H.875 concerns the State Ethics Commission and the State Code of Ethics. The bill included additional financial reporting for candidates and members of the General Assembly. That didn't bother me. It also proposed a statewide ethics policy to be adopted by all municipalities. It requires that training must be provided for municipal office holders and some employees. That's where I ran into difficulties. I am always loath to require more work of our town clerk's office. They have enough to handle already without having to put together State mandated ethics training and keep track of who has or hasn't completed it.

It was made clear to me that the Colchester Selectboard didn't like the bill and members of Colchester's governing body testified against it. I knew that Colchester already has an ethics policy and doesn't need to State messing in town affairs. However, there are many Vermont towns that do not have an ethics policy. And that has caused problems. 

I confess that up until a few minutes before I voted "Yea," I was not sure how I would vote. That only happens once or twice a session. It's always rough.

H.875 is off to the Senate where it will surely get changed. Perhaps, when it comes back, I will feel better about whatever my vote will be.

Last week was that snow storm. It created a mess on Wednesday that carried over into Thursday. Commuting Legislators were late or came in by Zoom for committee work. The power flickered. The backup battery and generator kicked in periodically. One Legislator was briefly caught in the elevator during a short outage.

Fortunately, work on the floor was light. The important House bills that needed to get over to the Senate, including the budget, are done. The Senate bills that have come over to us, are just beginning to get attention. We took a breath in preparation for the run to the end of the session which should come in a little over a month.

On Wednesday the Governor returned S.18 to the Senate without his signature. That's the bill that bans favored nicotine products. Here's his reasoning. Because S.18 originated in the Senate, that body has the first shot at overriding the veto. The consensus seems to be that the Senate does not have the necessary two-thirds majority so, most likely, the bill has died . . . for this biennium.

The will be more vetoes, depending on what the Senate does with those House bills that raise taxes.

My committee (House Ways & Means) is spending most of this coming week on Education Funding and the "Yield Bill." Usually that's a short one-page bill that sets the Yield values used to calculate Education Property Tax rates throughout the State. This year it won't be so short. We are looking at what might possibly be done for this year's rates, what might help for next year, and then what long-term changes are needed. The goal is to have all that done by Friday.

There have been several joint committee meetings, pulling House Education and Ways & Means together to discuss what might be done. We have heard from those who want us to go slow and be deliberate. We have heard from those who want something done right now. There are many proposals in the air. We will pick through them this week.