The same-sex marriage debate, a proposed fuel tax, the Yankee decommissioning bill and the University of Vermont women’s basketball team in the NCAA tournament.
These were some of the voices in the news this week:
Senate approves same-sex marriage bill (3/23)
(Windsor Senator John Campbell) "I look at what marriage is is a commitment. It’s about love. It’s about if you choose to raise a family, how you raise your children. Marriage, to me, should be inclusive."
Douglas will veto same-sex marriage bill (3/25)
(Gov. Jim Douglas) "I believe that marriage has always been and ought to remain a union of a man and a woman I believe that the Civil Union law has afforded equal rights and benefits under state law to same sex couples and that that should suffice."
Officials debate gas tax to pay for road repairs (3/26)
(Senator Dick Mazza) "We have declining gas sales in the state of Vermont, so you may be able to tax it, but is it going to bring the same amount of revenue one year from now that it’s bringing today."
Yankee decommissioning bill gets preliminary approval (3/26)
(Vernon Representative Patti O’ Donnell) "And we say oh wait a minute we don’t like this deal any more. We like the money it saved us over the last seven years but we don’t like the deal anymore. Now we want you to put the money into the decommissioning fund."
(House Natural Resources chairman Tony Klein) "Our choice should be to protect Vermont and Vermonters protect Vermont or protect a business plan of a 33 billion dollar out of state corporation."
UVM falls to UConn in first round (3/23)
(UVM Cheerleaders) "Rough ‘em up, rough ‘em up. Go Cats go!"
(Buzzer/PA announcer) "Today’s final score, Connecticut 104, Vermont 65."
(UVM basketball player Courtney Pilypaitis) "It’s just so much fun to be out there. This is the arena that everyone wants to play in, so just to be able to do that, that’s what makes it so fun and to get to play the sport you love."