By Sen. Alison Clarkson What a biennium this has been. It began in January of 2021 in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, conducted entirely by Zoom, and it ended in mid-May 2022, in the State House, in person — […]
Tag: By Sen. Alison Clarkson
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Economic development bill includes a wide range of proposals
By Sen. Alison Clarkson This year, instead of producing several smaller, focused bills, the Senate Economic Development (SED) Committee created one omnibus economic development bill with a wide range of proposals. It took longer than expected to finish and the […]
State News
Legislative Update: Crossover bills reviewed, many priorities accomplished
By Sen. Alison Clarkson After many long Floor sessions debating and passing bills to the other body, the Legislature has pretty much completed cross over. This is the point in the session where all bills which have any chance of […]
State News
Legislative update: Virtual meetings have enabled more civic engagement, but I’m grateful for a return to in-person session
By Sen. Alison Clarkson Town Meeting 2022 reminded me how resourceful and nimble Vermonters are. This was our second Town Meeting season conducted during the Covid pandemic. Most of us are now comfortable operating in the virtual universe and have […]
State News
Economic development and housing bills aim to address urgent needs
By Sen. Alison Clarkson Many of us are feeling relief that omicron’s surge has taken a steep nose dive. The possibility of a return to something more like normal looks promising. It’s great to be able to feel more comfortable […]
Local News, State News
Legislative Update: Reapportionment reconsidered
By Sen. Alison Clarkson Every 10 years the results of the national census requires each state to review the impact of any population change on their electoral districts. Our Vermont Constitution requires that our state’s population must be fairly distributed […]
State News
Legislative Update: Pension for teachers,state employees rectified
By Sen. Alison Clarkson When the Pension Benefits, Design, and Funding Task Force was created last year, I was relieved. Our public pension system was in crisis. If we did nothing to fix the problems, Vermont taxpayers were looking at […]
State News
Legislative update: Off and running
By Sen. Alison Clarkson The 2022 Vermont Legislative Session is off and running. As this is the second year of our Biennium, we dove right in on Tuesday, Jan. 4. Sadly, this is also the second year in which the […]
State News
Historic Legislative session ends
By Sen. Alison Clarkson The Vermont Legislature adjourned Friday afternoon May 21. We all agree, it was an historic session. It was the first legislative session to be conducted completely remotely during an international pandemic. And, we also agree that, […]
State News
Legislative update: Amending the constitution and other bills
By Sen. Alison Clarkson The Vermont Constitution is a living document and, as such, is allowed to be amended. However, the authors of our Constitution in 1777 did not make it an easy document to amend. It is a multi-year […]