Vermont: Peter Shumlin

Legislative leaders laid out a "framework" for their 2010 budget today.

The gist:
- $33 million in new revenues, including $24 in new taxes. Among the tax increases that would be considered - expanding the scope of the sales and use tax, raising income tax, raising rooms and meals taxes.
- Getting $14 million out of state payroll. Senate President Peter Shumlin wouldn't say that means not layoffs, but he said there wouldn't be 600, as Gov. Jim Douglas proposed. They would also look at cutting state contracts.
- Relying on $153 million in stimulus money.

They laid out some changes in the way government runs - nixing the Commerce agency, restructuring public service, etc., but it was not entirely clear on first blush that these would add up to the certain savings they would need.

It's the first look at where legislators are headed. Have at it.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Vermont House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, has been working the phones for the past few days, trying to get other House speakers to join him in a letter to Congress about the pending stimulus package.

He'd said he had called speakers in Maine, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, New Jersey -- to name a few. He had hoped to have a group letter ready for delivery at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Then he heard that the U.S. Senate and House had essentially reached agreement on the stimulus package -- just a day after the Senate passed its version.

That was unexpectedly fast. And it short-circuited Smith's effort to try out some speaker muscle.

Vermont's Senate Judiciary Committee convened Thursday for the first of more than half a dozen hearings set to examine the state's dealings with Michael Jacques, who has been charged with kidnapping and murdering his niece, Brooke Bennett, in June.

MONTPELIER -- Although he's not facing a Democratic opponent right now, Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie doesn't expect that his path to a fourth term will remain clear for much longer.

"I assume that I will have a strong, well-funded opponent," Dubie told PolitickerVT.com last week. "But competition makes you stronger and I'm looking forward to a spirited campaign."

There has been speculation over potential Democratic challengers for the state's No. 2 job but nobody has yet to make a formal announcement.