Small bills, big impact

Less-sexy issues likely to be heard
January 4, 2005

By Candace Page and Nancy Remsen
Free Press Staff Writers

MONTPELIER -- Todd Sheinfeld of Waitsfield loves riding dirt bikes. The sound of a well-tuned engine "is a Stradivarius to me," he says.

Steve Gorelick lives in rural Walden, on a dirt road where all-terrain vehicle riders are seeking the right to ride. "The thought of that noise, year-round, is too much to contemplate," he says.

Gorelick wants the state of Vermont to keep ATVs off public land and roads. Sheinfeld insists people who ride dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles should be treated like snowmobilers, hikers and skiers, all of whom use trails on public land.

This month, Gorelick and Sheinfeld will bring their disagreement to the 2005 Legislature, asking House members and senators to pass laws reflecting their points of view about off-road vehicles.

They will be joined by Vermonters impassioned about issues from cigarette smoking to preschool education, all seeking action on their favorite bills from the 180 lawmakers who report for work Wednesday.

Debate over health care and Medicaid budget problems is expected to dominate the four- to five-month session that opens Wednesday. While that work goes on, however, dozens of smaller issues -- each important to a small or large constituency of Vermonters -- will be hashed out in Statehouse committee rooms.

Action is not guaranteed. Not every bill introduced even gets a hearing, but even small issues can make it onto a committee's agenda if they have the backing of Gov. Jim Douglas, a legislator or an activist group of everyday Vermonters.

Here's a sampling of five issues that have met that threshold test and are expected to be heard this year.

Reining in ATVs

Conflicts between ATV enthusiasts and those who dislike the impact of the vehicles have become so common that Douglas appointed a study commission this year.

The group made 24 recommendations, including mandatory registration, rider safety training and helmet use, more effective law enforcement and stiffer penalties for illegal use. With some dissent, the group recommended allowing connector trails on public land.

Douglas said last week he expects to ask lawmakers to turn many of those recommendations into law, but described himself as "resistant" to opening state land for ATV trails.

Sheinfeld, who is executive director of the Vermont ATV Sportsmen's Association, said his group will ask lawmakers to recognize that ATVs are here to stay, that "this is a legitimate form of recreation that adds value to Vermont."

He wants legislation that would crack down on illegal riding, but would allow ATV riders to "use municipal roads just like other vehicles" and allow riding on public land as part of a statewide, interconnected trail system.

Gorelick, the ATV opponent, said he, too, is ready to appear in Montpelier -- bearing several thousand signatures on a petition opposing off-road vehicle use on state land. He said too many ATV riders trespass, tear up the landscape or otherwise abuse the privilege of riding.

"Our attitude is they should prove themselves responsible before we consider opening state land," said Gorelick, who helped create a statewide group, Peaceful Roads and Trails.

Electric safety net

AARP wants to spark debate this winter on legislation that would require power companies to set up low-income electric energy assistance programs to help the state's poorest residents avoid losing electric service.

"We have a system where the only time people are going to get assistance is when they are going to be disconnected," said Philene Taormina, director of advocacy at AARP in Vermont.

Vermont ranked 50th among the states in a study of the affordability of electricity for low-income households, and yet, unlike all its New England neighbors, it has no safety net for those who struggle to pay to keep the power on in their homes.

The state's new energy plan identifies this problem and recommends a study of how to provide assistance. Taormina opposes further delay.

There have been previous attempts, she said. "I say, if not now, when?"

AARP will join low-income advocates to lobby for a program that would target financial assistance at the poorest Vermonters with the highest energy bills. Low-income customers would pay what they could afford, perhaps up to 6 percent of their income. Money to cover the rest of their bills could be raised through a charge on all bills.

Utilities welcome a chance to fashion a workable assistance program.

"We recognize that life is very difficult for our low-income customers," said Dorothy Schnure, spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power Corp. "We think it is important that something be done."

GMO liability

No advocacy group drew more attention in 2004 than opponents of genetically modified seeds. Their lobbyists camped out in the House Agriculture Committee, their red-clad troops packed hearing rooms and demonstrated on the Statehouse lawn.

They won a modest -- but first-in-the-nation -- law, requiring the labeling of genetically engineered seeds sold in Vermont.

They'll be back this year, this time pressing for a bill that would protect farmers who plant genetically modified seeds from paying legal costs and damages in lawsuits if neighboring farms sue because the GMO plants contaminated their crops. The measure passed the Senate last year but died in the House.

The proposed "Farmer Protection Act" is aimed at a situation in which pollen from a field planted with GMO corn drifts to a neighboring field where an organic farm is growing sweet corn. If the second farmer's crop is contaminated, he cannot sell his corn as organic and would suffer an economic loss.

Where should he turn for restitution? Not to the Vermont farmer, the bill says, but to the seed company that sold the seed.

Amy Shollenberger of Rural Vermont, an advocacy group, said GMO opponents haven't given up seeking a moratorium on planting the seeds in Vermont and they will continue trying to build support for that step.

"This movement in Vermont is broad and deep. Our ultimate goal is still a timeout from GMOs," she said.

Snuffing out cigarettes

Cigarettes will face attacks on two fronts this session.

The American Cancer Society and its friends in a tobacco coalition will renew their drive for a statewide ban on smoking in bars.

The Vermont Medical Society and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group will seek to mandate the sale of fire-safe cigarettes.

Bills to ban smoking in bars never left the starting gate in the most recent legislative session. In the House, Republican House Speaker Walter Freed made clear his opposition to the ban.

Freed retired and Democrats hold significant majorities in both the House and Senate, giving advocates new hope.

"I think this is the year," Tina Zuk, Vermont government relations and advocacy director for the cancer society. "I think it is a good sign that communities have started to pass their own ordinances."

Smoking is banned in bars in Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and Williston.

Health advocates also will press lawmakers to require cigarette manufacturers to sell only products that extinguish on their own if discarded or left unattended.

"Cigarettes are the leading cause of fatal house fires," said Jessa Block, policy specialist with the Vermont Medical Society. A report from the Vermont state fire marshal listed smoking as the cause of 23 percent of fatal house fires between 1999 and 2003.

In early December, a woman was severely burned and 10 people left homeless from a fire in a downtown Brattleboro building that fire investigators blamed on a smoldering cigarette.

New York began requiring fire-safe cigarettes in July and Canada's Parliament enacted a nationwide mandate in 2003. "If our neighbors could do this," Block said, "we thought Vermont should, too."

Mercury in crosshairs

A coalition of health and environmental groups has drawn a bead on mercury in consumer products with the aim of persuading the Legislature to ban what the groups consider to be "frivolous and obsolete uses."

Vermont led the way with the nation's first mercury labeling law in 1998. Products such as thermometers and fluorescent light bulbs must be marked as containing mercury to ensure their proper disposal. The law didn't cover products that use button batteries containing mercury.

Advocates want to close that battery loophole and ban mercury thermometers and thermostats, too. They also will push for tighter rules governing mercury in dental offices where it is used in fillings.

"We have to get off the toxic treadmill," said Ben Davis, environmental advocate with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. The campaign for tougher mercury regulation in Vermont is part of a New England-wide effort to promote the use of mercury-free alternatives.

Improper disposal of mercury can result in its release into the environment. Eating fish contaminated with mercury can cause damage to the nervous system, especially of young children.

While some businesses may balk at restrictions on mercury products, dentists expect to support provisions requiring proper handling of silver amalgam, which is used in fillings.

Peter Taylor, director of the Vermont State Dental Society, said amalgam is used less frequently because other materials are available to fix dental caries. Dental practices employ vacuum systems and traps to capture amalgam particles and the material is recycled.

"This would put in statute what we already do," Taylor said.

Contact Candace Page or Nancy Remsen at 229-9141 or cpage@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com and nremsen@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com