The Vermont Legislature is back in session and many folks are very interested in what Vermont's citizen legislators will prioritize this session.
The first order of business is for the Legislature to elect the governor behind closed doors. Because neither incumbent Peter Shumlin nor challenger Scott Milne received 50 percent of the vote, it goes to the Legislature.
But what happens after that is critical. Let's hope legislators take up Vermont's education funding system and fix the spiraling. The issue of revamping this seriously broken system is so far overdue as to be shameful and its problems go hand in hand with the state's ever-rising property taxes.
It's hard to even think about health care and the embarrassing rollout of the state's health care exchange. That was pretty bad and thankfully there seems to be some political will to fix that debacle, given that the governor dilly dallied about the untenable single-payer system until after the November election.
But let's also take a long hard look at how the state permits alternative energy installations and communications infrastructure. Right now the Vermont Public Service Board has the authority, for example, to authorize a 90-foot broadband tower on one of The Valley's most recognized and most beautiful hills.
VTel is applying for state approval to put a 90-foot tower on the ridgeline at the top of Bragg Hill. And the town of Fayston and abutters currently have little say about it.
Despite a Town Plan that prohibits such towers above 1,700 feet and on scenic ridgelines, the public service board can trump the wishes of the town as expressed through the Town Plan. The town and the abutters can apply for party status and can be heard, but essentially they have no teeth and no ability to affect or impact the deliberations of the public service board.
This is wrong and it is playing out throughout the state with telecommunications towers and wind towers. Certainly the state has a vested interest in these issues, but its vested interest should not outweigh the ability of towns and communities to determine their own fate or to protect their high-elevation ridgelines or scenic viewsheds.
Let your legislators know where you stand on these issues.
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