a farmer, but I am a farmer of the forest, I've been a stewarding Kimberland for almost sixty years, and I'm a certified master logger and I say that with a lot of pride and I'm on other boards like the Northeastern Loggers Association of Directors, a member of the professional loggers in the Northeast and really happy to have you here and working lands are a big value to all this committee from the food and resiliency. Again, we're still 75.5%, 76% florid, worse than the state of the law.

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: We all collectively have a great responsibility for monarchs and we need your help and really love. I could, Jed will tell you a new tidbit about him every day, learned about

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: him being a pilot and landing in a Serengeti. Well, and I'm sure we'll learn lots of interesting things about Jack too. I'll echo Richard, your experience on the board, all the boards, obviously, board and planning comes into play when we're talking about municipal regulation and then with Act two fifty, I mean, that's

[Rep. Jack Friggum (Member)]: And I'm at, like, fifteen years, governor Douglass.

[Rep. John L. Bartholomew (Vice Chair)]: One thing's really clear, some of us really never learned how to say no.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: That's great. Alright. Well, we can wrap up then. I'm back here at 09:30 tomorrow. We've got so as you can tell, we've got a whole bunch of bills and hoping to move ahead with if if you're if I talk to you about reporting a bill, check-in with me sometime, like, before