Our former Governor, Jim Douglas, has cast his gaze upon the landscape and the tiny people below, and experienced a spark of insight:

Things would be so much better if only we had heeded the wisdom of Jim Douglas.

He imparts this pearl by way of a VPR commentary:

I have to admit that Governor Shumlin’s inaugural address left me with mixed emotions. His renewed focus on education as the key to a more informed, just and contributing society is welcome; it can surely strengthen our economy and improve Vermonters’ quality of life. In fact, I found little with which to disagree, but it also sounded very familiar.

Yes, dear Vermonters, Jim Douglas is about to remind us how blessed we were to have experienced the leadership of Jim Douglas. And how ungrateful!

Governor Shumlin’s vaunted education program? A faint and belated echo of Jim Douglas’ pedagogical insights, which were hatefully cast aside by a churlish opposition too stupid and blind to realize the sheer genius of Jim Douglas.

Prepare for a three-minute onslaught of egotism.  

In 2006, my own administration proposed a program called ‘Promise Scholarships,’ whereby a Vermonter would have a portion of his or her college expenses paid in exchange for living and working in our state.

…But the legislature opted instead for a study commission that recommended a much smaller program that was approved the following year. It helped a few students, but was far less robust than I had hoped.

I was very pleased to hear the Governor emphasize a curriculum known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. …In 2007 I proposed the creation of regional STEM schools named for Senator Robert Stafford, a national champion of education. Nothing much came of the idea then, but perhaps there’s more support now.

He pauses to crack open a new bottle — his fourth. His wife Dorothy casts a glance his way. “Oh, Jim,” she says reproachfully. “You know how you get when you drink that much Yoo-Hoo.”

He continues:

I hope the same will hold true for the Governor’s commitment to early education. My administration launched the Building Bright Futures program in 2004, but when I recommended a 20% increase for child care subsidies in my final budget 3 years ago, the legislature approved only a 15% hike, while passing completely on a comparable request for higher education. And I can’t help but wonder if we’d still be experiencing a declining labor force and population if we had launched a significant scholarship program 7 years ago.

You lousy liberals. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. If only you’d bowed at the feet of Jim Douglas, Vermont would already be the sylvan and prosperous earthly paradise that Peter Shumlin can only dream of.  

By stealing the brilliant ideas of Jim Douglas, God among men.

For those keeping score: in a three-minute commentary, Douglas said “I” eleven times, “my” four times, and “me” once. What a humble guy.

In my previous post, I gave some bullet-point highlights of the Governor’s FY 2014 budget plan. Now, some additional info and an overall reaction.

Health care on track, but no funding source yet. The Governor’s budget wasn’t the only big document to drop today; the Administration also released a pair of reports on health care reform. As delivered by Director of Health Care Reform Robin Lunge and Commissioner of Health Access Mark Larson, it was a rosy outlook on the prospects for Shumlin’s health care reform plan. Both were confident that a single-payer system would deliver better quality health care and provide it to all Vermonters, and that the cost of the new system (to launch in 2017) would be lower than the cost of the current system projected out for five years.

Which is a hell of a qualifier, if you think about it.

However, the Administration has yet to identify a funding mechanism for an estimated $1.6 billion in annual costs. Instead of recommending a single method, the Administration is giving the Legislature a laundry list of possible mechanisms. As Lunge put it, “We must have a robust conversation about funding sources.”

Yeah, robust it will certainly be. The full report, all 156 pages of it, can be read online here.

After the jump: Overall thoughts on the budget, positive and otherwise.

The Governor’s budget, IMO, does some things very well. Some very careful thought and a bit of creativity went into a plan that closes a $67M budget gap AND provides for some key Shumlin initiatives without raising broad-based taxes. It’s very impressive in many ways.

It is disappointing in a couple of big ones:

1. The spending cuts and revenue increases are largely regressive in nature. There’s the new five-year lifetime cap on participation in the Reach Up antipoverty program.

There’s the tax on “break-open” tickets sold in many bars and fraternal clubs, which will help fund energy assistance and efficiency programs. Those tickets benefit many local charities and worthy fundraisers, and are bought by the middle class folks who largely populate the Elks Lodges and VFW Halls of the world.

There’s the unspecified transportation revenue boost, likely to come from some kind of increase or shift in the gas tax.

There’s a shift of $4.4M from the universal tobacco settlement to help pay for human services programs; in today’s world, most smokers are in the poor and middle classes. They will be indirectly hurt by this diversion of funds.

And, most notoriously of all, there’s the plan to slice Earned Income Tax Credit payments by $17M, to pay for better chid care and pre-K education. Again, a worthy goal, but is EITC really the best way to fund it?

2. Missed opportunities. The Governor should rightly be credited for pushing ahead with single-payer health care and an ambitious renewable-energy agenda, and his education plans are laudable. But there is a need for bold action on other fronts as well. And given the drastically weakened condition of the Vermont Republican Party, the Democrats need not fear any short-term political backlash.

So why not push some other bold initiatives? Our need for a major investment in clean water was not mentioned at all. Also, he could have staked out a solid position on reforming the transportation funding system, which is going to need a major overhaul instead of an incremental approach.

There was some good work on holding human services relatively harmless. But some of the funding mechanisms are purely temporary, and the problem will only come back in a year. Why not lay out the actual human needs and a comprehensive plan to address them?

Given the unmet needs in our state, the Dems’ nearly absolute hold on political power, and an opposition party that even its chairman admits won’t be ready to contend for at least another four years, why not step forward and plot a courageous course for the future?

Shoot for the moon, Governor. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.  

As I write this, Governor Shumlin is beginning his budget speech. But I’ve just returned from a sneak preview of the FY 2014 budget from Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding and Finance Commissioner Jim Reardon. I’ll put out a few headlines right now, and fill in more information later today and tonight.

No new broad-based taxes. As promised, Shumlin is delivering a balanced budget without any increases in income, sales, or rooms and meals taxes. There is at least one major spending problem to be resolved — about $35 million in the transportation budget– that is likely to require some tax or fee increases.

Budget gap: Following yesterday’s announcement of lower-than-expected revenues, Reardon said the gap in the 2014 budget (which had been estimated at $50-70 million) has come in near the top of that range: $67 million. The Governor’s budget, as presented, is in balance for 2014. The shortfall was largely made up in three line items, all in Human Services:

1. $33 million in unspent human services funds carried forward from 2012 and 2013.

2. $26 million in “special and federal funds” allowing for a corresponding cut in general fund money.

3. A change in the “Reach Up” program that would save about $6 million. Shumlin proposes setting a lifetime cap of five years, or a cap of three continuous years, for any recipient. The reasoning is that Reach Up is meant as a temporary stopgap for people who could (at least in theory) enter the workforce. There would be no cap on benefits for the disabled or others unable to work.

The five-year and three-year (continuous) caps would be applied retroactively. So if you’ve been on Reach Up for four years, well, sorry, you’d suddenly be close to maxing out.

As Spaulding and Reardon explained the budget, the “Reach Up” change is the only significant true “cut” in Human Services.

Transportation funding. Shumlin proposes $250 million in transportation investments, including $131M for bridges, $109M for paving, and $11M for rehabbing the western Vermont rail line. There is a $35 million gap in the state’s portion of transportation spending; if Vermont doesn’t spend that $35M, it will lose federal matching funds.

Shumlin is not proposing a specific funding mechanism to raise that $35M; he will work with the Legislature on that one.

Spaulding specifically said that “a gas tax increase is NOT off the table.” And he raised an interesting possibility:  currently, gasoline is taxed on a per-gallon basis, plus there is a small sales tax on gasoline. He raised the idea of shifting some of the tax burden from the per-gallon levy to the sales tax, which would be a percentage of each dollar in gas sales — a higher figure. But that’s only one possibility.

After the jump: Heating and efficiency, EITC reboot, and a modest increase in the state workforce.

UPDATE 2:30 p.m.

Heating and thermal efficiency. For the first time, Shumlin is including money for the federal LIHEAP program, because the feds haven’t been fully funding it in recent years. So there’s $6M in the state budget for LIHEAP.

There’s also $6M for thermal efficiency (weatherizing) and $5M for the Clean Energy Development Fund.  To pay for this $17M in new commitments, Shumlin considered and rejected a fuel tax. Instead, the state will impose a 10% levy on the sales of lottery-style “break open” tickets (not to be confused with Vermont Lottery games).

If you’ve ever been to a fraternal organization like the Elks or the American Legion, you’ve seen these games. You pay a buck per ticket at the bar, break it open, and you may win a small prize. These games are permitted as long as the proceeds go to a nonprofit cause. But there has been no state regulation or taxation, and Spaulding admitted that the state has no clear idea of how many “break open” tickets are sold each year. Estimates range from $135M to $224M; the actual total may be higher.

This proposal is likely to be very unpopular in certain circles.

Early childhood education. The budget does include Shumlin’s controversial proposal to redirect $17M from the Earned Income Tax Credit (resulting in lower benefits to the working poor) into support for early childhood education.

In a tacit admission that this idea has stumbled badly out of the gate, Spaulding told reporters that there would be a big media briefing on the proposal next Monday. They’re clearly hoping a public-relations reboot will give the proposal a better chance of passing the Legislature.

Adding to the state workforce. The budget adds a total of 79 new positions, including 25 in Mental Health for operation of the new Berlin psychiatric hospital and 18 in the Department for Children and Families to address caseload pressures. Spaulding was quick to point out that the state is “still operating leanly” with a total executive branch workforce that’s nearly 300 positions smaller than in January 2007.

UPDATE 3:00 p.m.

Smoothing the transition to the health care exchange. The budget includes $10M to help Vermonters now enrolled in Catamount or VHAP make the transition to the new health care exchange. There is an estimated $18M annual gap between the coverage provided by Catamount and VHAP, and what will be provided under the exchange.

However, as Spaulding was eager to point out, the $10M covers only part of a year under the exchange, so it’s enough to hold Catamount and VHAP clients harmless for FY 2014. (The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The exchange goes online on January 1, 2014.)

A capital budget squeeze. Shumlin’s budget accommodates the state’s expected portion of rebuilding/replacing the Vermont State Hospital and the Waterbury office complex. It does so by cutting other capital projects to the bare-bones level for the next two years. That’s believed to be sufficient to cover the new costs while keeping all other capital projects on line — although admittedly, their pace will be slowed.

A change in the Secretary of State’s budget. The Secretary of State’s office is being taken off the General Fund books (saving $4M). Instead, it would be funded through the redirection of corporate fees. The SoS budget will include funding for technology improvements needed to implement campaign-finance reforms — particularly electronic filing to a searchable database of campaign finance information.

Those are the highlights as I saw them. There may be more thoughts and reactions later on.

(Crossposted at DKos.)

Hey, remember last year’s fake right-wing outrage over Obamacare’s “threat to religious liberty”? How it would force health care institutions, such as Catholic hospitals and health plans, to provide services contrary to their beliefs? Such as birth control?

Well, the moral objections vanish when money’s at stake. Case in point: A Colorado man filed suit against a Catholic hospital chain after his pregnant wife died of a blood clot and the hospital didn’t try to save the seven-month-old twins she was carrying.

The husband did not contest his wife’s care, but filed a wrongful-death suit over the loss of the twins. He claimed they were viable and could have been delivered. The hospital chain’s defense?

There was no wrongful death, because seven-month-old fetuses are not persons.

As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.”

The hospital chain won the case at trial and in the Colorado Appeals Court; the state Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case.

And the chain’s mission statement promises…

…to “nurture the healing ministry of the Church” and to be guided by “fidelity to the Gospel.” Toward those ends, Catholic Health facilities seek to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Church authored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those rules have stirred controversy for decades, mainly for forbidding non-natural birth control and abortions. “Catholic health care ministry witnesses to the sanctity of life ‘from the moment of conception until death,'” the directives state. “The Church’s defense of life encompasses the unborn.”

Yes, unless it’s financially inconvenient.

Good thing Colorado doesn’t have a “personhood” amendment, or the hospital would have been screwed.

F*cking hypocrites.  

I’m sure this won’t change any minds in the anti-smart meter crowd, but…

A report commissioned by the Vermont Legislature on the potential threat to human health posed by smart meters… found the devices emit only a small fraction of the maximum exposure levels set by the Federal Communications Commission.

The report found that the maximum peak radio frequency level, as measured a mere one foot from a meter, was 3.9% of the FCC’s top exposure limit. And nobody, ever, ever, spends any significant amount of time standing one foot away from a utility meter.

By comparison to that one-foot maximum: a cordless phone emits 1% of the FCC’s limit; a microwave oven emits 6.5%; and a cellphone hits 10.5%. And if you own any of those devices, you’re a hell of a lot closer to them than to the nearest utility meter.

“It is concluded that any potential exposure to the investigated smart meters will comply with the FCC exposure rules by a wide margin,” said the report, which was released Wednesday.

I would now invite Senator Bob Hartwell, the new chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, to recant his previous opposition to smart meters. Since he bears the responsibility for being the Senate’s chief voice on environmental issues, and this report was commissioned by the Legislature, it’s the only responsible course he could take.

Granted, that’s assuming Hartwell is “responsible.”

The AP reporter tried to reach anti-everything Vermonters for a Clean Environment for reaction to the report, but “no one from the organization responded.”

I think I can fill in the blank:

The report was skewed, the consultant was in the pocket of Big Energy, the FCC is corrupt, our own favorite research says otherwise, Big Brother is Watching, the black helicopters are coming, and wind turbines are worse than nuclear power.  

Did I get that about right?

A few miscellaneous items from our local media world, some not so fresh but all worth a comment: Another loss for the capitol press corps, a change at the helm of Common Sense Radio, and a further diminishment of its lefty counterpart.

VPB shrinkage. The once-proud Vermont Press Bureau, jewel in the crown of the Mitchell Family Organ, continues to suffer from the declining fortunes of the newspaper business. Not long ago, the VPB had three full-time reporters. Now, it has only one — the redoubtable Peter Hirschfeld.

The practical effect is that Hirschfeld is basically responsible for one story per day (a heavy load in itself), while the Herald and Times Argus will depend on the Associated Press for other Statehouse news. I have lots of respect for Dave Gram and company, but every time we lose a pair of eyes on state government, the available information dwindles.

I have to wonder how long Hirschfeld will stick around. It’s a daunting challenge and the Mitchells don’t pay very well (understandable, given their financial circumstances). How long before he hears the siren song of the PR/Communications world that has proven irresistible to so many underpaid scribes in the past?

And if/when he does move on, will the Mitchells replace him, or simply shut down the VPB entirely?  

The Robster apparently departs. Readers with encyclopedic memories will recall the recent big news from the small pond of Vermont conservatism: the Robster, Rob Roper, was named the new chief of the Ethan Allen Institute. (This frightening “Your hide will make a fine poncho” photograph is his official mugshot from the EAI website. Yikes!)

Roper’s tens of devotees were on tenterhooks: would his ascension to the top of El Jefe General John McLaughry’s “think” tank imperil his future as the deceptively glib host of “Common Sense Radio,” the EAI-funded conservative hour on WDEV Radio?

The answer, sadly, apparently, is yes. I don’t know it for a fact, but I did happen to catch the opening of CSR recently, and the Generic Announcer introduced the host: not Rob Roper, but Bill Sayre.

Awwww. Sleepy Bill Sayre, the man who always sounds like he just woke up from a long winter’s nap. Is this really the best that EAI could do? A guy who projects no energy or personality whatsoever?

If you think I’m exaggerating, try listening sometime. I dare you. However, I wouldn’t advise doing so while operating heavy machinery.

I’d love to see the ratings for WDEV before and after 11:00 a.m. I bet they lose at least three-quarters of Mark Johnson’s audience when that conservative crapfest comes on.

Less and less “Equal Time.” Central Vermont radio listeners with encyclopedic memories will recall the salad days of “Equal Time Radio,” the liberal counterpart to “Common Sense Radio” (formerly “True North Radio”), heard weekdays at 1:00 and hosted by Progressive stalwart Anthony Pollina.

(Brief explainer: WDEV does not program either show. The airtime is bought by the shows’ producers, who then have to find a funding source. That’s why True North collapsed; it couldn’t raise enough money to stay on the air.)

When Pollina decided to run for the State Senate, he had to step away from the mic. Energy activist Carl Etnier took his place. But he struggled to get funding, and never had enough to make it a solid paying gig. (It also wasn’t that great a program; Etnier is deeply knowledgeable about energy issues, but he’s not a dynamic on-air presence* and he never successfully broadened the program to include other topics.) Finally, he and/or WDEV struck a funding deal with Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.

*Nothing against Etnier, just that hosting a radio show isn’t his strong suit. It wasn’t Pollina’s either, for that matter.

Over time — both before and after VBSR entered the picture — ETR has gradually diminished. The Friday edition was replaced by one hour of The Thom Hartmann Show — Thom’s weekly hour with Bernie Sanders. When VBSR came on board, the Wednesday show began to focus on business issues from a leftish perspective, and the Thursday hour was given over to Small Dog Electronics as a sort of call-in computer news and advice program. (Small Dog founder Don Mayer is one of the big players in VBSR.)

Now, the next step in the slow extinction of Equal Time Radio: VBSR has taken over the Wednesday edition for a new show called “The Vermont Conversation,” hosted by David Goodman, writer, Waterbury resident, and brother of national radio firebrand Amy Goodman.  VBSR head Andrea Cohen explained the new program:

“It will shine a light on important issues that Vermonters and our businesses deal with every day and on the opportunities for positive change in our state, and it will help keep the Vermont community informed of VBSR activities.”

I think ETR is still intact on Mondays and Tuesdays, but frankly I don’t listen to much midday radio other than Mark Johnson, and the WDEV and ETR websites haven’t been updated recently.

Overall, the program shifts mean that WDEV no longer has a balance of paid talk shows. It has conservative talk five days a week, and live, local, all-topics liberal talk no more than two days a week. I’d be more upset about this if it wasn’t for the fact that Common Sense Radio is so unlistenable. CSR preaches to a very small choir, and has no influence at all on the general political conversation in Vermont.  

Now, here’s a novel way to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day: issue a big-ass report criticizing Vermont for spending too damn much money on poor people.

Yep, you guessed it: Bruce Lisman’s Campaign for Vermont is at it again. This time, plausibly bipartisan CFV co-founder Tom Pelham unveiled an analysis of state spending from 2008 to 2012, showing a 22% increase in Vermont’s budget. The biggest fiscal profligate, says Pelham: the Agency of Human Services.

Pelham… told reporters at a Montpelier press conference that despite a 29 percent increase in human services spending since 2008, life for poorer Vermonters hasn’t significantly improved.

Okay, Tom, three points. First, comparing human services spending with a 2008 baseline is a mug’s game, because 2008 was when THE ECONOMY WENT INTO THE TOILET thanks to Wall Street geniuses like your colleague, Bruce Lisman. You whomp up a big hairy recession, and guess what? Human services spending shoots up, and tax revenues fall off.

Is that too complicated?

And second, Tom, OF COURSE poorer Vermonters’ lives haven’t significantly improved, because (a) our economy is still pulling itself out of the ditch that Lisman’s high-flying buddies drove us into, and (b) much of human services spending isn’t meant to improve people’s lives — it’s meant to keep them from freezing and starving and living on the street.

Can you understand that? Guess not.

Oh, and third? A little thing you might remember called TROPICAL STORM IRENE. Hit Vermont about eight months into Governor Shumlin’s first term? Wreaked incredible destruction to people’s lives and livelihoods and the state’s infrastructure? Yeah, that might just have played an eentsy-beentsy — and non-recurring — role in lost revenue and increased spending.

Ya think?

What’s more, Pelham also ignores the impact of the Wall Street crash (and Irene) by asserting that the upward trend of the last four years is destined to continue. Not true; if the economy continues to improve and we don’t get another hundred-year storm, the revenue and spending trends will reverse.

Doug Racine, head of the benighted AHS, also laid blame at the doorstep of Pelham’s former boss, Smilin’ Jim Douglas:

“When the Shumlin administration came in, we found a lot of problems, and thought that Vermonters were not getting the same quality of services they were getting previously,” Racine said.

…Racine said declining federal revenues and increasing caseloads together accounted for the rise in human services spending. In a struggling economy, he said, residents tend to rely more on state services.

“That’s the conundrum we face in human services,” said Racine. “Generally, when the [state] revenues are the lowest, the needs are the highest. … The need is great out there.”

And now, after all that, is where Pelham pulls something of a switcheroo — perhaps belatedly realizing the significance of the day on which he was speaking:

Significant human services cuts are widely expected to be unveiled in the governor’s budget later this week. Despite pointing out the 29 percent AHS budget increase as a cause for concern, Pelham said he wouldn’t necessarily back cuts to AHS.

Pelham says he prefers saving money through efficiency reforms, but cuts must remain an option.

Okay then, Tom. All we need is some magical “efficiency reforms” and we won’t need any nasty cuts after all. But I do have a question:  If there are so many “efficiency reforms” to be had in the system, why in hell didn’t Governor Douglas do something in his EIGHT YEARS in office? Why blast Shumlin for failing to solve the problem in only TWO years during an economic downturn?

It’s a funny thing, I will add, about guys like Lisman who enter politics from the business world. They all believe that if we make government more efficient — if we “run government like a business” — we can avoid cuts and make services even better. Then, when they get into office, they find it ain’t so easy. And if they are forced to trim spending, they usually fall back on old tricks like across-the-board cuts or deferred maintenance.

There is no magic bullet. I can’t really blame Bruce Lisman for not realizing this; but Tom Pelham, with his long service on the front lines of government, ought to know better.

And happy King Day to you, too.  

Special Twilight Sparkle edition! Cute pony make me feel all warm inside on cold day, aww.

Newly minted State Senator Eldred French, for accomplishing the rare task of legitimately failing upwards. As you may recall, State Representative French lost his bid for re-election in November through no particular fault of his own; redistricting put him in direct competition with incumbent Republican Dennis Devereux, who won their face-off. On election night, Speaker Shap Smith singled out French as a particularly tough loss, citing his exemplary service as a State Rep.

Then, State Sen. Bill Carris unexpectedly resigned, citing health reasons. And now, French has been named by Governor Shumlin to fill out Carris’ two-year term in the Senate.

In retrospect, it’s a good thing he lost in November; otherwise, he’d be one of 150 in the House. Now, he’ll be in a much more exclusive club: the 30-member Senate.

 Smartass New York foodies Madeleine Davies and Sen. Chuck Schumer, for dissing Vermont’s culinary goodness. Davies wrote a brief post for Jezebel.com about Vermont coming in first in the nation in cats per-capita. That’s fine, but why-oh-why did she have to toss in a completely ad hominem slap at our dairy industry?

Vermont’s previous accomplishments include the production of not-as-good-as-Wisconsin cheese and Brigham Young.

Oh yeah? Well, at least we don’t color our cheese BRIGHT ORANGE.

As for the usually-distinguished Senator from New York… as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, the Chuckster got to be emcee for President Obama’s inauguration. Part of his job was arranging an inauguration lunch, which relied heavily on New York products. That’s fine, but why-oh-why did he have to say that his state has “the best maple syrup”? C’mon, Chuck; it’s unbecoming for such a skilled politician to be caught telling such an obvious falsehood.

After the jump, moose on the loose, a dirty, dirty Lincoln, and a poke in one’s own eye.

An intrepid Vermont moose, for going viral with his December guest appearance on the slopes at Sugarbush Resort. A brief video clip of the moose venturing on the slopes and chasing a skier has been viewed nearly 160,000 times on YouTube. Video dude Bill Applegate recalled the encounter: “At first it was just amazing to see a moose and then it started walking towards us and it went from amazing to scary pretty quick.”

Yes, he’s from Massachusetts. Why do you ask?

The Statehouse’s dirty Lincoln. Er, that’s a marble bust of Lincoln on a pedestal directly opposite the front doors. Civil War historian Howard Coffin says it’s one of the best Lincoln sculptures you can find — but he adds that it’s time for Abe to get some TLC: “He’s discolored, he’s dirty and in desperate need of cleaning.” The estimated price tag: $12,000.

The Senate panel gave Coffin a positive reception, which is only as it should be. With a Lincoln movie among 2012’s best, and with 2013 being the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, you don’t want to have a dirty Lincoln welcoming visitors to the Statehouse.

Bob Klein, the first and only director of The Nature Conservancy’s Vermont office. He’s been in charge since the office first opened in 1979; he will step down in April.

During his tenure, the Conservancy has purchased or helped conserve nearly 200,000 acres of significant land across the state. And he grew the Vermont chapter from an all-volunteer group to an office with a staff of 14. Happy trails to Bob Klein, and may the Conservancy’s next director prove just as productive and durable.

The financially troubled Keene, NH-based Baybutt Construction, for continuing to affect businesses and institutions on both sides of the Connecticut. Last week, Baybutt got the Thumbs Down for bollixing the Rockingham Library project; this time, its financial difficulties have led to lost sales and 11 layoffs at the Brattleboro Food Co-op.

General Manager Alex Gyori blamed the layoffs — and a 3% pay cut for managers — on lower than expected sales in 2012 due to delays in its reconstruction. Mostly thanks to Baybutt, the opening of the new Co-op was delayed for seven months. And that meant lost sales. Not the worst effect of Baybutt’s financial woes, but it caused unnecessary harm to one of Bratt’s brightest spots and the loss of work for eleven employees.

Me, for jumping to conclusions about last week’s visit to the Vermont Foodbank by members of Bruce Lisman’s Campaign for Vermont. Based on a poorly-worded press release and my own disdain for CFV, I speculated that its visit to the Foodbank was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

However, Foodbank Director “Not That” John Sayles has let me know that the CFV crew spent a good three hours “sorting 4000 pounds of grocery salvage product.” And he adds that, yes indeed, Bruce Lisman himself was part of the work crew.

So, good on you, CFV, for doing some real, meaningful work. And a reminder that the Foodbank relies on volunteers to sort incoming food, and welcomes the participation of all kinds of groups at their Barre and Brattleboro locations.

And now, I shall carefully remove my finger from my own eye. And wonder how Twilight Sparkle can be so damn happy with an entire HOOF in her eye.  

Special Twilight Sparkle edition! Cute pony make me feel all warm inside on cold day, aww.

Newly minted State Senator Eldred French, for accomplishing the rare task of legitimately failing upwards. As you may recall, State Representative French lost his bid for re-election in November through no particular fault of his own; redistricting put him in direct competition with incumbent Republican Dennis Devereux, who won their face-off. On election night, Speaker Shap Smith singled out French as a particularly tough loss, citing his exemplary service as a State Rep.

Then, State Sen. Bill Carris unexpectedly resigned, citing health reasons. And now, French has been named by Governor Shumlin to fill out Carris’ two-year term in the Senate.

In retrospect, it’s a good thing he lost in November; otherwise, he’d be one of 150 in the House. Now, he’ll be in a much more exclusive club: the 30-member Senate.

 Smartass New York foodies Madeleine Davies and Sen. Chuck Schumer, for dissing Vermont’s culinary goodness. Davies wrote a brief post for Jezebel.com about Vermont coming in first in the nation in cats per-capita. That’s fine, but why-oh-why did she have to toss in a completely ad hominem slap at our dairy industry?

Vermont’s previous accomplishments include the production of not-as-good-as-Wisconsin cheese and Brigham Young.

Oh yeah? Well, at least we don’t color our cheese BRIGHT ORANGE.

As for the usually-distinguished Senator from New York… as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, the Chuckster got to be emcee for President Obama’s inauguration. Part of his job was arranging an inauguration lunch, which relied heavily on New York products. That’s fine, but why-oh-why did he have to say that his state has “the best maple syrup”? C’mon, Chuck; it’s unbecoming for such a skilled politician to be caught telling such an obvious falsehood.

After the jump, moose on the loose, a dirty, dirty Lincoln, and a poke in one’s own eye.

An intrepid Vermont moose, for going viral with his December guest appearance on the slopes at Sugarbush Resort. A brief video clip of the moose venturing on the slopes and chasing a skier has been viewed nearly 160,000 times on YouTube. Video dude Bill Applegate recalled the encounter: “At first it was just amazing to see a moose and then it started walking towards us and it went from amazing to scary pretty quick.”

Yes, he’s from Massachusetts. Why do you ask?

The Statehouse’s dirty Lincoln. Er, that’s a marble bust of Lincoln on a pedestal directly opposite the front doors. Civil War historian Howard Coffin says it’s one of the best Lincoln sculptures you can find — but he adds that it’s time for Abe to get some TLC: “He’s discolored, he’s dirty and in desperate need of cleaning.” The estimated price tag: $12,000.

The Senate panel gave Coffin a positive reception, which is only as it should be. With a Lincoln movie among 2012’s best, and with 2013 being the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, you don’t want to have a dirty Lincoln welcoming visitors to the Statehouse.

Bob Klein, the first and only director of The Nature Conservancy’s Vermont office. He’s been in charge since the office first opened in 1979; he will step down in April.

During his tenure, the Conservancy has purchased or helped conserve nearly 200,000 acres of significant land across the state. And he grew the Vermont chapter from an all-volunteer group to an office with a staff of 14. Happy trails to Bob Klein, and may the Conservancy’s next director prove just as productive and durable.

The financially troubled Keene, NH-based Baybutt Construction, for continuing to affect businesses and institutions on both sides of the Connecticut. Last week, Baybutt got the Thumbs Down for bollixing the Rockingham Library project; this time, its financial difficulties have led to lost sales and 11 layoffs at the Brattleboro Food Co-op.

General Manager Alex Gyori blamed the layoffs — and a 3% pay cut for managers — on lower than expected sales in 2012 due to delays in its reconstruction. Mostly thanks to Baybutt, the opening of the new Co-op was delayed for seven months. And that meant lost sales. Not the worst effect of Baybutt’s financial woes, but it caused unnecessary harm to one of Bratt’s brightest spots and the loss of work for eleven employees.

Me, for jumping to conclusions about last week’s visit to the Vermont Foodbank by members of Bruce Lisman’s Campaign for Vermont. Based on a poorly-worded press release and my own disdain for CFV, I speculated that its visit to the Foodbank was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

However, Foodbank Director “Not That” John Sayles has let me know that the CFV crew spent a good three hours “sorting 4000 pounds of grocery salvage product.” And he adds that, yes indeed, Bruce Lisman himself was part of the work crew.

So, good on you, CFV, for doing some real, meaningful work. And a reminder that the Foodbank relies on volunteers to sort incoming food, and welcomes the participation of all kinds of groups at their Barre and Brattleboro locations.

And now, I shall carefully remove my finger from my own eye. And wonder how Twilight Sparkle can be so damn happy with an entire HOOF in her eye.  

A bit of good news late last week: Vermont’s unemployment rate went down a tick in December, and stands at 5.1%, well below the national rate of 7.8%. State Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan called it “a strong ending to 2012,” and noted that private-sector jobs were up by almost 4,000 for the year. While acknowledging that economic recovery has been “slower than [in] prior recessions,” she concluded: “We are optimistic that economic growth will continue in Vermont as businesses and job seekers gain confidence. ”

So, good news. And it really is. But there is more to the story, as pointed out by those killjoys at the Public Assets Institute in a report entitled “More payroll jobs, yes. Economic security, not so much.”

To begin with, PAI noted that although the private sector did, indeed, create thousands of new jobs in 2012, “3,200 fewer Vermonters, including the self-employed, were working at year’s end.”

Private sector jobs up, total workforce down. Which means, presumably, fewer jobs in the public sector, in addition to setbacks for the self-employed. And then there’s this:

It will take another 18 months or more for Vermont to recover all the jobs it lost in the Great Recession. That’s according to a December forecast from the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP). Vermont shed approximately 13,000 non-farm payroll jobs from December 2007 to July 2009 and has regained more than two-thirds of them. The rest won’t return until the second half of 2014, says Jeffrey Carr, state economist and Vermont’s NEEP representative.

“It will take another 18 months or more…to recover all the jobs it lost in the Great Recession.”

If anyone in GMD-land ever wonders why I’m so mean to Bruce Lisman, there’s why.

After the jump: a reminder of Lisman’s skewed vision, and food insecurity hits six figures.

Lisman’s group, Campaign for Vermont, claims to be all about growing the economy and creating “more jobs than there are people.” Lisman claims to know the way to a golden age of prosperity. But it was his Wall Street buddies that put America in a hole so goddamn deep that it will take almost a decade to crawl our way out.

And lest you think Lisman learned anything from the financial world’s implosion, I shall remind you of this line from a 2010 speech in South Burlington:

This thing that happened to us in ’08 and ’09 was not the ordinary garden-variety recession. It was a Darwinian asteroid that hit us.

“This thing” that somehow just “happened,” this “asteroid” that fell from the sky. Wasn’t anybody’s fault, just one of those “things” that “happened.” Somehow I doubt that Bruce has learned any lessons from 2008.

So yeah, when I read that it’ll take another four years, at least, for Vermont’s economy to recover, then I think, unsoundly, of former Wall Street titan Bruce Lisman.

Finally, one more fact from PAI that illustrates the ongoing cost of 2008’s Wall Street Follies:

In November, participants in 3SquaresVT-Vermont’s name for the food stamp program-exceeded 100,000 for the first time.

There’s a milestone nobody wanted to see. It means that nearly one-sixth of Vermont residents live in households that can’t stock the pantry on their own. And, PAI notes, it means that…

…policymakers can’t just look at the number of jobs to see how Vermonters are doing. They need to focus on the quality of those jobs-including wages-and ensure that public services are adequately funded.