Town Meeting Day and the Vermont presidential primary commanded a lot of our news attention this week. But we also learned about an affordable housing bill and an effort to start a community cooperative for high-speed Internet service. Here’s a listen back to some of the voices in the news this week.
Clinton supporters say support for war hurt candidate
(Former Governor Madeline Kunin) "I don’t think Hillary Clinton could have run a campaign – even if she wanted to – based simply on change. She had to establish her credentials as every woman does when she applies for a job."
Iraqi delegation attends Richmond Town Meeting
(Richmond Moderator) "You may have noticed a group of individuals entered the meeting. They are from Baghdad, Iraq, here as part of the U.S. Department of State program. Welcome."
School budgets fare well on Town Meeting Day
(Jeff Francis, Vermont Superintendents Association) "When all is said and done, however, local school officials work to fulfill an obligation to both the taxpayers and to the children in the schools. And I think the conversations that we’ve watched develop over the past four or five years have led to pretty conservative budgets in challenging economic times. When we consider 4.36 percent [increase], I think that’s quite good."
Business community criticizes housing bill
(Tayt Brooks, Vermont Homebuilders Association) "There are a number of us here today who believe this bill will actually be a detriment to housing and actually have unintended consequences of actually making building here in the state more expensive."
Towns vote in favor of broadband network
(Jim Masland, East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network)" It means overwhelming support for what we’ve envisioned and put forward — interlocal cooperation among towns in Vermont, to bring about subscriber funded, universal access broadband services. And I can also say it’s indicative of what Vermonters do best, which is cooperate amongst ourselves when we need to get something done."