Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Welcome back to the Senate Government Operations Committee meeting of Thursday, April 9. And we're gonna take up h nine one seven again. This is the accusation to military affairs. Sophie Sedatney has joined us from Legislative Counsel, and I'll let her explain before we began. As I remember, one of the outstanding issues to be yet decided was the situation where a veteran would not be charged for parking. And we were trying to figure out a way for that to happen without a huge procedure they're gonna have to go through. And I know this is not her area of expert jurisdiction, but she managed to track down Damian. So welcome back, and tell us what you know.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Right. So good afternoon. Sophie Sedatney for the Office of Legislative Council. And just to orient in terms of nine seventeen, this is section 43, which is the section that would provide parking for disabled veterans. So there were a couple of things I did want to just follow-up from the testimony you heard when this bill was introduced and walked through it here. And the criteria for for getting a veteran plate in Vermont is identical to the criteria for getting a disability plate. Oh. Mhmm. Yeah. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that, that that there's no difference. It's the same it's the same criteria. There's two two ways you can get one. One is if you qualify under the definition of an ambulatory disability, and the other is if you qualify under the blind disability. I'm kind of assuming it's people that are driving. I was like, oh, it's gonna drive this place and separate I I haven't delved further into that, but that is my assumption. But I can I can review that if you want, but that's that's what the current

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: law is?

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: So, you know, it's the same because I think there was some suggestion that it was different, but it's the same. Again, in other states, it it may be different. So you may have a disabled veteran with a plate from another state where they have different criteria. So I just wanted to touch on that. So generally, this isn't going to increase the number of people that can park for free because, you know, right now, a disabled veteran could get a disability plate. So, the law provides and then another question was around parking meters, municipal parking meters. And yes, you can park for free. You're not limited just to where the handicapped parking is. You can park in those as well. I did take a quick look because I knew this was a concern. So this was just a website that this is the Burlington website on parking. So I just wanted to, you know, talks about the rates, etcetera, and then it does talk about specifically for handicapped parking. Perfect. So it's free to all meters in a municipal garages. To receive free parking, you would show your handicapped placard or plate to an ambassador at facility. No ambassador is present, press the help button to call them. Yeah. And then privately owned garages may have different policies. Parkers must have the proper placard or plate, and then they also provide the Unified Parking Partners Office Handicap Parking for free in their garages. And again, press the assistance button to inform the responding attentive and show your handicapped placard to the camera and provide the platform. So there is a I guess there are pushed up. Mechanisms.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Well, it has to. This is just for Burlington, but I really did find it. Yeah.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: The more I think about it, like, I know Capital Plaza has a problem you can push.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: You can

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: put in there. Right? So I think that's fairly standard.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Senator White.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Yeah. Well, I just wanna thank everyone for doing a little bit of due diligence on this because I just felt like if we were gonna end up in a situation where suddenly, like, a town is on the hook, a company because someone didn't pay it, it sounds like that has been actually pretty well bought up in municipal lots. And Burlington and your area are kind of the only places that I'm familiar with, like, large municipal lots. So it's good to know that. But I do wanna go back to the very first thing you said because I think it contradicts what representative Stone has told us. So I just wanna make sure that I understand it correctly. It does. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I didn't wanna, like know, we can all I've said things that are wrong before. So I just wanna understand. It's that if I can get a plate, like if I could already qualify for a plate.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: So it's the same form that you fill out. The only difference is that if you want a veteran disabled plate, need some documentation to show that you're a veteran, but that's the only

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: And when she had described that the the plate was different than the placard, the difference was that the plate, you had to be basically more disabled essentially. You had hit a higher threshold than you did less, which So

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: I think I think placard is the plate is more if that's your vehicle than you're driving it. The flat card is more if you are driving someone else that's disabled or if you have a temporary disability. So Yeah.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: You know, they have to that

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: for

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: x

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: period

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: of time.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Right. Wonderful. That really clears the whole thing up. It makes a lot more sense, so thank you. That was my, like, wait a minute.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: But there shouldn't be anything that has some that that in any way that judges who's more disabled than another person.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Well, could say that there was a qualification in the VA, you might get benefits if you're partially disabled. Like, they do percentages, basically, what it's I kind of a

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: mean,

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: that's mildly offensive to me in a Yeah. I think that's country. But that is the way that they count it. And, you know, like, with workers' comp too, you're, like, a certain part of the state.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: So in the past, believe, Damien had a chart that showed from other states like Montana, Nebraska, like what they have, like what fees are, so there is, you know, a chart out there, and again, I think in different states, the percentage of disability as a veteran may qualify even. Yeah, But here in Vermont, it's the same standard for both. Both disability and.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Well, that makes me feel a lot better because that confusion, I was like, that's gonna be a problem.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yeah. No. It's it's it's the same thing. Thank you.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: So I have left a message on ParkMobile that because it is harder for towns like ours where you there is no attendant and you just have a kiosk and you have so, like, what do you show then about

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: But I still think so if you like, if it's ParkMobile, take Downtown Montpelier. Yeah. If I park and I don't pay the thing off the ParkMobile app, but my placard is hanging in my window or my disabled veteran plate is on my car, the town will know because of this law that, no, they

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: didn't pay and you don't give them a ticket because they didn't need to pay. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that's how it works, because in Burlington, they go, like, in the parking garage that's off Church Street, they walk around to check. Because I've had someone standing there, and he's like, you've got one minute left. Don't park my bike. Did.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Did. But he was waiting.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: But in, like, that garage in Burlington with the ParkMobile app, there is no gate.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Right. You then just leave. Right.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: You just leave. You just And then are coming

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: around and checking to see that you've, you know, guess they know, like, who's registered for Bart Mobile and they can see who's got however much time left on there.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: That Burlington garage is a fairly good example of sort of my concern that I'm gonna toss to my friend in transportation. Mhmm. In that the only way you can pay for that Burlington garage is through ParkMobile, but then your assessed fees. Yeah. So I don't have the option to pay by cash and not pay the fee. In those instances, it should be Burlington that pays the fee if they're gonna force me to use the

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: app. I know. Because

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Oh, sure. Yeah. I don't know if we're gonna I'm gonna look forward to the bill. Like, that's definitely a topic of

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: weird discussions. Because I don't think any of us should be forced to get an app. Doing the data broker bill and all the data stuff that

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: will be iPhone. It's it's I it's forcing you to have an iPhone. Yeah.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: If you're no good, like to do that. Yeah.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Were there any other provisions in this bill that created concerns for anyone? No. No, there's no. No,

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: and I just want say I'm really grateful. I think this committee has done a lot of good work to support folks who are veterans and active military, and I think the military spouses piece in particular is a nice nod to that, especially since we just discovered today, I believe, that officially any 18 to 25 year old male has been automatically registered for the draft. So I think since many of our potential, that's just what is going to start happening. Think if we're going to be moving towards another situation where we have armed forces engaged in a war, that we should do whatever we can to support those families as well.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: All right. I'm not necessarily suggesting we vote this out today.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Oh, I would vote that we do it. I was going to make that motion. I'm the deputy to vote for this out. This is nine seventeen as received With from the

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: no amendments.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I was gonna say, Jessica, go. Oh, she can't defect her whole diagnosis. Thank you. Once she's got her mobile app, she's ready to

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: get Yeah. No. I I mean, I do have, like I said, the larger concern, but it's not really relevant to the primary touch screen.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Senator Clarkson?

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Yes.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Senator Morley? Yes. Senator Vahovsky?

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Yes.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Senator White? Yes. Senator Collamore? Yes. I will do. Anybody have a desire to report it?

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: No,

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I'm happy to report it. There's on the team.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Okay. Because there's transportation stuff in it. I was like, please aren't charging me.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: She's a hard jingle.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: And I'm still waiting for the one to come back from finance on the three police officers from Randolph. Oh. We haven't done that one yet on the floor. No. We There'll be an amendment that I don't know whether Cameron's gonna have time to do what he say. Oh, you're talking about. There's a date that I see. There's a date that allows employees for, like, a year and a half not to have a. Same reference. Like, it's almost like a technical I'd rather have a

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I thought you were saying if they come back and say c versus g and

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: g No. No. No. No. All that

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: We got rid all that. Okay.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: And I haven't heard anything from Senator Cummings that creates any issues, Marshall.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Oh, yeah. Because I came back and the guy was here, I was like, did the person yeah. Okay. Yes.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I I remember that. I jockeyed with him right there.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: So one other thing that I'd like to do today since today is Yeah. Almost done.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I should make sure I take this up to Melissa just because I know We're

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: gonna do it tomorrow. It does it's fallback. It just passed. Oh, first.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Okay. We we have our funding.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: So yeah. The appropriations thing. So I'll just read off what We have a copy for each person. Oh, yes. And this does not necessarily mean the order in which we are ranking them. It was just how Alison Clarkson ranked. Right. I just wanna be clear. Ethics Commission, we are going to support the house recommendation to add $150,000 for the position that they're asking for. I believe in the governor's recommended budget that is not included, although he did level fund them.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Oh, it says in addition to

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: their funding from the governor for that. Okay. Yep. Also, Vermont Access Network Band and Community Radio, the governor's recommended budget had 1,350,000.00 in it, and we are going to pass the sport dial. BRTA, the Senate Government Operations Sports 500,000 to expand capacity and low staff to volunteer run towns. This work aims to strengthen the Vermont's rural technical assistance system. The Mont Food Bank, dollars 500,000. Crop Cash and Crop Cash Plus, 500,000, which is what the house put in. That is not included in the governor's budget, by the way. Did I say it once? I hope I didn't. I'm just I had asked in many Jordan today. Vermont State Urban Research and Rescue. The other three members, apart from myself and Alison Clarkson probably don't know what that's about. This was something that Representative Bayhovsky had asked, and the House did, I think, support 270,000, continue the sustainable USAR operation, which is You stay in prison, rescue. And then the Vermont Journalism Coalition for 50 ks. So I will, here's what I'm gonna do to be completely fair.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Yes.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I'd like to see the crop task go to number one, but how about if you each, as I did on my sheet, and you could all look here, put a rank next to the appropriation where you where you think, I don't know how much of a meaning it is when it gets next to work. Do they go like, okay.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: All the numbers Yeah. Which one is your

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I have no idea. I think we should be fairly consistent. You're gonna get different answers. Oh, you're right. I'm gonna take an average

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: and then just average, and I'll just retype it. I'll just

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Can somebody tell me with the Vermont State Urban Search and Rescue again a little bit about It's called State Police. I know. It's under Department of Public State. Department of Public State.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: They've been used most is with swift water rescue and flooding over the last few years. Yeah. It's a little bit of a misnomer, that whole urban piece, but that's the federal title. Yep. And so some of that money goes down. Just

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Yeah. I'm gonna go to

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: next I mean, I reach out.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I mean, that's not the only

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: thing they do, but in the last few years, that is what they have most done. In our

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: water emergencies.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: When you're finished, just pass them back to Oh, this we're supposed to

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: do one, two, three, four.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Well, yeah, there's 7 also. There's 11, Wow. Thank you.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: You've got a lot of interest. Oh, we are.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: We are. I'm sorry. That's okay. People, we're transparent. We're not saying anything bad.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I just wanna make sure for the Can you tell me which one of these are in the Governor's Recommend and which ones are Ethics in the commission is no.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: No. Ethics is

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Oh, ethics is a 100 and to that. This is to give them another staff position so they can be functional. I mean, they No.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: No. I understand that. I'm just saying so it's not all of this is not in,

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: a 150,000 is not.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. 135 for Vermont Access Network is in the governor's recommendation. Oh. The 500, I don't know if it is or not.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: You got it.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: You're telling it up for us?

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Oh, I can't. Vermont Food Bank, I'm sure, asked for more than 500,000. Oh, oh, millions. Yeah.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Well, and and not a penny is in congress budget, which is very

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: No. No. There's something in there. From the Vermont Food Bank?

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: I don't

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: believe she said anything. She testified today. And

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: The 500 for is not in. I don't know about the $2.70, and I don't know about the 50,000.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I'm I'm amazingly consistent with how I typed it up. Did you do

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: it as your version as your

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: no. Not actually, not. I I just sort of did

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: it as the file app.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. I'll tally these up, and then

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I'll put it in a second.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: I'll be

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: like, how did we get six sheets of paper?

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Oh, I should have had one of those maybe to I

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: have an extra one to play with in case I made a mistake. I mean, we it if we write.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah. Here's one. An extra one. Okay. And

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I have it on the computer, so guess what? I can type out enough for that. Oh, you're

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: on it. No.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: It's not killing trees. This is an important contribution to our forest products industry. Okay. Used trees. This is part of our

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: No. I

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: am an economic development, and this is an important piece of our economic in the world for its products industries. Use pay. Pay,

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: is there anything else that

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: The Senate uses plenty to talk.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yes, Senator White.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I do want to ask, we have had a conversation with the Democratic Caucus about the National Guard deployment and conversation about what's happening as it relates to Iran and like the way all of the candidates for Adjutant General described they would not move forward with a legal order. I'm not sure if there's work that can be done at this point to just kind of understand their perspective on it, but I I've also had some confusion about is the National Guard deployed now? They

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: this morning. There was a new deployment this morning asked Carter, governor general Carter is gonna be in the National Guard caucus on Tuesday morning at 08:00. Oh, great. Answer all these questions.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Yeah. Perfect.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I don't know that they're going to go. Right? I mean, they could be going to

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: They are. They're not already there in The Middle

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: East. Uh-huh.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: They're already there. The the deployment that went to Venezuela was then sent to The Middle East, and they currently have no known return date. And their families are really struggling with that. It's

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: some of us went after that Yeah.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: To talk to the governor. To talk to Jay Johnson was speaking with the governor. And he's been and the governor's been in constant Okay.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Did that. Right. Well, thank you. That was the only other thing. Just people have been asking me national guard questions.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: But I'll go to the conference. Okay.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: It might be. I'm just sitting down. I don't have anything drafted up. Oh, yeah. That's okay. We'll take it up tomorrow. In production. So That that gives me time to get it edited. And if you're okay with it, I wanna run it by the

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Remember when I was

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: time in. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely, ma'am.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: I'm in it.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. So tomorrow, maybe loading up OPR. Maybe not. I don't know yet.

[Sen. Rebecca "Becca" White (Member)]: Are we licensing massage therapists? No.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I don't know where I was.

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Oh, we need to have Ms. Morley coming in.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: And then the other one, Senator Vyhovsky just asked me to run this kind of thing, expanding identification of certain lobbying ads.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Promise her

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: that we walk through Promise her we do anything more than that.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: First, it is essentially disclosures on advertisements that are lobbying, political. I like all further disclosures,

[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Member)]: except, well, I won't say.

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I guess she didn't realize it was the lobby.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Vice Chair)]: Maybe she did, and that's why she's

[Sen. Brian Collamore (Chair)]: we used to call STA, short term is attitude. Okay. I think that'll do it for the day. Have a nice evening. We will see all of you tomorrow.