Will Vermont finally get paid family & medical leave, a higher minimum wage and legalized marijuana sales that are taxed and regulated by the state. Vermont House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (B-Burlington) discusses the politics and possibilities of the 2020 legislative session in Vermont. (January 22, 2020 broadcast)
Rep. Jill Krowinski, Vermont House Majority Leader
On April 12, 2017, hundreds of high school students from around Vermont descended on the Vermont State House to demand climate action in the second annual Youth Lobby Day. We speak with the student activists and the founder of Youth Lobby Day, Matt Henchen. (April 12, 2017 broadcast)
Matt Henchen, founder Youth Lobby Day, teacher, Harwood Union High School
Zoe Werth, Liliana Ziedins, Ellie Zimmerman, Duncan Weinman, Page Atcheson, and Vermont student activists from Harwood, Stowe, Hazen Union, Winooski, and Randolph Union high schools
This week, Vermont state representative announced four proposals to tax carbon while eliminating or reducing other taxes. One bill would replace Vermont’s sales tax with a tax on carbon pollution; another would return all carbon tax revenue to Vermonters through dividend checks; a third proposal would cut income taxes while doubling a tax credit for low-income residents; and a fourth bill would cut property taxes for education and replace it with a tax on carbon pollution. We talk with two of the bills’ sponsors about how Vermont could put a price on carbon. (April 12, 2017 broadcast)
Rep. Diana González, P/D-Winooski
Rep. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington
Vermont marriage equality trail blazers Rep. Bill Lippert & former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, outside WDEV after The Vermont Conversation, July 8, 2015.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could wed throughout the country. The avalanche that swept America actually began as a snowball high up in the Green Mountains in the late 1990s. In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in Baker v Vermont that the Vermont state legislature must craft a law granting all of the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples. In 2000, Vermont legalized civil unions, the most sweeping grant of rights to same-sex couples up to that time. In 2009, the Vermont state legislature legalized same-sex marriage, making it the first legislature to do so. We talk about Vermont’s role in the marriage equality revolution with some of the pioneers of that effort:
Former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, author of the groundbreaking Baker v Vermont ruling.
State Representative Bill Lippert, who led the fight for passage of civil unions in 2000, and same sex marriage in 2009.
Susan Murray, attorney with Langrock Sperry & Wool, who represented the plaintiffs in Baker v Vermont, along with attorney Beth Robinson (now a Vermont Supreme Court judge).
Stacey Jolles & Nina Beck, a lesbian couple who were one of three same-sex couples who sued the State of Vermont in the late 1990s in Baker v Vermont, catalyzing the fight for marriage equality in Vermont, and in the U.S.
Vermont Conversation 