Legislators note session highlights
Toolbox
By STEPHANIE M. PETERS STAFF WRITER - Published: May 15, 2009
This year's legislative session was marked by budgetary trials, but many Rutland County legislators are still touting it as a productive one for the region.
Out of this session Rutland City will likely see a couple of new projects in the coming months and years, including drainage work on West Street and in the transit center to avoid future flooding in and around the state office building and the expansion of Rutland Regional Medical Center's psychiatric unit.
With money tight, however, the bulk of legislators' efforts were expended protecting the region's existing assets, including the continuation of Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express and paving projects slotted for routes 4A and 7 North, according to Rep. Robert Helm, R-Fair Haven, the delegation chairman.
"We didn't go out after (projects) as much as try to keep them in play and not lose anything we already had," he said Monday. "I think the county did fairly well … I think we did as well as any county."
Protecting Rutland's Amtrak service from the budget cuts proposed late last year by Gov. James Douglas topped the lists of many delegation members.
"It just became very clear that to this community it's very important both symbolically and economically," said Rep. Margaret Andrews, a Rutland City Democrat.
Eventually, the argument for the train became one not just to keep it, but to make it a priority to extend service to Burlington. To accomplish that, millions of dollars of welded rail replacement will be necessary, including some in Rutland County, funding for which the Legislature hopes will come from federal grants, according to Rep. David Potter, D-Clarendon, who served as vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
"We succeeded in getting $4 million in welded rail back in (the budget)… in the form of a grant they're applying for (to fund) passenger rail service improvements on the western corridor," Potter said. "And if there's any money on the bottom line of the transportation budget it will go toward welded rail."
This summer, the county will see several long-awaited transportation projects started, including paving on Route 4A between Fair Haven and Castleton and segments three and five of Route 7 between Pittsford and Brandon, Potter said.
In addition to paving projects along West Street, Route 7 and Woodstock Avenue, Rutland City will see trenching and drainage work on West Street and in the transit center meant to address the problem that led to flooding downtown last summer. Andrews said she advocated to make sure that funding, originally a $250,000 separate line item in the capital construction budget, was reinstated after being removed. In its finished form, $125,000 was dedicated to the project and it remained a separate line item in the budget, Andrews said.
Both Andrews and Sen. Kevin Mullin, a Republican, point to inclusion of $250,000 in the capital budget for the Rutland Regional Medical Center as a win for Rutland County. The money will allow the hospital to plan for the development of a new psychiatric facility that would assume some of the Vermont State Hospital's population, they said.
Rep. Margaret Flory, R-Pittsford, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, cites her work on sex offender legislation that will overhaul the state's sex offender registry as a session highlight that should have an impact on the county.
Under the new law, sex offenders from other states who settle in Vermont will be added to the state's registry.
"I'm very happy with this," Flory said. "I think we've made it so that Vermont couldn't be viewed as either a harbor or a safe haven."
Still other members of the delegation point to what didn't happen this session as major coups.
Democratic Sen. Bill Carris said the Legislature's suppression of the tax on current use of property was a "hot issue" in the county's more rural regions.
Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Howard, a Rutland City Democrat who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, said he spent much of the session fighting proposed budget cuts he believes his constituents find "unconscionable."
"I'm not going to cut unemployment benefits or prescription drugs and I don't care if I have to filibuster until August," Howard said, referring to the possibility Douglas may still veto the budgets passed through the Legislature. "I think in tough times we have to help each other and it means all of us have to sacrifice."
stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com
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