Final Reading: Senate panel rejects proposal to change the color of snowplow lights

By Shaun Robinson

Apr 26 2023April 26, 2023

"I’m waiting for it, that green light, I want it!" Lorde, the New Zealand pop singer, shouts in the leadup to the chorus of her 2017 hit, "Green Light." I find that the song still holds up, some six years later — and while I’m not sure it's on many state officials’ playlists, it would make for the perfect soundtrack to a recent discussion in Vermont's Senate Transportation Committee.

The state Agency of Transportation has asked senators for permission to install green warning lights on its equipment, such as snowplows and other maintenance trucks. Currently, the agency employs amber lights — but it would rather have lights that flash both amber and green, said Todd Law, deputy director of VTrans’ district maintenance and fleet division.

Research shows that drivers are more likely to notice green lights on the road, Law told the committee, especially at night. Moreover, Law said, "amber is so readily available, and so heavily used" on other types of roadway equipment "that people almost become blind to it."

Vermont would not be the first state to go green. The Ohio Department of Transportation has used green warning lights since 2012, Law said; and in 2019, Maine started adding them to its plows. (I should say that Maine calls them "snowfighters," which is objectively cool, and VTrans ought to take note).

He added that VTrans would not ask for more money to pay for the new lights.

But committee members appeared nonplussed.

"I’m just confused as hell here," Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, the chair, told his colleagues. "Green means go."

Law acknowledged that Mazza's concern had been raised in other states, though noted that in Maine, a combination of green and amber has actually been shown to decrease the amount of crashes with road maintenance vehicles.

In an interview Wednesday, Mazza still hadn't warmed to the proposal, which VTrans had suggested as an amendment to this year's omnibus transportation bill.

"It's dead for this year," the senator said. "It didn't rise to the occasion."

Perhaps VTrans — if you’re reading this — a more exciting color could pique the committee's interest. Purple? Hot pink? The possibilities are basically endless.

— Shaun Robinson

A Senate vote in favor of a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco and e-liquid products was a priority for Health and Welfare Committee Chair Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast. When the chamber passed the bill in late March, she thought the hard part was done.

In previous attempts since 2019, similar bills made it through Lyons’ committee, but never got to the Senate floor. Now with just a few weeks until adjournment, she is still waiting for S.18 to appear on the agenda of the House Human Services Committee, where it was sent three weeks ago.

Read more here.

— Kristen Fountain

The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval to its draft of Vermont's $8.5 billion state budget on Wednesday by a vote of 24 to 5 — teeing up showdowns with the House, and eventually Gov. Phil Scott.

The upper chamber's version of H.494 echoes, in many key respects, the budget already passed out of the House. Both chambers, for example, want to spend substantially more on the Vermont State College system, human services, and child care — and to end a pandemic-era motel program for people experiencing homelessness.

But the House and Senate remain at odds about paid family and medical leave. And Scott has made clear he is adamantly opposed to the new (or higher) taxes and fees that Democrats across both chambers will need to pay for an array of new or expanded programs.

Read more here.

— Lola Duffort

The Senate Transportation Committee advanced an amendment Wednesday to this year's omnibus transportation bill that would authorize the state Agency of Transportation to either sell or lease the Caledonia County State Airport to a private company.

Agency officials asked for permission to sell the small Lyndon airport after Beta Technologies, the South Burlington electric aircraft manufacturer, said it was interested in buying the facility.

Both the Senate and House transportation committees took testimony this week from municipal leaders in Lyndon, who expressed support for the proposed sale — so long as they got to have a say in the process.

In response, senators are proposing that VTrans consult with the town before releasing a request for proposals from potential buyers, as well as before signing a final sale or lease agreement.

The transportation bill, H.479, is set to be discussed on the Senate floor Thursday.

— Shaun Robinson

Vermont's senior U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — whose 2016 and 2020 grassroots, progressive presidential campaigns led him to becoming President Joe Biden's chief rival for the Democratic primary nomination in 2020 — will not try again in 2024, he told the Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

With Biden having announced his 2024 reelection campaign on Tuesday, Sanders said he will instead throw his weight behind the incumbent president's bid.

"The last thing this country needs is a Donald Trump or some other right-wing demagogue who is going to try to undermine American democracy or take away a woman's right to choose, or not address the crisis of gun violence, or racism, sexism or homophobia," Sanders told the national outlet. "So, I’m in to do what I can to make sure that the president is reelected."

In his newfound position as chair of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sanders has in recent months had the influence in Congress's upper chamber to chip away at his long list of progressive priorities, which helped popularize his two presidential bids.

— Sarah Mearhoff

Vermont needs millions of dollars worth of school upgrades. Will the state help pay for them? (VTDigger)

Two buildings that straddle the Canadian border bedevil tenants and a health inspector (Seven Days)

Peter Miller, whose photographs documented everyday Vermonters, dies at 89 (Vermont Public)

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