Wednesday, March 7, 2012

WVTK Local & State News March 7, 2012

Yesterday residents in the Town Of Middlebury voted by Australian ballot on a couple of key Articles. Article 9 was voted to exempt the real and personal property of the Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association from taxation for a period of five years, commencing April 1st of this year. Article 10 regarding the Middlebury Fire Department Seymour Street Fire Station #1 expansion and renovation and the East Middlebury Fire Station #2 replacement was approved. The Four Million Six Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollar ($4,625,000) bond was approved 782 – 367.

Changes are coming to the Brandon Select Board following an upset during town elections yesterday, while a single vote decided the Listers race. Select Board incumbent Kellie Martin could not hold off challenger David Atherton for a three-year seat after receiving 381 votes to Atherton’s 467 votes. Selectmen Devon Fuller and Ethan Swift were re-elected for a pair of one-year seats on the board. The town’s other contested race for a three-year lister seat saw Maria Ammatuna overcome Louis Faivre by one vote, 429 to 428. During voting, residents approved the town’s general budget of $3,105,900 by a vote of 505 to 356. All other money articles were also passed, including the Brandon town school budget and the Otter Valley Union School District budget.

Some other “headlines” from this year’s Town Meeting Day:

Voters in Pittsford unanimously approved a level-funded general town budget for the fourth year in a row at the town’s floor meeting Monday.

Residents in Hubbardton voted to approve a budget $48 lower than the amount proposed at town meeting.

Three Union High School budgets passed in Rutland County. Voters passed Fair Haven Union High School’s budget for the coming year, by a vote of 1,378 to 864. Mill River Union High School’s budget passed by a vote of 764 to 579 and Otter Valley Union High School’s budget was adopted by a vote of 1,144 to 771.

In Sudbury voters had a heated talk about health care in the rural town and voted to approve the town and school budgets for the coming year. They also voted that corporations weren’t citizens and voted to give $5,000 for the support of after-school and summer programs.

In the Town Of Orwell there were no contested offices. The Village School Budget passed 81 – 38. By a floor vote the Town Budget was approved and the Senior Housing Research fund passed by a voice vote as well.

The Town of Sudbury Vermont has declared March 12, 2012 as Girl Scout Day, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the organization!

At Monday’s Town meeting, Shoreham residents approved all resolutions including a new Town Clerk’s Office. They also approved money for Fireworks to be included in the Shoreham Festival.

Voters in Pittsford unanimously approved a level-funded general town budget for the fourth year in a row at the town’s floor meeting Monday. About 100 people attended the annual floor meeting where they voted to appropriate a general fund budget of $1,273,688. Voters also approved money for highway expenses and $19,000 for the Village District’s expenses that will be paid by village property owners. All articles were approved unanimously. The town’s only contested race for a three-year Lister seat included John A. Eugair Sr. and Jack Rogers. Eugair won by a 321 to 216 vote. The Pittsford town school district budget of $3,648,281 was approved by a 350 to 206 vote.

Residents in Castleton overwhelmingly voted down a proposed $2 million bond for a new municipal office complex and fire station at town meeting yesterday. The vote was 715 against the bond to 382 votes in favor of the project.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won Vermont's Republican presidential primary, while Democrat Miro Weinberger won a three-way race for mayor of Burlington. With most precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Romney was easily beating Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, who were vying for second place in the GOP nominating contest. Newt Gingrich was in single digits. But Romney did not appear destined to reach the 50% threshold, meaning the 14 Vermont delegates up for grabs will be distributed to the candidates proportionately. In Burlington, Weinberger's victory over Republican Kurt Wright and Independent Wanda Hines means a Democrat will take the city's top job for the first time after more than three decades of nearly continuous rule by left-leaning Independents and Progressives.

Early exit poll results show female, conservative and older voters helped Mitt Romney win Vermont's Republican presidential primary. About half of Vermont's GOP voters described themselves as moderate or liberal, and Romney and Ron Paul each picked up about a third of those votes. But Romney also won over about 4 in 10 of the conservatives. About 4 in 10 women favored Romney, as did nearly half of voters’ age 65 or older.

Vermonters took on a national issue at the polls yesterday and it could become a constitutional amendment. More than 50 towns had the Citizens United amendment question on their Town Meeting Day ballots and dozens of those towns approved. As of late Tuesday evening, unofficial results shows voters in at least two dozen towns have passed resolutions they hope will change the way corporations can contribute to political campaigns.

Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel is inviting you to a follow-up meeting on what you can do to combat drugs and drug use in our communities! The next Vergennes Community Action Group meeting will be held at VUHS this evening at 7:00PM in the VUHS auditorium.

Montpelier voters have rejected the idea of implementing a local tax on rooms, meals and sales. Voters apparently followed the lead of the Capital City's business community, which campaigned heavily against the local option taxes. The Montpelier City Council had pushed the 1 percent tax on rooms, meals and sales as a way to raise money to repair streets, and to ease the residential tax burden in the Capital City.

Essex County no longer has a residency policy for employees. The Essex County Board of Supervisors passed a pair of resolutions at its Monday meeting, rescinding the county's residency policy as well as granting residency waiver requests for 14 current out-of-county residents. County attorney Dan Manning said that the waivers were needed because the employees felt that their departments had told them that they had already received a waiver.

Transmission Developers Inc. announced a Joint Proposal of Settlement has been filed with the New York State Public Service Commission regarding the plan for the Champlain-Hudson Power Express, a 333-mile, 1,000 megawatt direct-current electric transmission system that would run through buried lines from Canada through Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to New York City. The $2 billion project has a projected in-service date of late 2016. The agreement comes after 15 months of negotiations.

About 60 full time Vermont Air National Guard members will be let go in July. This is part of the Air Force's plan to cut costs. According to Senator Leahy's office, while 60 Vermonters will lose their jobs, the Air Force will bring in 66 full-time employees from elsewhere in the country. Leahy says he's disappointed, but notes that Vermont's Guard made out better than the Guard in other states.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Education Commissioner are announcing proposed changes to math requirements for all Vermont high school students. The proposed changes are in response to the latest test results that show a significant drop in math and science scores when Vermont students enter high school. Students are currently required to take three years of math but the standards don't specify which math courses. Shumlin will hold a press conference with the Commissioner today to discuss the proposed changes.

College For Every Student can raise up to $10,000 this week as featured nonprofit partner of GE. General Electric chose the Essex-based program that helps under-served youth to go to college as its featured nonprofit partner for this week. GE gives $1 to College For Every Student each time someone clicks on "Like GE on Facebook," submits a photo and caption or votes on a submission HERE.

Taxpayers and tax professionals can keep up on many state-related tax issues on Twitter now. Follow the New York State Tax Department @NYStaxnews to get a "direct feed" from the department on a regular basis. The posts announce initiatives and services such as filing reminders, the location of clinics that help low-income taxpayers complete returns, or the details of critical and timely changes to the tax law, and more.