Statehouse Headliners: House committees to discuss minimum wage, retail cannabis, raising smoking age

By Guy Page

This week Vermont House committees will review bills passed by the Senate and look at new House bills whose sponsors have been waiting patiently for a few minutes of the committee of jurisdiction’s time.

For a complete listing of legislation scheduled for House Committee review this week, see this week’s In Committee, a Headliners weekly publication of bills in House committees. They include:

  • S40, controlling lead in school drinking water (Education Committee, all week long).
  • S23, minimum wage (General, Housing & Military Affairs Thursday).
  • S54, cannabis tax and regulate (Gov Ops, Wednesday).
  • S86 Raising smoking age to 21 (Human Services, Thursday).
  • S18, consumer justice enforcement (Judiciary, Wednesday).
  • S37 medical monitoring (Judiciary, Thursday). About 10 lobbyists are scheduled to testify, in part because the business community is concerned it would allow medical expense recovery from consumer-related exposure to chemicals such as beautician’s hair treatments and service station gasoline fumes.

House bills getting their first look by committees address casino gaming, sports wagering, family leave for organ donors, disclosing presidential tax returns, municipal regulation of knife possession, disturbing the Legislature, slavery apology and reparations, incompatible local offices, ranked choice voting, criminal threatening (the “Kiah Morris bill”), wanton waste of wildlife, a several transportation-related bills, including increasing the gas tax to pay for electronic vehicle infrastructure.

Statehouse Headliners is intended primarily to educate, not advocate. It is e-mailed to an ever-growing list of interested Vermonters, public officials and media. Guy Page is affiliated with the Vermont Energy Partnership; the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare; and Physicians, Families and Friends for a Better Vermont.

Image courtesy of Bruce Parker/TNR

2 thoughts on “Statehouse Headliners: House committees to discuss minimum wage, retail cannabis, raising smoking age

  1. It amazes me that these idiots have the time to waste on slavery apology and reparation while Vermont is coming off the rails. Every Democratic/Socialist presidential candidate has jumped on this band wagon. They have no explanation how to do it. When asked, for example, if they would agree to eliminating Affirmative Action, etc., to help fund reparation, they go into vapor lock. These programs were instituted to help minorities achieve parity and would no longer be affordable with reparation. They couldn’t care less about reparation! This is all about buying votes.

    Reparation, along with packing the Supreme Court, getting rid of the Electoral College and dropping the voting age to 16 are all political desperation moves to try to load the dice and make the conservatives an inconsequential party.

    Vermont, today, is a non player in national elections as are all of the small population states. If the Electoral College were to be eliminated, Liberal Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California would set the American agenda for the rest of history. YOU BETTER HOPE THAT NEVER HAPPENS. These Dem/Prog./Socialists care only about power and not one red cent about you or slavery 200 years ago!

  2. Raise the smoking age to 21. You can fight and die for your country at 17 but you can’t buy cigarettes until you’re 21. I don’t like smoking for anyone but they have the right to choose, not the idiot legislature that’s coming up with all these stupid proposed laws.

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