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Monday, April 19th, 2010
For the last few weeks I have been updating you on the progress of the "Challenges for Change" law. This week I will provide additional information on the bill now known as H.792 which passed the House on Thursday. If you recall, the initial law known as act 68 passed the House approximately six weeks ago and outlined a process to improve efficiency in state government while establishing a goal to save $38 million dollars in general fund expenditures. I have supported this concept of working together to find efficiencies and better outcomes since the beginning. However, I continue to oppose the premise of working behind closed doors to come up with the plan. In these tough times we have to make sure to keep the process transparent while remaining more accountable than ever to the taxpayer.
I have received several emails outlining concerns that people have with this proposal. I understand your concern and share some of the same concerns myself. Everyone realizes that the legislature will have to make some tough decisions in the Challenges for Change process. I believe that this process has a lot merit but, I am very concerned that the first attempt did not allow for any public comment until late in the process. Creating policy ideas behind closed doors is not fair to the public, businesses, non-profits or anyone else that will or maybe affected by the changes. I feel that many of the recommendations have a lot of potential. However, they must be fully vetted before moving forth. I could not support passage of this bill at this time even though there were many floor amendments added that improved the bill. There needs to be more time to receive public input and to identify the entire $38 million dollars of savings booked in the budget bill before I can consider supporting this legislation.
We also passed two bills that originated in the Natural Resources committee this week. Each bill had several provisions that involved energy issues. One of the bills will require the owners of Vermont Yankee to deposit $20 million dollars into an account to help restore the site upon the plants closure. I hope that passage of this bill will bring the parties back to the table to discuss the plants re-licensing proposal. If the plant is deemed safe, I find it very hard to believe that the State of Vermont can afford to let it close in 2012. The other bill included provisions that address funding and tax credits for solar, cow power and other renewable energy projects. It also re-defined the term renewable energy project. I understand that this was done at the request of Hydro-Quebec and will benefit the ratepayers and taxpayers of this state in the future. I voted to support each of these bills even though I don't support all of the provisions that each contained. These bills, like most contain both good and bad features. I feel that there were more good features than bad so that is why I decided to support them.
This week I had the pleasure of hosting my father Don Turner Sr., Gil Rugg, Ethel Brousseau, Mike Thompson as well as Lisa Bongiorno and the VKAT students with Kim Dellinger from Milton Community Coalition who visited on Substance Abuse prevention Day Wednesday, April 14. It was very nice to have these people here at the Statehouse for the day.
As your representative, I look forward to representing you and your concerns in Montpelier. I am very interested in hearing from you on any issue at anytime. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns. During the session, I can be reached at the Statehouse by calling 1-800-322-5616 or by cell at 373-5960. My email address is dturner@leg.state.vt.us. My web-site address is www.donturnerjr.com. Thank you and have a great week.