IT WAS A DELIGHT to see folks this past week at Town Meeting, and in particular to be able to put faces to email messages. Keep the messages coming; it is invaluable to have a sense of the issues and concerns that are of the greatest urgency to you.

I suspect that seeing school budgets that had little or no increases yet steep climbs in property tax was on the minds of many, but there are no signs that our current legislature has plans to seriously address the education funding system.

We remain very provincial in Montpelier. It is our budget – the general fund with its revenue shortfall – that has most of the focus this year. One critical thing to watch for will be costsavers for the state that will simply shift costs to towns, or take revenue from them.

This is crossover week: the deadline for regular bills to make it onto the calendar to be able to "cross over" to the other body, House to Senate and viceversa. It has particular urgency in the second half of a biennium, since bills that have not been taken up will die this year, rather than carrying over to the next year.

Since budgets all start in the House, the House committees handling the state general fund budget, the capital budget, and the transportation budget will all be hard at work "marking up" (working through final language) this week.

The Senate will be sending the House a proposal for balancing the unemployment fund over a several year period, spreading the costs between employer contributions and employee benefits.

The House, on its part, is stiffening penalties for "misclassification" – identifying employees as independent contractors and avoiding unemployment insurance payments – and creating an insurance compliance and fraud task force

There is also the "miscellaneous tax bill" being drafted in the House Ways and Means Committee that fiddles with language and rate adjustments. One example in this year’s bill is a clarification that permitting snowmobile trails across a property does not affect the assessed value of the property.

The proposal to create a single department of public safety with all state law enforcement divisions (adding fish and wildlife, motor vehicle and liquor control) met with resistance, and a revised version, setting up channels for stronger coordination and efficiencies, is on the House floor for action this week.

The major initiative on restructuring the state’s judicial system is due for completion in committee this week. The committee’s chair, Rep. Bill Lippert, has sent out early notice that there are many changes that have been made from the original proposal by the Chief Justice’s Task Force, although still keeping the targeted $1.3 million in savings to the system.

This year’s major renewable energy bill is in the final stages of markup in the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

The General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee is receiving final testimony on a bill that, as introduced, would require electrical work to be completed by a licensed electrician, including in owner-occupied single family homes.

While I understand the safety concerns, I also know how much a do-it-yourselfer can learn to do with complete safety. I did all the electrical work in my cabin, and 20 years after I built it, there has never been a single problem. I, and many other Vermonters, wouldn’t be able to afford to build our own homes anymore if much of the work is mandated to be done by professionals.

On the other hand, a friend installing a new fixture in his home didn’t see the point of turning the circuit breaker off as long as the wall switch was off – a project scope that would remain permitted as a homeowner project. Just about anything can be as safe or as dangerous as common sense makes it.

Under the radar thus far in the Senate Government Operations Committee is a bill that, as introduced, would allow nonprofit "compassion centers" to cultivate and provide marijuana to persons who are certified in Vermont to use marijuana for symptom relief for specific serious illnesses. It, too, is scheduled for mark-up and committee vote this week.

The process of bill mark up is one of two places that major changes can happen to a bill between introduction and its path to becoming law. Unless you track it every day (and there could be a dozen or more in play in various committees), there is no way to know what direction it is heading until it reaches the "notice calendar" on the floor.

That does at least give several days of public notice on the final language.

(It is later in the process that more serious mischief can occur. In final weeks, in the conference committees hammering out the differences between House and Senate versions, entire bills are sometimes tagged onto others. This may mean no committee testimony, no review by both houses, no opportunity to offer amendments, and a single vote to accept or reject the agreement.)

If there is a topic that you’ve heard is brewing, I’d be happy to track it down for you. It could be a bill that no longer resembles its original form, or where rumors have taken a false hold.

I recently received an inquiry from my brother in New Jersey, asking about a Vermont bill that he had heard about in the Internet. It would have charged a $500 fine to anyone who did not own a gun. I tracked down the source. It actually was once a bill – introduced 10 years ago by a one-term representative.

Any representative can introduce a bill, but that’s a long way away from it becoming law.

The end of April will be here before we know it. Please stay in touch on any areas of concern. You can leave messages at 485- 6431, 828-2228, or counterp@tds.net, and I will get back to you as soon as I am able.