Sorry for the little picutres, but this is what I could snag off google images. Susan Bartlett Senate: Chair Appropriations, Rich Westman House: Chair of Transportation, Shap Smith, Speaker of the House, Peter Peltz, Not sure what committee he is on, and Floyd Nease, Majority leader.
What do they all have in common? Lamoille County, Vermont
This morning there is a legislative breakfast in town. Considering that the Session just started and the Governor has called for tremendous cuts, and Speaker Smith is looking for 150 MILLION in bonding power to pull Vermont out of a “economic downturn” This should be interesting.
What also interest me is that there is now a Fee for the breakfast. 10 bucks, unless you bring canned food for the food shelf and then your cost is reduced to $7.00. Who benefits? River Arts, a publicly/ privately funded non-profit and Lomoille Valley Chamber of Commerce. Who is the looser?
Citizens that would really like to hear what these legislators have to say, but don’t have the extra money to go.
There will be other legislative breakfasts through out the winter, one in Elmore in a couple of weeks that will be free to the public, but I gotta say that this first one is pretty important. It is the only one scheduled prior to town meeting in March.
Town meeting is when the citizens will vote on town spending budgets and projects, when we all look at our property and school taxes smack in the face and vote yea or nea.
Frankly, by putting a charge on the breakfast, citizens that are being effected the most by the economy will be less likely to come.
I get that under writing the breakfast is needed, but couldn’t organizers have found a different way to go?
EDIT: Heidi Scheuermann is the Stowe representative and Linda Martin is the Wolcott/ Hyde Park representative. Appologies to both for not getting a mention this morning. Turns out that if folks showed up and said that they were not going to have breakfast, that they didn’t have to pay. I paid, but didn’t stand in line for coffee or breakfast and was not given that option.
