Here's a brief video that gives a good explanation of the adverse impact of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on American democracy.
The Effects of the Citizens United Decision
Is Bank of America a Person?
According to the Supreme Court it is, the same as you and I are.
In 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the Citizens United case, which essentially endowed corporations with personhood under the Constitution of the United States. This gave corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts of money from their coffers to try to influence elections. This ruling, combined with an earlier ruling that equated monetary expenditures in a political campaign to speech, directly threatens the concept of democracy, that is, rule by the people.The founders of our nation guaranteed citizens the right to speak freely and voice their opinions in public forums. This right was given to citizens. They even looked critically on corporations, limiting their existence in the early years of our nation to 20 years. This is no longer the case, and corporations, created through and governed by laws, can easily outlive generations of humans.
The Citizens United case slammed the door on provisions in the McCain-Feingold Act that limited the amount of corporate contributions to political campaigns. Granting a non-human entity created by law the same rights as human citizens runs contrary not only to the intent of the Constitution, which was written to protect citizens, but also to common sense. This ruling effectively drowns out your voice and my voice and the voices of millions of people because the CEO of a corporation can now spend unlimited amounts of corporate cash to influence elections.
If you think this is a problem, you can have an opportunity at Town Meeting in March to register your disapproval. Petitions are being circulated throughout Vermont to have a resolution on the agenda in as many towns a possible to urge Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution to declare that corporations are not persons and that money is not speech. You can find and sign this petition for Charlotte at the Old Brick Store, at Spear's Store, and at the library, Senior Center and Town Office. You can also print, sign and circulate this petition here. Then return it to the Town Clerk's office by January 6th.
Let's put Vermont on the record opposing corporate personhood and save our democracy from turning into a corporatocracy.
VT Public Service Commissioner Liz Miller Discusses Energy
Preview of 2012 Session
As we enter the holiday
season, Vermont’s state legislators are getting ready for the 2012
session that will open on January 3rd. While there are a number of issues that will
have carried over from this year’s session, the extreme weather events of 2011
will be foremost on the agenda.
House and Senate members were
called back to Montpelier on November 10th to hear reports on the
status of the Hurricane Irene recovery effort, the Green Mountain Care health
system planning, the economy and fiscal situation, and the Comprehensive Energy
Plan. The good news is that the repair
of the damage done to state roads will cost a lot less than was originally
expected, about $185M instead of $550M.
Also, for the first three quarters of the year state tax revenues were
up. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie
Sanders led the effort to restore disaster relief funding in the U.S. Senate,
and Congressman Peter Welch organized a bi-partisan coalition in the House to
do the same. The result is that federal
funding will reduce Vermont’s share of the restoration to about $40M. However, the effect on municipal revenues as
a result of tax abatements due to property losses compounded by the additional
costs to local roads is considerable, and the loss of state tax revenues
post-Irene has not yet been determined.
These are factors that we hope will be known by January. In all probability we will have to budget for
both spending cuts and revenue increases.
The 2011 session resulted
in a number of significant pieces of legislation that have implications for
2012. The Green Mountain Care Board has
been meeting and is in the process of analyzing and mapping out a strategy that
will be presented to the legislature in January. The Energy Bill of 2011 required two reports,
a state energy plan and a biomass evaluation report, to be completed and
presented to the legislature by the end of the year. The Department of Public Service has held
hearings throughout the state on its draft Comprehensive Energy Plan. It is now reviewing more than 2000 public
comments that it received and will have the final report ready by January. The non-governmental Biomass Energy Research
Group has been analyzing the capacity of Vermont and nearby states for
sustainable harvesting of low-grade biomass to be used as a source of renewable
energy generation. There have been three
new biomass electric generation plants proposed for southern Vermont which will require legislative approval before they
can be built. Two plants, one in Ryegate
and the McNeil plant in Burlington, have been operational for decades in
northern Vermont.
I very much want to know
what concerns and thoughts my constituents have, so I will be holding a general
information session at the Town Office on Thursday, December 8, at 7:30
PM. I invite you to attend and let me
know what’s on your mind that the legislature needs to address.
Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan Presentation Nov 30 in Charlotte
Transition Town Charlotte and the Charlotte Congregational Church are hosting a community conversation about Vermont's 20-Year Comprehensive Energy Plan with Representatives Bill Lippert and Mike Yantachka on Wednesday, November 30, 7:00-9:00 pm, at the Charlotte Congregational Church (map). The presentation material was developed by the Vermont Department of Public Service and can be found here:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo/reports/Legislative%20Briefings/2011_11_10_Miller_Vermont%20Energy%20Future.pdf. For info contact Kathy Blume, kablume@gmail.com, 802-233-5856.
Rep. Yantachka will also be hosting the Live@5:25 Chittenden County Democrats Show on Burlington's public access TV station CCTV Channel 17 on Monday December 5th at 5:25 PM. His guest will be Department of Public Service Commissioner Liz Miller and the topic will be the CEP. This call-in program can be streamed live at http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/live-at-525.
State Treasurer Beth Pearce Discusses Vermont's Fiscal Situation
Vermont State Treasurer, Beth Pearce, recently appeared on the Chittenden County Democrats show on Burlington's public access TV, Channel 17, with Bob Hooper, Chair of the Chittenden County Democratic Committee, and Rep. Mike Yantachka (Chitt 1-2). The segment can be viewed at http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/beth-pearce-vermont-state-treasurer.
Hooper started the discussion by commenting that the state pension funds seem to be in good hands. Treasurer Pearce described the status of the state's pension funds to be growing over the past two fiscal years despite the poor economic conditions. They earned an interest rate of 18 and 20 percent in 2010 and 2011 respectively. This fiscal year, which started on July 1st, has proven to be more volatile, but Vermont's pension funds are expected to be in the top five performing state pension funds in the nation.
Another topic that was addressed was the missing property database managed by the State Treasurer's office. this database lists individuals and organizations that have been identified as having unclaimed property, either cash or objects, that have been turned over to the state. These may be closed bank accounts, uncashed checks, or abandoned safe deposit boxes, for example, for which the owners could not be found. Recently, additional proceeds from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company were identified as a result of a state audit, and the Treasurer's office has initiated an ad campaign urging people to check the website to see if their name appears. Some states have reciprocal agreements, so newcomers to Vermont may find money that they have coming from when they lived in another state.
The Treasurer's office also sponsors a program called MoneySmart which helps parents talk about money to their kids to encourage good money habits. Finally, Treasurer Pearce talked about the challenge facing lawmakers in the upcoming session to balance the budget in the face of repairing the damage caused by hurricane Irene.
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