School funding, the presidential primaries and Vermont Yankee’s future were only some of the stories in the news this week. The cost shift between Medicare and private health insurance was examined, Congressman Welch spoke out for alternative energy, and the Senate passed a domestic violence bill.
Here’s a listen back to some of the voices in the news this week:
House set to debate "two-vote" school budget law
(Tax Commissioner Tom Pelham) "The education lobby has been hard at work to undo this because they know that in this bill there is real cost containment and real promise for property tax relief."
Fierce debate over repeal of education spending law 2/29
(House Education Chair Janet Ancel) "What we’re proposing now is not a retreat from cost containment what we’re proposing is a more effective way to do it it’s a way to do it that respects local decision making that builds on a proven mechanism that allows school boards to plan."
Welch supports repealing tax breaks for oil companies
(Congressman Peter Welch) "Are we going to embrace an alternative energy policy that is going to allow us to a) protect our environment, b) to create jobs and c) to give us much more flexibility and independence in foreign policy. This legislation is a step along the road of a new energy policy and a new future for this country."
Senate passes domestic violence reduction bill
(Senate Majority Leader John Campbell) "Domestic violence is something that we like to think happens in someone else’s neighborhood, happens to somebody else. But it doesn’t. It happens in our neighborhoods."
Study: Medicaid cost shift is driving up private insurance premiums
(Jeanne Keller, a health policy analyst) "The problem is not that we put people on Medicaid but that the Legislatures and the governors have never budgeted enough to pay for it. They don’t keep up with inflation for Medicaid reimbursement to providers … They’ve been starving the providers and the providers have no recourse but to charge the private insured higher rates."
Administration wants to scale back lawmakers’ review of Vermont Yankee
(Entergy spokesman Brian Cosgrove) "The bill … calls for a 23,000-hour, $6 million study at Vermont Yankee of virtually, apparently, all of the same kind of safety systems that have already been looked at."
(Bob Stannard, Citizens Action Network) "When the tower collapsed, it rocked the faith and foundation of the people of this state. And they need to know, what’s the status of this plant?"