MONEY FOR SOMETHING 

We are thrilled with the response to our Town Meeting Week newsletter sale. We pitched you hard last week and many of you responded. Thank you.

We hope many more do. We need you to. Keep the candle burning at DPR central. Send money. We ask only what you can afford. For some $5.00 is plenty, for others we are hoping for at least four figures. Please do. 

HOW DID JIM GET HIS GROOVE BACK? 

Actually, he did not. At this week's press conference, the governor hit a bump in the road and never did find his groove. At the appointed hour, only Channel 5, the Burlington Free Press, and DPR were ready to take on the governor. Press Secretary Jason Gibbs had sent out the schedule Monday announcing a 2:00 PM press conference. Tuesday to accommodate a request from the media, Gibbs changed it to 1:00 PM, but somehow the press was not informed. Frantically, he worked the phones.

Minutes later in ran the Associated Press and Vermont Press Bureau. Some ten to fifteen minutes late, Governor Douglas began. Later, more straggled in; one showed up at the conclusion; some never came. 

THE MISSING DRUG ADVISOR

Douglas’s eyes wandered, focusing on windows, walls, or sky. He was smooth as usual but too smooth, not forthcoming. Asked about his drug proposal to parallel Meagan’s law to inform communities when drug dealers are released, his usual good-natured humor confused the press. He said, "I am not sure, my drug advisor (looking to Seven Day’s Peter Freyne’s empty chair) is not here." No one really got it. It was out of bounds anyway.

SAY IT AIN’T SO

Douglas announced his request that the legislature raise the minimum wage fifty cents to $6.75 an hour. He said, "This is one more of my ideas to create jobs." Huh?

Douglas said, "a number of states are higher than we are." Then later he said that Vermont would be tied for fifth highest. According to Tom Douse at Vermont’s Department of Employment and Training, Vermont would then be tied for fourth. Alaska is first at $7.15 an hour but their whole cost structure is much higher than the lower forty-eight. That leaves only Washington at $7.09 and Oregon at $6.90 ahead of Vermont, not "a number of states."

JOB CREATION

So how does this create jobs? We are to attract those businesses which are interested in only doing the right thing? To heck with profits or competitive realities?

The press pushed Douglas. Why are you proposing this out of the blue, when did you come up with this, won't this hurt our competitive posture? Deftly but unconvincingly Douglas demurred. This was not part of your campaign? "I mentioned it once," said Douglas.

Asked what the federal minimum wage is, he did not know. According to Douse it is $5.15 an hour. So why again does a 31 percent higher wage attract business? Our neighboring competitors New Hampshire and New York along with up to thirty-six other states remain at $5.15 an hour. They can have all the retail business and there goes Vermont’s sales tax revenue?

Go to http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

WHO ARE THEY?

Douglas said that 27,000 Vermonters are paid minimum wage. When asked who those folks are, he said that he did not know. Asked what industry they work in, he said that he did not know. He waxed eloquently though about how we must help families do better.

Again Douse doused Douglas’s figure. "Only 4,000 of those are full time jobs, 60 percent in retail and 31 percent in service industries." Probably not too many families depend on minimum wage jobs.

BUSINESS LIKES THE HIKE

Douglas said that he had run his idea by the business community. Some supported the higher minimum wage, others did not. When asked who supported it, he declined to be specific. Off to a bad start, the governor never did find his groove.

At the conclusion of the press conference, DPR approached the Associated Industries of Vermont representative. Does AIV support the minimum wage increase we asked? "No." Deputy Chief of Staff Betsy Bishop, formerly of the Chamber of Commerce, interrupted from across the room, "Well, he ran on it during the campaign." So there.

KIDS ON VACATION

As if this was not bad enough, Press Secretary Jason Gibbs said to the waiting press, "The kids are on vacation." Thinking that he meant school children, DPR mentioned that most of the children were off last week. "No," says Gibbs, "I mean the legislature."

We all have bad days, DPR perhaps more than most. But a bad day was what the governor and his staff were having. They have been almost perfect to date. The odds or the planets were just not in their favor this week. We expect that they will be back to perfect form next week.

WHO IS OUT OF STEP?

Governor Douglas reiterated his four criteria for Act 60 reform and said that the bill passed by the Senate had begun to address two of those criteria, cost control and the common level appraisal problem which is driving much of the local property tax increase.

Once again, the governor and his party's Chair of House Ways and Means, Richard Marron, R-Stowe, seemed out of step. The Stowe Reporter quoted Marron as saying the senate bill is "dead on arrival."

Though we appreciate a cooperative demeanor, we hope the Governor gets his groove back real soon. The Senate plan does nothing for the common level appraisal problem except promise, "If we don't need every penny of your taxes after everything is paid for and the reserve is topped off, we'll lower your rate." And if you buy that, there's this bridge... As for "cost control," the only item in the Senate bill is a section authorizing various summer studies by Senators, funded by taxpayers.

The bipartisan House Ways & Means proposal, on the other hand, has real cost controls and greatly reduces reliance on the property tax for education. Marron and his committee are planning a public hearing to get feedback on the draft proposal at 7 PM on March 27th at the Statehouse. You can read the draft proposal on http://www.Act60.org. 

TRAINWRECK 

The Burlington Free Press threw in the towel, "just vote no" they editorialized. And people did. Forty-two school budgets were turned down. Even in Hartland, home of two Democrat bigwigs in Senate. Douglas added, "We must confront the cost side of education or no formula will be acceptable. We have the lowest student teacher ratio in the country. Though the Department of Education has the details, it is my understanding that student teacher ratio is important in the youngest years but makes no difference on the way up or in the higher grades."

This is an amazing defeat especially given that school budgets votes have a low turnout and that teachers and other school employees and their families can vote their self interest. 

UPDATE 

DPR reported that Fairlee Feed had lost its timeliness appeal of a rate change for unemployment compensation even though they had never been notified. They appealed the referee’s decision. The Vermont Employment Security Board chaired by Commissioner Anne Ginevan showed a bit of common sense and reversed the referee. Stay tuned. 

CHITTENDEN SENATE CABAL UPDATE 

Early in this legislative session, Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) introduced House Bill H.60 to redistrict the six-member Chittenden County senatorial district. DPR readers may recall that only four of the 50 states even have multi-member senate districts, and Vermont is the ONLY state in the country that has senate districts with more than two members. The six-member district in Chittenden County is a complete aberration.

Wright's redistricting bill is currently assigned to the Government Operations Committee. Only one member of that committee is from Chittenden County, and none of the members has offered assurance that the bill will be taken up this year.

Even if the bill is taken up and passed, chances are it will go nowhere in the Senate. After all, the Chittenden Senate Cabal constitutes one-fifth of that body, and three Senators (Condos, Leddy, and Munt, one tenth of the Senate) are from the same town; even with two-member districts, one of them would have to go.

It may be that legal action will be required; an undertaking with a high likelihood of success. The courts have shown a clear preference for single-member districts and have condemned multi-member districts as discriminatory toward racial and political groups. A review of the relevant lawsuits can be found here: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/departments/scr/redist/red2000/ch4multi.htm 

TAKE ME FOR A SUCKER 

Parade Magazine this past Sunday had a Vermonter on its cover "What People Earn" story, Randy Schaetzke of Quechee. Randy is a chiropractor who makes $240,000 a year.

A few years back, the chiropractors used their financial power to work the legislators and flood the phones with pleas to mandate that all Vermont insurance carriers cover chiropractic care. Stuff like this of course has now reduced our insurance options to fewer than a handful. Stuff like this, lining the pockets of the rich, has beggared the Vermont taxpayer. 

INDEPENDENT MAN 

Author Jim Jeffords has two books out, probably a bit costly to publisher Simon and Schuster. His first, My Declaration of Independence is 82,244th on Amazons best seller list, the second An Independent Man is 29,118th.

A review in the Stowe Reporter gushes, "Jeffords has lived up to the claim his book’s title makes."

According to the Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal Washington group that has annually ranked senators for years, Jeffords scored a 45 in 1999 while Senator Patrick Leahy had a 95.

In 2000 Jeffords boldly moved to 55 and in 2002 he rated a 95, exactly the same as Leahy. Perhaps one could conclude that he was not always so independent. Only lately has he been bold enough to show himself for the "unleashed liberal crusader" that the Free Press now heralds. 

IRONY 

We love irony. As you know, our best buddies Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Schumer of New York have been doing their best character assassination job on Miguel Estrada, Bush's nominee for the Court of Appeals. Hispanics traditionally have been part of the Democrat coalition. The filibuster to pummel Estrada hopefully sends them looking for a new party.

Best of all, the Wall Street Journal speculates that if defeated and with his newfound fame, Estrada may take on Schumer in next fall's New York elections. He would certainly pry away the Hispanic vote and give Chuck a run for his money. 

YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE... 

Bob Scheiffer of CBS News notes that Walter Mondale made himself known with his "Where's the beef?" Ronald Reagan had, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Now, says Scheiffer, Howard Dean has come along and "electrified the crowd" by claiming to represent "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."

Just one problem: Dean purloined the phrase from the late Senator Paul Wellstone. From The Progressive Populist in 1999: "I want to restore the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." From Wellstone for President 2000 web site: "Wellstone has been speaking up for what he calls 'the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.'" The Washington Post writes: "'I was representing the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,' said the man who opposed President Clinton's welfare overhaul." Everyone repeated the phrase at Wellstone's memorial: "It's obvious why liberals feel the loss of Wellstone so strongly. He used to describe himself as a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party,'" wrote the Weekly Standard.

DPR subscriber Rob Skinner tells us that FOX News regular William Kristol of the Weekly Standard asked last Sunday, "Shouldn't Howard Dean give credit to the late Paul Wellstone for that phrase?"

Yes Dean should, Rob observes, "but when something you say gets national recognition from Bob Schieffer it would take real character to own up to the fact the phrase was coined by someone else."
__________________________

Read the Scheiffer comments here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/opinion/schieffer/main541700.shtml

As for the other quotes, they're easy to find. Just type the following into any Internet search engine and press enter: "Democratic wing" Wellstone  

ACT 60 AND THE VERMONT SENATE 

»» Gary Richardson, Perkinsville: The real anguish over the effects of Act 60 shown by the many contributors to the Dwinell Report of 2-28-03 does not register with the supporters of Act 60, both in the General Assembly and within our communities. Act 60 is busily destroying our Vermont culture - and the Senate majority wants to raise the Statewide Property Tax, hoping that spending won't increase even more beyond that. The mindset that comes up with that as a solution to the problems caused by Act 60 has no idea of the problems being faced by Vermont citizens and their families.

There are two constants in all the turmoil caused by Act 60. The first is that Act 60, as designed, is draining all the money from our towns in the name of equalizing something for somebody else. The other constant regarding this awful bill, and others like it, is that the strong majority of our Vermont Senate keeps on receiving the most votes every two years. That means that our Democrat / Progressive Senators know that they can do and say anything, at any time, on any subject, no matter how outrageous, and they won't pay any penalty at the polling place. It doesn't even matter that 95% of their campaign contributions come from outside Vermont. And those two inexorable forces are the result of voters who haven't yet connected bad legislation with the people that they elect, and reelect, to run things in the Senate. That connection will be made, but it must be soon. 

DOYLE SURVEY RESPONSES 

»» Laura Brueckner, Waterbury Center: Sen. Doyle has his survey out! Whooopeee! Meanwhile Doyle was instrumental in passing Act 60 after he heard testimony against it from families, businesses, farmers, retirees, school administrators - Vermonters from ALL walks of life. Now Doyle is trying to cut our legislative choices in half by pushing for four year terms. Can you imagine what Dean could've done with another two years! This would also cut in half the out-of-state money that comes into Vermont from those "buying" our candidates. The media would be very much poorer. 

»» Guy Page, Colchester: Thanks for publishing the Doyle Poll (and so much else.) The sad thing is that so few people have enough information to answer number 10 ["Do you think the Vermont Legislature is doing a good job?"]. And yet, it's one of the most important political questions to be asked, perhaps the most important. 

FROM THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CHILD CARE AUTHORITY OF THE 20th CENTURY 

»» Richard and Margaret Waite, Braintree: "The teachers in the early colonial schools and universities of the United States were predominantly Protestant ministers whose principal aim was to teach religious principles and to train more ministers, who became the next leaders of the community....By the second half of the nineteenth century the discovery of evolution and the development of various behavioral sciences further weakened the authority of the churches as educators. As the need for schools and universities mounted they were established increasingly by towns and states. Now the Supreme Court has forbidden in public schools even the vaguest of prayers." --Benjamin Spock, M.D. (1970) Decent and Indecent. Our Personal and Political Behavior, p.207.

For the full article visit http://www.icr.org and search for Impact #356 

OUR RISING STAR 

»» Tom McGivney, Burlington: Congratulations to Marget Brue on becoming a member of the UVM Board of Trustees. Glad to see she's still active. I remember her from her appearance on the "James Dwinell Show." 

THEY LIKE US 

»» Harriet Slaybaugh Goss, Montpelier: I'm mailing you my check for two years' dues which are overdue. I read your commentary off my computer every week both in Vermont and Florida in order to find out what is really going on in Vermont. Thanks!

»» Matthew Smith: Please add to your list. keep up the good work!

»» Dennis C. McMahon, Esq, Burlington: Congratulations on the new format. It really looks very nice. 

YOUR EDUCATION DOLLARS AT WORK 

"...U.S. standing in the world deteriorates as students advance through their education. ...they score above the international average at age 9.... At age 13, however, they slip below the international average.... By age 17, the United States outranks only Lithuania, Cyprus, and South Africa." --Paul E. Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, in the current issue of Education Next: http://www.educationnext.org/20032/39.html

"...in 1991, an ETS official estimated that about 90 percent of the performance differences among schools can be explained by five variables: number of days pupils are absent, number of hours pupils spend watching television, number of pages pupils read for homework, quantity and quality of reading matter in pupils' homes and -- much the most important variable -- the number of parents in the home." - George Will http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/will/story/6190670p-7145430c.html

YOUR PROPERTY TAX DOLLARS AT WORK 

"In a household like mine, where income has stayed the same but property value has increased, an increased school tax will result in an increased prebate check." -- Jodi Harrigton, Winooski School Board (in the Winooski Eagle). 

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