(Sen. Dunne remains the only elected official to take us up on our invitation to front page any user diaries they might care to offer. Thanks again for contributing, Matt. – promoted by odum)

Dunne Calls for Boycott of International Paper Products Sold in Vermont

With Lake Champlain and the Ticonderoga paper mill as a backdrop and an impending decision by the EPA due today, Matt Dunne and several Addison County supporters including fellow state senators Claire Ayer and Harold Giard announced a new strategy to fight the proposed burning of toxic tires across the lake.

“If the Bush Administration won’t protect Vermont’s air, water, mountains, and milk by stopping the tire burn, Vermonters will make our own plan of action,” said Dunne. “After years of conventional discussions and negotiating, it’s become clear to me that International Paper simply doesn’t care about Vermonters’ health or land.”

“Boycotts like this are not to be used lightly,” Dunne explained. “We have given IP every opportunity to install technologies already in use at their other plants to prevent toxic air from polluting Vermont, including an offer to fund its installation. Time and time again, IP has ignored our appeals. With the test burn imminent pending the EPA’s decision, it’s time for concerned Vermonters, businesses, and especially state government, to send a clear and strong message to IP: Don’t trash Vermont.”

“I applaud the work of Attorney General Sorrell and Governor Douglas to pursue a legal strategy against this tire burning. However, until a legal remedy is achieved, every Vermonter and their state government can use the power of their pocketbook to send this message,” continued Dunne.

In a press conference held in Shoreham today, Dunne and his fellow state senators Claire Ayer and Harold Giard of Addison County joined local opponents of the tire burn to announce a three point plan of action to pressure IP to stop the tire burn:

1. Citizen Boycott of International Paper Products

Vermonters who oppose the tire burn can visit www.MattDunne.com starting at 5pm today to learn what products not to buy, as well as find contact information for the company CEO to send letters about their decision to boycott.

Vermont businesses, especially in the agricultural and milk industries, can boycott the purchase of many IP products. A working group of state officials and industry leaders is already forming to explore these possibilities in detail.

2. State Government Purchasing Boycott of International Paper Products

Working with Governor Douglas and other agency officials, state government must begin an immediate review process to determine what IP products are currently purchased with taxpayer dollars, and work expeditiously to stop any further purchasing, including the purchase of pink envelopes used daily in the State House to for inner-agency communications.

Divestiture of All State-Controlled Pension and Endowment Funds from International Paper

Working with State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding, all government-managed pension funds, endowments, or other invested securities should be immediately reviewed to see if any publicly managed funds are invested in International Paper, and if they are, should be immediately divested in favor of sustainable and appropriate investment opportunities.

Information about the health effects of the potential tire burn is available www.lesspollution.org

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(A reminder to readers — I have a standing invite for pols to post diaries and I’ll front page ’em. The promotion of Sen. Dunne’s diary at the same time a poll is running on his primary race shouldn’t be misconstrued as an endorsement. – promoted by odum)

Given the emerging revelations about NSA domestic spying, I call on Lt. Governor Brian Dubie to convene an emergency session of the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council to ask its members to vote on a resolution opposing domestic wire taping without a warrant, and against the secret acquisition of phone records of innocent Vermonters.

The Homeland Security Advisory Council chaired by Dubie is the appropriate entity to express to President Bush that the security of Vermonters, and the nation, is not dependent on these illegal invasions of privacy.

In January, when federal wire tapping of Vermonters’ phone calls first came to light, I sent a letter co-signed by over 100 Vermont legislators to Lt. Governor Dubie asking to formally denounce government spying on our citizens.  The Lt. Governor never responded to the letter, in writing or to the press. The council has met since the letter was sent, but Chairman Dubie has yet to include it on an agenda.

The Lt. Governor should respond to every single Vermonter who takes time to write him a letter on important public matters.  To ignore a request from a majority of the Vermont legislature is indefensible.

Domestic spying on Vermonters in the name of “security” is simply wrong. It violates Vermont’s proud tradition of protecting civil rights, especially the right to privacy. As the head of Vermont’s security taskforce, Dubie must stand up to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and demand that they and the President stop spying on Vermonters.

LETTER TO LT. GOVERNOR DUBIE:

January 30, 2006

Dear Members of the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council:

In the past several weeks, it has become public that the federal administration has authorized the surveillance and search of American citizens without a warrant. We strongly believe this is a fundamental infringement of our constitutional right to privacy. As the Defense Department’s monitoring of Vermonters who were peacefully sharing their political opinions demonstrates, the recent federal disregard for our civil liberties has now penetrated our own state’s borders. In the Vermont tradition, we ask you, as the representatives of our state’s Homeland Security efforts, to formally call on our national leadership to end this activity immediately.

In this post 9/11 era, the importance of an effective homeland security program is unquestioned. The dangers of terrorist may well require the use of covert efforts to identify and bring to justice those that wish to do us harm. However, effective public safety does not necessitate that we disregard our traditional and constitutional right of privacy that prohibits the government from searching our homes or monitoring our phone calls or e-mail messages without a court’s approval.  Homeland security is as much about protecting our state and nation’s civil liberties and way of life as it is securing the physical safety of Vermonters.

We find the recent revelations that the national administration has utilized the resources of the federal government, including those of the National Security Agency, which was established to monitor overseas intelligence and not engage in domestic surveillance, to be shocking and deplorable.  We find further that the national administration’s defense of such actions demands a swift response.

Not only do these actions challenge the basic principles of our U.S. Constitution, they specifically fly in the face of Vermont’s traditional philosophy towards the role of government.  Vermonters have consistently said that no government has the right to tap our phones, read our mail, or search our homes without a good reason. We have fought strongly against such searches especially when motivated simply because a person’s views are no the same as a government official.

In 1798, one of Vermont’s U.S. Representatives, Matthew Lyon was arrested and jailed under the federal Sedition Act for his harsh written criticisms of President John Adams.  But Vermonters’ respect for his actions and outrage towards an overreaching executive branch led to his reelection while he was incarcerated. 

In the dark days of McCarthyism, the government used similar surveillance to find the equivalent to today’s terrorists, but then turned it into weapon to blackball people who simply had differing views on the direction of the country. Vermont U.S. Senator Ralph Flanders defied his own political party’s leadership and publicly challenged Senator McCarthy. Flander’s  bold leadership laid the groundwork for the U.S. Senate’s  censure of the Wisconsin Senator.  His abuse of Americans’ fundamental rights became intolerable for his Senate colleagues and the nation.

As the voice for homeland security in Vermont, you are in the strongest position to oppose, on behalf of the state of Vermont,, this disregard for Vermonters’ basic rights.  We hope that you will do so swiftly and strongly. With your help, we believe Vermont, under the banner of “Freedom and Unity,” can once again lead the charge to stop the Federal Government’s flagrant disregard for our fundamental civil liberties.

#30#

( – promoted by odum)

By Senator Matt Dunne

My recent report on this year’s health care legislation generated a lot of e-mail from friends and activists who were concerned that I sounded enthusiastic about this bill, or that I thought it was the best we could do.  Those who know my position on healthcare reform know that I am disappointed with the legislation, but I thought I should clarify my position for other readers.

The biggest concern I have with this legislation is that it will not achieve the cost containment goals set out by the architects.  As a member of the Appropriations Committee and as someone who works closely with the business community, I have seen firsthand the devastating effects of dramatically rising healthcare costs.  On the public side, it is no longer simply a problem of keeping up with the costs of Medicaid.  Over the past year, the teacher retirement fund hit a critical point: it now pays out more in healthcare premiums than it does in standard retirement income. A couple of years ago, those same two lines crossed as our public institutions of higher education began paying out more in healthcare benefits than in salaries to their faculty. 

This leaves us with a very scary scenario for our state budget. Traditionally, we have budget deficits because our revenues fall during hard economic times.  We bridge those deficits by temporarily raising taxes or dipping into rainy day funds. Once the economy rebounds, we reduce those taxes and refill our reserves.

This time it is different. With no increase in beneficiaries or benefits but yet higher healthcare costs, we now have a state budget deficit even though our revenues are up. As a result, we are forced to make awful decisions in our annual state budgets.  Even though I am not afraid to raise revenue to ensure good services to people, I feel we must resist such proposals since the heath care costs will simply eat up those gains in the next year, leaving us taxed higher and yet back in a deficit position.

Businesses and the self-employed are feeling the same pinch.  Although average Vermont incomes may be up 3%-5%, healthcare premiums rising 10%-15% put people and organizations at a net loss. The bottom line is that the state, public and private, simply cannot sustain the current increase of healthcare costs, currently estimated to be about $1 million per day in Vermont alone.

My fear is that the current healthcare legislation will do very little to address this problem and contain costs.  While I believe cost shifts contribute to the cost of healthcare by hiding the true costs of our broken system, it is not the only driver.  Although covering more uninsured Vermonters through a state subsidized plan like Catamount does take us closer to universal coverage, I’m fearful that the overall cost of the newly insured will very quickly become unaffordable for either the state or the subscribers, or both. Without cost containment measures in place, the plan will potentially increase in cost for the state over time or, if we freeze the subsidy for Catamount premiums, the plan will become unaffordable for subscribers in a matter of a couple of years.

While the chronic care initiative included in the bill provides some hope for tackling a major driver of health care costs, the most optimistic estimates suggest that we might see the benefit of this approach in five years. With the healthcare cost crisis here today, I don’t know how we can wait that long to see if it will work.

There are no easy solutions to this enormous and complicated problem, but there are some good ideas not currently on the table. Early in the session I advocated for a global budget for hospital costs.  The idea is to get our arms around how we spend our resources at hospitals, create a cap with an annual cost-of-living adjustment, and empower the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance to adjust the budget as reasonable and unforeseeable circumstances demand.

The global budget concept was not embraced in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and my floor amendment last week was rejected.  I’m sure the Governor’s opposition, and the laudable desire to get something passed this year, contributed to the resistance.

There was some hope that came out of this amendment effort, as it was embraced by an unlikely coalition of supporters.  The original idea was developed in the House by Republican Rep. Topper McFaun.  When my amendment appeared in the Senate calendar, I received two congratulatory comments for pushing the idea forward.  One came from Dr. Deb Richter, a leading universal healthcare advocate, and the other from Duane Marsh, Executive Director of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.  These are not your usual collaborators and yet their support suggests that the time for this kind of change has come.

As I mentioned in my last post, I do not share the view that the legislation as passed by the Senate does net harm. If made law, time will quickly tell how sustainable the proposal really is, or if the expected cost-shift savings will actually bend the healthcare cost curve. Although I agree with the bill’s supporters that changing the way we cover and manage chronic care is essential, this proposal produces few immediate cost savings.

While I am skeptical about the overall effectiveness of this bill, the current proposal is the only train leaving the station. I supported it as a small step toward fixing our system that also hopefully helps a group of uninsured Vermonters in the near term.  Until we have leadership in the corner office ready to take on the difficult issues of true cost containment, substantial simplification of reimbursements, and the central idea of universal healthcare, the healthcare crisis will continue to be with us in the years to come.

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(Matt Dunne continues to hit the blogs hard this week. We definitely appreciate it at GMD. Here’s the beginning of his piece at VDB and a link to the rest. Now if only we can get him to stop referring to himself in the third person (heh – shades of Bob Dole). We’ll be having more posts on health care throughout the week. – promoted by odum)

Healthcare Legislation: Current State of Play

Last Friday the Senate passed what could be called a conciliatory and solid step toward healthcare reform.

Acknowledging the fact that the Governor is not interested in systemic changes that could lead to lasting cost-containment, the bill that began in the House and was then fine-tuned in the Senate accomplishes three major goals: expanded coverage, pushing large employers to cover their employees, and better ways to manage the cost and quality of chronic care.

Here are some specifics on how these three goals are met through this piece of legislation, the passage of which will be negotiated in the coming weeks by House and Senate leadership and the Governor…

See Vermont Daily Briefing’s full posting of Matt’s health care update here.

(GMD continues to look like Vermont’s own Daily Kos — the newest similarity is the appearence of a high-profile candidate reaching out to the blogging community. Our welcome to Sen. Dunne, and to any other candidates who might like to try their hand engaging with such an unpredictable crowd! – promoted by odum)

The Rutland Herald published my op/ed on Thursday, April 13:

Free Speech for State Employees:
Gag Orders are not the Vermont Way
By Senator Matt Dunne
April 11, 2006

During my years as a legislator, I have always counted on the willingness of Vermonters to share opinions and ideas with me. At town meeting, on the phone, in person, and now over email, my constituents always help me make better decisions with their input.

The free flow of information and opinion is one of the best things about our state government, something that gives Vermonters particular pride. They know how rare it is in this modern world to have government remain so close to the people.

Over the last few weeks, however, I’ve heard disturbing reports that suggest this flow of ideas and information might be in jeopardy. For the first time in Vermont, many state employees must now formally get permission from their supervisor before talking to their elected officials. Read more…