Anita Hill in Burlington for MLK Day

Anita Hill is coming to Burlington, Sun., Jan. 17 at 3pm.

She will be the featured speaker at the Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sun., Jan. 17 at 3pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Pearl and Church St. in Burlington, VT.

Also featured will be Danny Eason and the Abundant Life Choir from Montreal.

I'm proud to be a board member of the Greater Burlington Multi-Cultural Resource Center who is producing this event, under the leadership of Patrick Brown.

Free tickets available at Fletcher Free Library, City Market, and the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington. For more information, contact 802-657-4219.

Health Care -- what's your take?

All Vermonters deserve affordable health care. That's my take on it. How we get there is the big question.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to email them to me, post a response here, or come to the State House for public testimony.

Date: Tues., Jan. 12, 2010

Time: 6 to 9 pm

Place: the floor of the Vermont House of Representatives

Key questions to address:

1. How can we meet our health care goals?

2. What are the most important criteria that Vermont's health care system should meet?

3. How do specific bills or proposals address, or not address, these criteria?

Pay cut for legislators

The issue of $$$ and the tough times will likely dominate this year's legislation in Vermont.

The bad news: we start the year with a $150 million deficit, or 15% of our budget. Yikes.

But already we've begun working across parties. While it's a drop in the bucket, legislative leaders agreed to a symbolic 5% paycut for legislators, bringing our salaries near $9,700/year.

Also identified is a proposal for $38 million in savings by making government more efficient.

We have much more work to do to close the gap. But one thing I'm heartened by is that we have a tremendous track record on in Vermont as being the rare state that always balances our budget. We'll find solutions, and as always, I'm open to hearing your ideas.