Hey, Man, That's My Ox You Just Gored

In the minds of its defenders, Act 250 is the essential first line of defense between Vermont as we know it and environmental ruin.  If you've got a problem with the state's comprehensive land use and development legislation, then you must be a rapacious developer and plunder, yourself; or, at best, an enabler.  Suggest that the permitting regime established by Act 250 might just be a wee-bit arbitrary and that the bill has made it hard for Vermont's economy to grow and for Vermonters to find affordable housing and you will be accused, at the very least, of wanting to "gut' what is routinely described as "landmark legislation." 

Okay,  then what is so special about a commercial compost operation that it deserves legislative exemption from Act 250 review?  Are we running critically short of fertilizer in Vermont?  Are the state's organic gardeners packing up and heading for Oklahoma to look for work in the oil fields?  Have we decided that all polluters are equal and some are more equal than others?

One wonders why the Intervale project in Burlington deserves a pass since the Attorney General has already found that the organization is in violation of some Act 250 provisions.  Could it be that the Intervale is politically very well connected?  So well-connected, in fact, that one could start chanting the tiresome old "appearance of impropriety" hymn.  For instance:

Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington Until was, until recently, "when she decided she would not return to the company after this lawmaking session ... the development director for the organization."

and

House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, farms on the Intervale site although he is not involved in the composting operation.

The legislation may also apply, immediately, to a Montpelier composting operation, called Vermont Compost Co. The business is owned by a man named Karl Hammer whose operation "includes chickens, mules, greenhouses, dogs, and mounds of composting food and animal waste that he works, sifts and sells as potting soil and other products to residents and farms."

Rep. Jon Anderson, D-Montpelier believes that Hammer should be spared Act 250's burdens.

"I have been up to Karl Hammer's property. I have been to the top of the compost pile," he said. "I view him as a small-business owner who is struggling. Let's stop arguing over whether Act 250 applies to composting and just say it doesn't."

Okay.  Let's say that.  In Vermont, that is how we roll.  Exempting Mr. Hammer and the Intervale -- or any other operators in the compost industry -- doesn't qualify as old-fashioned corruption.  Influence was not peddled; mostly because it didn't have to be.  We don't have that kind of problem in Vermont, though the advocates of campaign finance reform seem to think we do. 

Still, we aren't really as different as we like to think we are. We make laws and then drill loopholes in them for a culturally favored class; or we pass the burdens of those laws from one set of citizens to another.  We "income sensitize" the property tax and "cost-shift" health care expenses.  And it pretty much says it all that, in Vermont, when you talk about the "special interests," you are talking about people who make compost.

Comments

[GreggB]

This exemption stinks, what a bunch of horse poop. Nothing but a steaming pile of...
It is funny that VT's ruling class works in the dung industry. Why can't we have questionable legislative exemptions to support cool stuff like strip clubs or gambling? Perhaps a high speed monorail that runs on manure.

[Jon Harrison]

What's wrong with chanting the "appearance of impropriety" hymn in this case? Special favors for Intervale have a smell worse than that of the compost in question.

[Hunter Melville]

I like Anderson's (D-Montpelier) quote:

"I have been up to XXXXXXXX's property. I have been to the top of the YYYYYYYYY," he said. "I view him as a small-business owner who is struggling. Let's stop arguing over whether Act 250 applies to ZZZZZZZZZ and just say it doesn't."

Cool to know if I had had his acquaintance in the old days and he'd been to the top of my shitpile, I could have gotten an Act 250 exemption. Of course, I moved my business to New Hampshire. Damn! always a day late! Now the feds are giving exemptions on mortgages, when mine's almost all paid. The libs are giving out free health-care, when I paid for it for 20 years and, if I still had one, I could have stuffed my 4-year-old in no-cost pre-K day care! It sucks to be a baby-boomer! Or at least one who doesn't work for the State.

[David Usher]

Must remember that we have many favored activities in Vermont, to wit: dairying, organic farming, maple syrup production, historic preservation, pot smoking (small quantities only, please), opposing needed highway construction (the Circ, Bennington By-pass), why not add composting to the list?

Alas, logical and fair-minded thinking is absent from the list.

[Dan Allen]

And it pretty much says it all that, in Vermont, when you talk about the "special interests," you are talking about people who make compost.

Yes, to me it does say it all, though I suspect not in the manner you intended.

When the big, dominating special interests are working on handling waste productively, that is a good kind of special interest problem to have, relatively speaking. I would much prefer our privileged elite be making compost to the work done by the elites of elsewhere.

Once again, even as Vermont shows it might have a problem, with an appearance of impropriety among high government officials, all things considered, we live in an honest, down-to-Earth, blessed, happy, secure, comfortable place, at least for the foreseeable future.

Maybe I am reading in the wrong place, but where is the perspective? We sound like we are fighting over offshore oil drilling.

[Keith Komline]

Dan, who gets to decide who the "big, dominating special interests" are and who the "good kind of special interest" groups are?

[Jon Harrison]

The problem, Mr. Allen, is not that composting isn't a worthwhile thing. We all appreciate the value of manure, I'm sure. Ditto the Intervale itself, which clearly is an improvement over the junkyard the property once was.

The problem is that we have a law that severely restricts development in this state, yet the Speaker of the House feels comfortable advocating that the Intervale be exempted from that law -- because, in her eyes, the Intervale does good work. The fact that she has a connection to the organization she's helping doesn't seem to bother her one iota.

It's a blatant act of favoritism on the Speaker's part. It's also a slap in the face to other people and organizations in Vermont that do good things but can't catch a break, Act 250-wise, because they aren't part of the Speaker's magic circle of friends.

The Speaker's action has the appearance of a conflict of interest, and it should receive careful and intense scrutiny from the media and her colleagues in the legislature.