(Black lady shot and killed last week for shoplifting at WalMart)

I never knew when I left you there

that I would never see you again.

They told me you were killed

in a misunderstanding about your bill.

Shot dead at the Courtesy Counter

when you argued about the special.

And when I got there they told me

I had to go to the Courtesy Counter too.

What the fuck am I going to tell the kids?

“Mommy died shopping for us?”

In the parking lot I saw them all

running big carts of shit to their cars.

I looked at the sky and wept.

And for that I got dirty looks from them.

I told myself this can’t be happening;

that life cannot be this meaningless.

What has made us into people who will kill

over products that won’t even exist next year?

Where do I go and who do I talk to about

why we should do something before it is too late?

Should I have asked them in the parking lot:

“Why do you have nothing to say?

“If it were your wife or child, would you

just load up the car and drive away?”

I will walk the streets now and ask people

to sign my petition, to help save us all.

And when I am arrested for it, when I am shot dead for it,

will the sky rain down the only tears?

Tears that won’t erase the horror

of how all of us let this come to pass.

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

Deb Markowitz, Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources:

We must address the causes of climate change and prepare for its inevitable impacts. We need to plan, and we need to act. Vermont has an opportunity to lead this effort.

Shap Smith, Speaker of the Vermont House:

“We are going to have to make very, very difficult choice choices around issues that involve our climate and climate change, and how it’s going to impact not only our economy but the way we live and the way our state looks,” Smith said. “We can’t shy away from it because other people are. We can’t say that because the rest of the country is deciding not to take action, that we will not.”

And Peter Shumlin, Governor of the Great State of Vermont:

“There isn’t a Democratic governor who doesn’t understand climate change is the challenge we must focus on like a laser,” he said.

Of course, the Governor used the same analogy elsewhere about a different issue:  “Shumlin also told House Democrats to “focus like a laser” on health care implementation.”

But never mind. The Governor, the state’s top legislative leader*, and its top environmental official were all talking about the same thing last week: a focus, laser-like or not, on fighting climate change.

*Ahead of Senate Penitent Pro Tem John Campbell.

I have to say, I like it. While the chattering class in Washington obsesses endlessly about the deficit, the truth is that climate change is a far more urgent threat. Even if you’re talking strictly dollars and cents: the way things are going, weather-related disasters will have a much greater impact than shortfalls in Medicare or Social Security or the alleged perfidy of the Chinese.  

What does this mean for legislation in 2013? As Peter Hirschfeld of the Vermont Press Bureau reports, expect a new push for weatherization of Vermont homes:  

“Where we’ve done very well in Vermont is efficiency that has anything to do with (electricity) running into the home,” Shumlin said. “I think where we have failed is in thermal efficiency, and I’m working together with my team to try to find ways to speed up our progress in thermal efficiency.”

The Ieglslature passed a bill in 2008 that set a goal of weatherizing 80,000 homes by the year 2020, a goal Shumlin is still hoping to meet. Problem: not enough funding. At his news conference last week, Shumlin conspicuously left the door open to a tax on home heating oil: while reaffirming his opposition to increases in “broad-based taxes,” he admitted that a heating-oil tax wouldn’t meet his definition of a broad-based tax.

And, judging from the general tone of the three leaders’ remarks, expect a strong continued push for renewables — including utility-scale wind. Shumlin, speaking last week at the Democratic Governors Association meeting in California:

“We’re harnessing the wind, our sun, our streams, and our fields to get off of our addiction to fossil-burning fuels,” he said. “It’s not only a moral imperative, but it’s an economic jobs opportunity. The industrial revolution created huge amount of jobs, the tech revolution created a huge amount of jobs – and this is the same thing.”

The Governor’s Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission is still a work in progress — it’s due to issue a report to the Legislature no later than April 30 — but if this flurry of top-level urgency on climate change is any indication, it’s hard to see how the Administration would be willing to slow down or significantly limit opportunities for expansion of wind and other renewable energy sources.

Shap Smith believes Vermont can be a leader on fighting climate change, just as it’s been on some social issues. I hope he’s right. Somebody’s got to do it, and it ain’t gonna be anybody in Washington.  

IBM just became a somewhat less attractive place to work. The outsourcing giant is changing how it makes matching contributions to employees’ 401(k) plans. Starting January 1, an employee’s payment will be made in one lump sum, on December 15 of each year. Currently, payments are made semi-monthly.

Which wouldn’t be a huge deal, except for one thing: IBM has been rapidly cutting its US workforce, making thousands of layoffs each year. The company has cut at least 30% of its domestic workforce in the past five years (we don’t know the exact figure because IBM no longer releases layoff figures or the size of its US payroll). And, if one very well-connected tech journalist is right, the company plans to cut even more aggressively in the next three years — reducing its US workforce by 78%.  

And if you get laid off anytime before December 15, you don’t get the matching contributions for that entire year.

The change in policy has angered IBM employees around the country, according to Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM, an employees union organized under the Communication Workers of America.

“People feel once again that IBM is picking their pockets,” Conrad said Friday. “Everybody knows IBM cuts jobs right up until November. If you’re not employed by December 15, you don’t get that money.”

There’s probably not much the union can do about it;  they don’t represent very many IBM workers, and they mainly serve as a watchdog. In the absence of official IBM releases, Alliance@IBM is the best source for layoff and outsourcing news.

Two other points:  

— Some observers of corporate 401(k) plans believe that other major employers may follow IBM’s example. It’s just one more way to take money away from workers and give it to shareholders and executives.  Er, ahem, I mean “job creators.”

— This change is especially troublesome at a company like IBM with a history of frequent layoffs. But it’s no great shakes for any worker; if your company adopts the same rule and you leave for a better job anytime before mid-December, you lose some of the 401(k) contributions you should have received.  

I can’t say I’ve cared much for the way in which location of the F-35’s at Burlington Airport has been promoted by the Vermont power base.  

It sounds too much like the manner in which ill-advised development projects have all too frequently been greased through the works on economic arguments, allowing things like “offsets” to inadequately address environmental impacts.

Put simply: I distrust the process.  

I have no definite opinion as to whether or not the F-35 basing should be accepted; but I distrust the process.  

There is something very uncomfortable in seeing the legitimate concerns of South Burlington persistently minimized by those who won’t have to cope so intimately with the impacts of a possible location.

Now we learn that South Burlington officials have been excluded from a planned junket to Florida to see and hear the planes in action.  

Here we have Frank Cioffi’s Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation and developer Ernie Pomerleau, footing the bill to fly Governor Shumlin, Mayor Miro Weinberger of Burlington, and Mayor Mike O’Brian of Winooski to Florida so that they can have a live encounter with the F-35.

That may make some sense for Mayor O’Brian, who maintains that he needs “more information” in order to sign-off on the plan; but if GBIC was planning the trip anyway, wouldn’t it have made more sense to bring along the City Council Chair of the airport’s home City?  

Seven Days quotes South Burlington City Council Chair Roseanne Greco who, with the majority of the Council, opposes the F-35 siting in South Burlington:

“I’d like to go only because I’d like to have the opportunity to sit down and talk with the governor and both mayors about the F-35,” Greco says. “Going to hear aircraft in another location that is still in testing to see if I personally find the noise too loud, too soft, just right, is, I think, a waste of time.”

Well, exactly.

You may recall that back in 2010, when the controversy first came to light, I speculated

Perhaps I have missed something, but so far I am unaware of any conversation about bringing the plane to South Burlington’s airspace for a demonstration of the sound experience in various modes, before the very people who will have to live with it.

There well may be constraints on the practicality of such a demonstration; but imagining that demos staged for a select and favorable audience in a location not remotely similar to Burlington should somehow serve to answer critics?  That’s utter nonsense.

Not only are the circumstances relatively valueless to the debate but the optics are terrible.

Get a clue, Gentlemen.

The Republicans in Michigan's legislature are turning the clocks back on decades of progress for workers' rights, as they prepare to take the final steps to enact Right to Work for Less legislation today.

To pass the legislation the governor and legislative Republicans engaged in blatant and high-handed departures from regular process. They released the bills at 11:00 this morning, moved the bills directly to the floor without holding any committee hearings, locked the doors of the State House to keep out opponents (a plan thwarted by an injunction obtained by organized labor), and are reported to have brought in seat-fillers to make sure there was no space in the chamber for the bills' opponents. Following the lead of Wisconsin's anti-union thugs, they also created a special exemption for police and firefighters to minimize opposition from supporters of public safety workers.

Why was it so important to ram the bill through today? Because the legislature is in a lame duck session and in the new year there would not be enough Republicans to pass it. 

I lived in Michigan for a long time and I hate to see this. People fought and risked their lives in Michigan to create the United Auto Workers. Unions are what made Michigan great. Unions, and especially the UAW, made it possible for working people across the state to enjoy the benefits of the middle class: homeownership, reliable health care, workplace safety, and higher education for their children.

Of course, these advantages come at a price to the Kochs and Devosesof the world, and as a consequence the ruling class took this opportunity to ram through this legislation and eliminate any chance for the workers to have a voice on issues that affect their lives.

While some procedural steps remain, the outcome is clear. Unlike in Wisconsin, Michigan lacks the kind of procedural rules that allowed the Democrats to delay passage of union-busting legislation, although Senate Democrats did walk out before the vote was taken. No, the bosses in Michigan have won. 

Went to the Governor’s weekly news conference today. Overflow crowd in the fifth floor meeting room. (But, just like in elementary school, an empty seat right next to the Governor.) The news in brief, followed by the details: Louis Porter becomes the latest addition to the Shumlin cabinet; Shumlin’s inaugural ball will instead be an “inaugural open house” with proceeds helping those affected by Tropical Storm Irene; a cool reception for a new lawsuit against Vermont Yankee; the backstory behind that Hewlett-Packard refund; and a continued opposition to any broad-based tax increases.

Porter Pots Top Post: Louis Porter will replace Alex MacLean as Shumlin’s Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs, a deceptively colorless title for a powerful job. Porter will serve as the liaison between the executive and Legislative branches. Or, as Shumlin put it, “he’ll be overseeing the administration’s agenda in the Statehouse, and ensuring that the Legislature does everything that we want, and should do.”

After Porter’s introduction, one of the assembled scribes stage-whispered “Poor bastard,” which got a nice laugh.

Porter is now Lake Champlain Lakekeeper for the Conservation Law Foundation; before that, he covered the Statehouse for the Vermont Press Bureau. After the presser, Porter entered his first scrum as an Administration factotum (his $72,000 salary may top the combined incomes of all those ink-stained wretches), and acknowledged that he had been very critical of Shumlin for allowing widespread dredging after Tropical Storm Irene. But overall, he said, “the administration and this governor are moving this state in a direction that is good… and to be a part of that is really exciting.” He’ll start his new job in late December.

Paying to see the Governor not dance: Shumlin announced that he wouldn’t have an Inaugural Ball to celebrate the beginning of his second term; instead, there will be an Inaugural Open House on January 10. “Every Vermonter is invited to join us in the Statehouse,” he said, “and we’re going to donate all the proceeds of the Open House to the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund.”  

Shumlin is hoping to give another boost to the VDRF, which has raised more than two-thirds of its financial goal of $10 million. “Over half of that amount has been raised in the last three months alone,” he said; most of that late money has been in large contributions from businesses, foundations, and wealthy individuals, plus proceeds from the continuing sales of the “I Am Vermont Strong” license plates.

Making a guest appearance at the old stomping grounds was longtime AP Bureau Chief turned National Life spokesflack Chris Graff, who serves as head of the VDRF. “Two years ago, people paid a lot of money to see the Governor dance. We think they’ll pay a lot more to not see him dance,” Graff said. He also pitched the license plates as a fine holiday gift.

“What we need to do right now is to keep the focus on Irene survivors,” he continued. One of those survivors, Ann Marie Bolton, was on hand; her mobile home was destroyed by Irene, and funds from VDRF helped her make a down payment on a new house and do necessary repairs. She just moved into the house less than a month ago.

The new lawsuit against VY: This week, the New England Coalition filed a lawsuit seeking the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Shumlin reiterated his support for closing VY but didn’t endorse the NEC action. Outgoing Public Service Commissioner Liz Miller said “we’re reviewing carefully” NEC’s filing:

It’s a complicated matter. My understanding is that the specific type of action the New England Coalition has filed hasn’t been used in the state in a number of decades. We’ve had our focus very much on the Public Service Board proceeding, because the federal district court was very clear last year that the Publc Service Board retains jurisdiction to decide whether to continue the operation of VY past the CPG that expired last March.

That set of hearings is coming up starting in February. …We continue to have our focus there, and from my point of view, that’s a good place to have our focus. …But meanwhile, we will look at what the NEC has filed and determine whether the Department will weigh in.

In short, Miller expressed uncertainty over the NEC strategy, and confidence in the administration’s course — pursuing closure of Vermont Yankee through the PSB.

Taxes and spending: Shumlin urged local school districts to hold the line on spending increases. This came after news that, if local districts don’t do so, the statewide property tax will rise by 5%. Regarding the state budget, he estimated that next year’s is about $60 to 70 million out of balance, and again vowed to hold the line on taxes. He said “one of the priorities of this legislative session is to balance the budget without raising broad-based taxes at all, and I would suggest that if some items in your budget go up, you find ways to cut in other areas.”

(He defined “broad-based taxes” as “sales, income, rooms and meals.” Coming off of a two-night stay at the Beverly Wilshire and its Michelin-starred eateries, I can see how he’d think of “rooms and meals” as a broad-based tax.)

This led to another story in the news this week: new requirements for stormwater treatment that will mean up to $100 million in new costs to local communities. “A lotta loot,” he noted, “and Vermont doesn’t have it. I care deeply about clean water in Vermont, and we’re losing that battle right now.” As the new chair of the Democratic Governors Association, he plans to make a strong case for more federal funding for water-treatment improvements, because local communities can’t do it alone.

“The entire [legislative] session will be about jobs and raising income for those who have jobs,” he said. “There are a number of ways we’re going to get there. The first is by balancing the budget without raising broad-based taxes. And I met with legislative leaders this morning and made very clear that I’m going to be as firm on that this year as I have been the past two years.” He believes that Vermont’s taxes are “too high, and we will stifle job growth if we increase broad-based taxes.”

Shummy’s buddies at HP: In something of a tangent, Shumlin talked about the events leading up to Hewlett-Packard’s $8.37 million refund to the state for a failed effort at modernizing computer systems at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I developed close relationships with the folks who run HP, and in that friendship I made clear my concern about the DMV contract. And I twice used those friendships to fly to California and meet with HP and explain to them why we deserved a refund. And it is through those relationships that we succeeded in getting that refund.

He recounted a series of meetings with HP “friends” starting one year ago, that led to the refund agreement.

When asked if there was a pattern of failed software and hardware upgrades, he said yes, but added that it’s common in both the public and private sectors to have problems with computer systems: “My business and many others often make investments in technology, some of which bear great fruit and some of which fail miserably. …Both public and private sectors struggle with IT investments that don’t pan out.”

He also said that he’d known the HP refund was coming since his most recent meeting with the company — back in July. He said it took this long to work out all the details. But I think it’s a sign of how confident he was about his re-election campaign that he didn’t try to announce the deal before November 6.  

An almost-forgotten item caused more stir than anything else at Governor Shumlin’s weekly news conference today. Just as spokesflack Susan Allen was bringing down the curtain, Shumlin remembered one more thing:

On Wednesday, I will be flying to Elgin Air Force Base with a group of Vermonters including the Mayor of Burlington and the Mayor of Winooski to listen to the F-35s. I have long said and told Vermonters that the best way to know how much noise they make is to stand there and listen to one.

…During the campaign, I committed to a number of voters who were concerned about the F-35. And I said, ‘When I have more time, I want to go listen to them.” And I am.

Checking the Google, I see it’s actually “Eglin” Air Force Base, down Florida way. (While you’re there, visit the Air Force Armament Museum!)

This announcement provoked a flurry of questions but not much more in the way of illumination. The Governor is a declared supporter of basing F-35s at the Burlington Airport. When asked by Paul “The Huntsman” Heintz if he might change his mind, he deadpanned “If I can’t hear you when I come back, I’m going to change my mind.”

When asked essentially the same question again a few minutes later, he replied:

I’ve been told by informed people that if you fly an F-35 properly, that the noise difference between that and what we’re currently flying in Burlington, the F-16, is not significantly different. I’d like to hear that for myself.

In other words, I’m keeping an open mind but don’t expect it to change.

Stay tuned for more news from today’s presser.  

 Bruce Lisman’s self described “centrist” Campaign for Vermont is still stocking the shelves with Republicans. Lisman added to his inventory the brand new public relations firm started by former Douglas administration spokesperson Jason Gibbs. Gowithgibbs.com is where the company’s webpage will be someday soon.

VtBuzz.com reports Gibbs’ “strategic communication and project managment business” has been retained by a variety of clients but only Campaign for Vermont is named.The biggest news here may be that, at least according to Gibbs the Campaign for Vermont has started to focus on policy.Color me doubtful that any specifics will ever be brought forth.

He [Gibbs] said, “The work CFV is doing to encourage non-partisan dialogue around the issues most important to Vermonters will be productive and help move Vermont forward. For example, while the governor and legislature are debating physician assisted suicide and marijuana decriminalization, CFV is focused on growing the economy, creating better jobs and eliminating poverty; improving education outcomes and increasing teacher pay; and making government more efficient, productive and accountable through transparency.”

His nibs young Jason Gibbs was last seen in the public spotlight in his 2010 losing a bid for Vermont Secretary of State. Prior to that he was appointed by Governor Douglas to the Vermont Department of Forests and Parks and most recently worked at Vermont Ski Association.  

So go with Gibbs, when your Campaign for Vermont isn’t able to.  

Earlier this week, the Department of Mental Health gave information to state lawmakers that indicated a sizable hole in next year’s budget: an increase in mental health expenses from this year’s $41.1 million to next year’s $61.5 million.

Now, DMH says there was a big oopsie in there. Vermont Press Bureau (article paywalled; published in the 12/5 Times Argus):    

Due to a spreadsheet tallying error, the actual expenses projected are $52.7 million for fiscal year 2014, said Mental Health Department Financial Director Heidi Hall during an interview Tuesday.

A better figure, to be sure; but did no one double-check the spreadsheet before giving it to the Legislature?

After the jump: the real budget hole totals $5.3 million, says DMH.

Anyway, that wasn’t the only bit of budget news. DMH also said Tuesday that much of the increased operating cost won’t be borne by the state, but by the federal government. The actual increase “in certain Department of Mental health expenses related to the restructuring of the state’s psychiatric health system” (to quote the VPB’s inarticulate but accurate phrasing): $5.3 million.

Which, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, means the feds will pick up more than half of the increased costs — which total $11.6 million, if my numbers (and the DMH’s revised spreadsheet) are correct.  So why the difference in federal dollars?

…a new psychiatric hospital in Berlin will generate millions more in Medicaid reimbursements that the state had previously lost as a consequence of the old state hospital’s decertification.

Score one for the new hospital. Still, DMH will have to seek a $5.3 budget increase to cover the higher costs of the new system, and that won’t be easy. But it’s a lot better than $20 million.

A reminder that all these figures are for operating expenses, not for construction. And the state’s price tag for construction is still up in the air, thanks to the ongoing dispute with FEMA.  

This just in:

Vermont, HP Reach DMV Settlement-

Gov. Peter Shumlin and Hewlett-Packard today announced an agreement to terminate for mutual convenience the contract to modernize the computer system of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles.

The settlement calls for HP to refund the state $8.37 million and the state to return to HP physical and virtual rights to all software and documents created by HP.  The state will retain certain components of the solution developed by HP, such as the point-of-sale system now in use, various equipment purchases and upgrades to DMV’s printing capabilities.  The refund reflects nearly the entire amount paid to the vendor.

The state and HP entered into the settlement agreement because they recognize that the DMV contract was flawed and that a mutual termination is the best path to resolve outstanding issues.  The legacy DMV computer system that has served the state for over 35 years remains functional and will continue to support the Department as the agency evaluates its options.

What was there for 35 years (1977: it’s as old as Star Wars!) ain’t broke, was designed well enough and made simply enough that it still works. I wonder what HP’s problem is?