The largest hospital has proposed a wide ranging deal with the Green Mountain Care Board.

After months of private negotiations, plus a request to transfer state land to Waterbury picks up steam in Montpelier.

And Vermont's education secretary is now one year into her tenure.

We discuss Zoe Saunders pivotal role in the state amid big changes to the national education landscape.

All that and more ahead on Vermont this week.

From the Vermont public studio in Winooski.

This is Vermont this week, made possible in part by the little Rock Foundation and Millom Travel.

Here's moderator Mitch Wortley.

Thanks for joining us on Vermont this week.

I'm Mitch Wortley.

It's Friday, March 28th and joining us on the panel this week, Alison Novak from seven days.

Lisa Scarlatti from the Waterbury roundabout and Lexi Krupp from Vermont Public.

Thank you all so very much for being here.

I want to start off with a little bit of an update on a story that we were talking about last week, and this has to deal with the motel voucher program in Vermont.

The governor and lawmakers were talking about a possible compromise.

It has not happened.

There will be no deal on that.

So evictions will start as planned on April 1st.

However, the state does plan to keep family shelters in Waterbury and Williston open a bit longer into the early part of June.

And of course, this is a story we're going to be talking about well into the future, so we'll keep you updated on that.

Just wanted to give you the latest on that story.

We are going to start though with some news about the UVM Medical Center and the Green Mountain Care Board reaching a tentative settlement here.

Lexi.

And you've been reporting on this, and this has to do with.

Again, this is the largest hospital in Vermont.

They went way over budget and they had to deal with some things or else they were going to be penalized.

What happened?

I want to step back for sure, because it's helpful to understand that hospitals in Vermont are really tightly regulated.

So they submit budgets every year with how much their income is going to be expenses to the state regulator called the Green Mountain Care Board.

And for a business usually more revenue, that's good.

You know, solid financial footing.

Great.

One would think.

But for a hospital, I think you have to remember from the state's perspective, more revenue is not necessarily good because where is that revenue coming from?

It's coming from Medicare and Medicaid and commercial insurance companies.

Something I feel like I think I talk about every time I'm here is that we have a really big issue right now with, commercial premiums.

So when you have hospital revenues increasing, that's, you know, they're seeing more patients, that that's directly linked to insurance premiums going up.

So zooming in on what happened with UVM Medical Center last year, they made $53 million more than they had agreed to, with the state regulator, the Green Mountain Care Board.

The year before that, they made $80 million more than they had agreed to.

So lot of, surplus revenue here.

Not the same as profit, but but it's it's, you know, part of why we've seen insurance premiums go up and up and up.

So, this week, the there was this deal that the medical center, hospital leaders and actually two members of the Green Mountain Care Board have been working on for for months.

They had they said, you know, over a dozen meetings, and that's because, you know, hospital went over budget.

The state regulators have said, okay, you know, you're going to have to, in essence, like pay some of this extra money back, potentially.

They were sort of thinking about what their enforcement action would be.

And, and the hospital said, you know, instead of that, let's, let's do this other thing, which is, we can pay $11 million to primary care practices in the state, $12 million to Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is the state's largest insurance company, which is in a lot of trouble by the way, sorry to interrupt, but yes, they need that money.

Yes.

And then, up to $15 million to consultants and to a independent liaison, to basically look at how can UVM and she, be more cost efficient.

So, so that's, that's the deal they put forward and the Green Mountain Care Board is okay with that plan about for the money that they're going to vote next week.

You're going to vote on Wednesday.

Two members of the board worked on this plan.

So they're probably okay with it.

You know, they they talked about this really as a trade off.

They said, doing this means that there's less potential for, like direct, Rate decreases so directly like giving money back to, to Vermonters who, pay into the private, you know, commercial insurance pool.

But at the same time, there's this ongoing litigation.

UPMC is engaged with, saying, you know, we think these enforcement actions could be unfair.

So they're saying, all right, it's less, potentially less money back directly to ratepayers.

But, you know, there's some really good things in this deal.

There's a lot of money to, primary care practices, which we really need.

There's a lot of money to the, insurance company, you know, that you mentioned that we really need.

So, so I think some of them are certainly going to be a yes.

We want to go for it on this deal.

And, some of them, you know, it's yet to be seen.

And before we move on from this, Lexi, it's important to note, too, that this, experience of UVM making this much money, not profit, as you said.

But most hospitals are losing money in Vermont.

You've reported on some of the smaller hospitals.

This is not their experience.

What I find really fascinating about this is the $11 million that that is being offered to the, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Vermont's largest insurer.

But they need a lot more money than that.

Don't they?

I mean, we're going to be touching on this because if they go under this, the state is in serious trouble.

Yeah, they lost, over $60 million last year.

And that's just because they're saying, like, the money that we are paying out, for claims is more than we are getting in, for premiums, even though premiums keep going up by so much, you know, it's double digits for the last three years in a row.

I think last year it was like over 20% for, some businesses.

This is under, Vermont.

This is on the state marketplace.

So, that's you know, very public, data available, but, it's sort of a good representation of, of other, increases that you'll see at like, you know, your, your place, your business or whatever.

And again, the Green Mountain Care will vote on this next week one way or the other.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they, they just wanted to take a week, to allow for public comment.

So, people can, you know, they're asking, asking anyone in Vermont to, weigh in on on this deal.

Okay.

Of course, we're watching a lot of things that are happening out of Washington, D.C., which could affect Vermont.

There's been talk at the federal level about eliminating FEMA, the federal emergency Management Agency, altogether.

Here's what Governor Phil Scott had to say about that.

Red states, blue states, all across the board, all of us have needed assistance from the federal government in our time of need.

So if this means, you know, complete dismantling, no funding, that would be detrimental for most every state we've reported a lot about, the problems that FEMA has had getting money out locally after disasters.

But again, the governor making it clear there that he does not want to see FEMA eliminated entirely.

Now, Lisa, least this is not directly relating to FEMA, but lawmakers are considering a state land transfer in Waterbury.

That and this does deal with some flooding issues, right.

What can you tell us about that?

It does, although I have to say the news from FEMA this week was very disturbing.

I can guarantee you that anybody who's working in long term flood recovery, when they hear that, it just sends a chill down their spines.

Because even though the floods were last year and the year before, there's still plenty of people, who have claims that have appeals and are still waiting to get made whole by FEMA.

And they could be coming again, as we know, with climate change.

Well, it's not a matter of of of if it's just a matter of when.

So the fact that FEMA could be potentially, you know, on the chopping block, is definitely not good news for the people who still are expecting to have their claims paid by FEMA.

But, not related to a FEMA claim.

However, is this proposal that, the folks in Waterbury, the the town government has had discussions now for, oh, a good ten plus years since Irene, which was 2011.

On how to try to mitigate the impacts of flooding from the Winooski River on the the neighborhoods closest to it in Waterbury and the downtown.

And there's a project that they've been talking about now, that they have now gone to the state to ask the state if the state would transfer ownership of close to 50 acres of what's called the cornfield in Waterbury.

We didn't realize it had a name.

At town meeting, our state representative, Theresa would, found that its name was Randall Meadow, and we actually dug up some history on that as to who Mr. Randall was.

And we published a little story about that.

But anyhow, there's there's a piece of land along the Winooski River that floods and has been building up and building up with sediment and deposits with these most recent floods especially, and the neighborhood directly adjacent to it just keeps getting hit and getting inundated.

And the neighbors there are watching this field get filled with sediment.

And one of the projects that they've reviewed with hydrologists, and that the data that they've seen is that by carving out a larger floodplain through this field and basically bringing it down a few feet, would basically create more room, more space for the water when there is a flood, that could potentially protect the neighborhood, the downtown and South Main Street and ultimately the state office complex, which is right nearby.

Right.

Interestingly, when the state complex was rebuilt after Irene, they tore down 20 some buildings at the backside of that, they built this beautiful new building, and they reshaped the land between the complex and the river along the same lines.

And so in the last few floods, the complex has been relatively untouched.

They've had flooding in their parking lots and that sort of thing.

But the buildings have been okay.

And so what the town would like to do is they would like to do a similar project adjacent to the neighborhood that's adjacent to the complex.

And, you know, they've been talking to the state about this over the years, but this hasn't been a priority for the state to do themselves.

And so they made the case to the House institutions Committee last week to say, look, if we had control of this land, this would be a top priority for us.

And what are the chances you think this will happen?

I mean, it doesn't seem to be a lot of opposition to it or is there?

Well, you know, it made it.

The committee agreed.

Ultimately.

So the House committee that, puts together the capital budget bill, ended up putting it in the capital budget bill.

But that is one of the big bills that the legislature passes every year.

So that's one of the final ones that clears the finish line.

So it still has to go through the process.

It has to go through the Senate.

There's always a conference committee with that, with that bill at the end.

I know the town officials are pretty happy to see it get included.

It's it's a transfer.

So it's not like the town is paying the state for this money for this land.

But they're also looking at a significant investment of they think it's probably going to be somewhere, at least in, in the seven figures.

To do this project.

Not small change, not small change.

And it might have to be done in phases over time, but they feel like they need to.

The town is better equipped and better likely to start chipping away at this to see some progress.

And they made the case to the legislators too, that whatever happens in this field will ultimately help benefit the complex as well.

Okay, thank you for the update on that story.

If you want to find out more about Vermont's new Education secretary, Zoe Saunders, check out Seven Days Allison Novak.

She wrote a lengthy profile about Zoe Saunders.

You got to sit down with her and really take some time to get to know her a little bit.

I'm curious what you think are some of the big takeaways from that discussion with her.

You know, it's been a contentious, let's say, roller coaster ride for her.

Amazing.

It's been a year already since she's been in the position after being first opposed, by lawmakers.

What, what did you come away with, from talking to her that you feel like are some of her biggest challenges, let's say?

Well, first, I'll just have to say it was a little bit challenging writing a profile and getting that time with her.

She's a deeply private person.

And I think a lot of that has to do with the reception she received when she first came to Vermont.

She said that one of the things that she most regrets is having a picture of her and her husband and kids, that was then put on the governor's website and included with news articles and how you know, there are these negative headlines about her and her lack of experience in schools.

And her little kids cute faces were accompanying those stories.

And so I think she's very guarded about really revealing a lot of personal details.

But I was able to talk to some of her friends from Florida.

And.

Yeah, sit down with her a couple times.

And I think, you know, she's walking this very, like, hard tightrope right now.

So she's coming in trying to kind of shore up an agency that's been struggling for a really long time.

So the agency of education, like in terms of the expertise, it's been kind of hollowed out over the past, I don't know, probably 20 years.

There's also, you know, surveys that show there is really low morale within the agency.

She's she's coming trying to kind of like, better the agency.

But she's also now tasked with selling Governor Scott's very controversial, school transformation plan.

And she's kind of the public face of that.

She's been, you know, for the last couple months going to all the legislative committees and presenting the plan.

And so I think it's a hard position to be in.

You know, she did this listen and Learn tour in the fall.

And I think a lot of people I talked to said that was a great idea.

You know, she was going around to different parts of the state to meet people, to kind of introduce herself and see what people's concerns were.

But then about a month after that tour wrapped up, she presented this plan to the legislature to completely revamp the governance and, financing of schools.

And I think people feel a little bit like, did you really listen?

Because if you did, I don't think you would have presented this plan with a lot of consolidation as part of the plan, a lot of things that are kind of unpopular, in the state of Vermont, it probably didn't help either, that she was coming from the state of Florida, which is known for things like school vouchers, and their education system.

It's kind of a strike against her before she even got here.

Yeah.

And it's interesting because she was very clear, you know, she was a charter school, executive.

So she was a strategist for this for profit charter school company, which ran, about 80 or 100 schools in some southern states.

And so I think people really were skeptical of that.

But it was interesting because in kind of talking to her more about that and talking to some of her friends, you know, they said you know, she didn't send her kids to the charter school.

She sent her kids to the local public school.

She described herself as a lifelong Democrat, you know, appointed by a Republican governor.

So she said to me, you know, in some ways I feel like I'm the most apolitical secretary, because of that.

But the, you know, reality is that she's been put into a very political position.

And so I think, you know, that's a hard role to be in, and to, you know, earn the trust of people in the field, no question about it.

And you really again, check it out in seven days.

It's a really, complete profile of where and what she's trying to do and about the education system that she is trying to get Vermonters to sign on to, along with Governor Phil Scott and on that front, Lisa, there was, an education forum recently that was happening.

What was discussed there?

Yeah.

Well, just this past Monday, there was a forum in the at Harwood Union High School where, Secretary Sanders appeared and was not expected.

Our local legislators put together a forum for the community to come and talk about this very plan that Alison's talking about here.

And we had, so our, our House representatives from our district, and our three Washington County senators were part of this, and they wanted to hear what people had to say.

And it feels like, you know, this plan that's out there is kind of a long way around answering the conundrum that we all saw last year when all the school budgets went down.

Our school district took three votes to pass its budget last year.

And as a result, the election that followed, there were a lot of lawmakers that got replaced in the legislature with people really beating the drum about needing to have their taxes be more affordable.

And so that's kind of where, you know, the community members are looking at this right now, and they're looking at this plan thinking, how will this make things more affordable?

It was an interesting, discussion because they basically had 100 people in the auditorium and 100 people on zoom.

We didn't expect to see the education secretary there.

So that was sort of a surprise.

And people wanted to hear from her.

They asked about, you know, is their presentation, and they directed people to the website, on the education department's website for the plan.

And then people just started, you know, sharing their thoughts.

And it feels like, you know, there's not a huge widespread understanding of the plan.

That became clear.

Secretary Sanders, on multiple occasions during this discussion, would, would, you know, direct people you need to go back and look at the plan of the plan doesn't say this.

It says that.

And so a lot of what she was trying to do was to try to bring a little bit of clarity around some of the points.

But people really sort of glommed onto the, the plans, the plans sort of, you know, map that shows five school districts ultimately in the state of Vermont, replacing dozens and dozens of school districts that we have now.

And that really struck a chord.

People also were, very concerned about health care and the rising cost of health care and how that's now permeating our school budgets.

And that's a big part of what we're having to pay for from our own taxes, as we're paying for education.

And the governor, it sounds like he wants to get something done sooner rather than later.

We were talking last week on the show about, committees that are being formed and subcommittees are going to study this.

The governor says I will not support adjourning this session without a bid to transition, to a new funding system, establish a new governance structure that unlocks transformation, and includes a specific implementation timeline.

All these steps are necessary to improve equity, maximize efficiency, achieve educational excellence, and be cost effective for taxpayers, says Governor Phil Scott.

It doesn't sound like he's going to let the legislature even adjourn.

Alison.

Right.

If I mean, if he can prevent that from happening before something gets done here.

Yeah.

And the House Education Committee this week has been hammering out a bill.

They've been working kind of 9 to 5, hammering out a bill.

That would kind of slow things down a bit.

And so I'm thinking this might be what he is referencing.

In terms of, you know, wanting to move a little faster.

And so the House education Bill, what it would do is it would establish a subcommittee of about five members that would, meet over the summer and fall, and they would be responsible for kind of drawing some maps and, and figuring out districts.

They'd have to present three plans to the legislature in December before it reconvenes, for the next session.

And, you know, the committee, I think, would be made up of people who are real experts in the field.

So administrators, maybe, you know, researchers who've kind of studied this issue.

And so that is part of their proposal.

And it will be interesting to see, I think, planning to pass out that bill today.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to it.

And if it meets resistance in the Senate.

And with the governor.

Yeah.

And to Lisa's point to, you know, this is all complicated by the other factors like health care costs to come into this.

It's very difficult to create something when you're dealing with all of these other things.

Lexie Krupp, I want to, talk about a story that you were reporting on, which fascinates me because Amazon and we all know Amazon.com, the huge, retailer that send you everything from.

Yes, you want to get it?

Apparently, there is no Amazon distribution facility in the state of Vermont, but there's one proposed now for Essex.

You went out and heard some community reaction to that.

Safe to say not super positive.

Yeah, yeah.

So this was a development review board meeting last week in Essex, that I went to.

And, there is this area that's already been approved for, industrial development in the town.

And one of the proposals now is for an enzyme distribution facility.

It would be the size of two football fields.

It would have about 500 parking spaces outside of it.

And it's off, River Road and Essex, about five miles from 89, within a mile of the Winooski River.

And people are not happy about it in town.

At least the people who showed up to this meeting.

And it was packed, you know, the room someone was like, what's the capacity in here?

Like, I'm going to call the fire department because, yeah, it was.

And it and, you know, this meeting started at 630.

There was first an application of another developer, and the, the Amazon facility, that application, they didn't start talking about it until 9:00.

Public comment didn't start really until 10:00.

So people were there late.

Really the big concerns that people have is things like that or.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely traffic.

You know, a lot of people are saying like, this is this is far from the interstate.

It's you know, we're we're it's it's near this intersection that doesn't have a light.

There's already, traffic concerns here.

And then there were broader concerns about, working conditions at Amazon distribution facilities.

Concerns about the, long term commitment of the company that we just saw, seven distribution facilities in Quebec closed, after one, place had, workers were starting to unionize.

And, concerns about environmental concerns about the project.

A lot of, you know, impervious surface above the Winooski River.

Yeah.

I'll, I'll sort of ran the gamut.

I did notice you got a great quote from one woman who was there saying, like, if you think, you know, the 50 or maybe there was 100 people I don't know that are here now we're objecting.

There's going to be a lot more.

We're going to fight you every step of the way.

I'm paraphrasing what she said, but it sounded like the opposition was very, very serious.

Yeah.

Lisa Scarlatti, I want to ask you about, Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland.

Hands is responding to something.

You know, President Trump has issued a lot of executive orders.

We want to make clear the executive order that he issued is not the law.

It does not mean that this thing that he says he wants to have happen is going to automatically happen.

However, he had floated some ideas about changing the way people register for elections, that kind of thing.

What did the Secretary of State have to say about that?

Well, you're right, an executive order is sort of a proclamation, I suppose.

Right.

And sort of it's an intention from the chief executive as to what he would like to see happen.

And this executive order that came out, regarding elections would really change elections across the country, federal elections, in terms of how they're administered, how they're run, and to have sort of common standards across all the 50 states when people come to vote.

And one of the one of the examples is, you know, for people to have to prove that they're citizens in order to vote, which is not something that's widely done right now.

It's certainly not done in Vermont.

And so, Secretary of state on a couple hands has had a, statement that came out pretty soon after this.

It wouldn't surprise me if this becomes a subject of yet another lawsuit from the state of Vermont.

Attorney General Cherry Clark has been very busy responding to a lot of these executive orders.

But the secretary of state is, she called it, you know, fundamentally degrades the integrity of our elections.

To do this and to basically ask people, especially for the citizenship piece alone would be a huge burden on voters, on elections officials.

You know, how many people have their birth certificate handy, right?

How many people have changed their names, especially women, during.

We actually have this up on our prompter here.

The statement she said, we need to call this executive order out for what it is an effort to disenfranchize voters, intimidate election workers and defund the functioning of our democracy.

So Sarah Copeland Hands is not at all happy about that.

we're watching a lot of things that are happening out of Washington, D.C., which could affect Vermont.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it will begin to restrict Canadians access to a library straddling that international border, too, due to a continued rise in illicit cross-border activity.

The front entrance is in Derby Line, Vermont, but for 121 years, Canadians have enjoyed free access to the library, using the front door without having to go through customs.

Canadian officials and representatives of library decried the decision last week, and residents of both communities gathered outside the library to express their dismay at this.

There is so much going on.

We'll talk about it more next week.

We're going to have to leave it there for now.

Thank you to our panel today.

I was Novak from seven days, Lisa Scarlatti from the Waterbury roundabout.

And let's pick her up from Vermont Public.

Thank you all so much for being here.

I'm Mitch, but I hope you join us again for Vermont next week.

This week, next week.