The Necessity Defense of Capitalism      

Abraham Lincoln and many others in his time were against slavery. Yet they opposed its abrupt end on the basis of Necessity. To push for the abolition of an institution too entrenched to fail they feared they would destroy the economy and cause civil conflict. Thus, permitting the existing evil was necessary to avoid what they considered a greater evil, the collapse of the Union. This claim of Necessity betrayed millions of our fellow Americans, condemning them to shackles, suffering and death. And it did not prevent the loss of over six hundred thousand lives in the very war that was feared.
At Munich in1938, Neville Chamberlain and some Western leaders reasoned it was necessary for European stability to appease the Nazis in their territorial demands. This claim of Necessity for ‘peace in our times’ betrayed the people of Czechoslovakia and gave Hitler more time to build a military that led to a world war, costing millions of lives.
Today, Necessity argues in defense of an economic system that has turned against the people. Workers are paid poverty wages, go without health coverage and struggle to take care of their families while opponents of a living wage, universal health care and paid family leave say they are too costly; that business will go bankrupt. As they suck up the wealth of our country, oligarchs argue that environmental protections, banking regulations, worker guarantees, campaign finance reform, and economic, racial and gender justice will destroy the economy. Current capitalism, divorced from any past sense of domestic responsibility, preaches greed, winner take all, deregulation, slashing of the safety net, erosion of worker rights, environmental devastation, voter suppression, dark money campaign financing and income and wealth inequality. Capitalism, no longer pretending to be a partner in our collective political experience, has become the enemy of the people, destroyer of the American Dream.
For those who argue that today’s capitalism is too big to fail, that Necessity permits its take over of our democracy and that moderation is the correct response to evil, I suggest they turn to history for instruction.

                                               Fall 2019

Fair Share and Democracy
May 2018

In a time of increasing inequality, when workers have a decreasing say in our economy, the U. S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 is about to undo Vermont law and destroy our unions.
Either we hang together or surely we will hang separately, was Benjamin Franklin’s observation in our battle against George III; without solidarity, our American Revolution would have failed. Likewise, the only defense workers have against the power of corporations is to act together. The child in the coal mine, the garment worker in the sweat shop and the laborer on the factory floor learned that standing alone was futile; only through unity are employee rights secured. Now, however, the soul of labor, collective bargaining, earned in struggle and blood, faces extinction.
On April 25, 2013, I reported S.14, the agency fee bill, on the floor of the Vermont House. What subsequently became Act.37 simply states that any nonunion member of a public bargaining unit will pay a share of the cost for services rendered by the union on behalf of all workers, dues-paying member or not. An elected union is mandated by law to expend resources to represent all employees, regardless of affiliation, in collective bargaining, grievance procedures and other work related matters. No one is entitled to a free ride; the cost for such representation should be borne by all. Everyone is simply asked to pay a fair share for services delivered. Opponents argue, incorrectly, that in violation of the First Amendment, workers are being forced to join a union.
In our democratic form of governance, although we express various social and political opinions, we work together in accepting actions by our elected officials. And, assuming that each of us is equally represented, we contribute a fair share of financial support for our common good. Otherwise, without the unity that Franklin spoke of, we will have anarchy, which is what will happen when the court in the Janus ruling overthrows agency fee legislation. Vermont’s Act.37 will be discarded, labor will be further splintered, workers will lose their seat at the table with management, economic inequality will escalate and our democracy will suffer.
Back in 2013, when I asked a conservative colleague and close friend about the pending agency fee bill, he surprised me by saying he was going to vote for it. “Why?” I asked. “Because it’s fair,” he responded.
Fairness is what democracy is about.

Abraham Lincoln and American Labor
February 2018

As we honor the birth of our first Republican President ten score and nine years ago, and his struggle to keep us united, we wonder what his reaction would be to today’s greatest threat to our union, a divisive monetary gap between those who create our wealth (labor) and those who seize the profits (capital).
“And, inasmuch [as] most good things are produced by labour, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to those whose labour has produced them,” according to him in 1847.
Human progress from the beginning is a story of work: Hunter-gatherers in nomadic life foraging for survival, and then homesteaders raising livestock and working the soil. Families engaged in honest toil, banding together, creating tools, goods and services. With diversification came the need for a system of economic exchange and the origins of capital which, Lincoln concedes in 1861, is worthy of some protections.
“But it has so happened in all ages of the world,” he says, “that some have laboured, and others have, without labour, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To [secure] to each labourer the whole product of his labour, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government.”
And In 1838, he warns of inevitable threats from ambitious men who would use “the passions of the people as opposed to their judgement,” to undermine our democratic form of government.
Corporate billionaires, Lincoln’s ‘ambitious men’ of today, use  wealth, power, and control of government not to seek a ‘large proportion of the fruits;’  but to take it all. They siphon the toil of others into their profit margin games of hedge funds, economic gimmicks and stock manipulation. Meanwhile, they dole out to workers only what is necessary to keep them producing as long as they are needed. Freedom to move among jobs, protection from abuses, livable wages, on-job safety, workers rights, collective action, and all the requirements for a decent living are discarded.
It is difficult to imagine anyone who would be more offended than Abraham Lincoln by today’s Republican stance for unsafe, underpaid, voiceless, and forced labor. The only way for all of us to enjoy the fruits of our work, our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and the preservation of our democracy, according to Lincoln, is through “general intelligence, sound morality and … a reverence for the constitution and laws.”

Bait, Switch and Act 46.
John Moran

Property taxes are a top voter concern and during the 2014 campaign candidates promised to lower them. However, although tax reduction proposals were in the offing, once elected, legislators did what they’ve done in the past. They switched focus from funding to governance.
During my eight years in the legislature, I and others pushed for property tax reform while defending small schools, local control and choice. Now, in one biennium, taxes are going up and everything we protected is in jeopardy. Act 46 is the wrong law. Instead of lowering taxes it addresses problems that do not exist, while creating new ones.
The number of school boards is presented as a problem, when really it is a demonstration of Vermont grass roots involvement. The state wants autocratic, top-down control; the towns want democratic diversity.
Consolidation is offered as efficient, but puts small school districts at the mercy of larger ones on matters of choice, curriculum, governance and existence.
Complex education funding mechanisms, comprehended by few Vermonters, force voters to make precipitous decisions with limited understanding.
Schools with easy decisions to consolidate are given tax breaks at the expense of schools with complicated and difficult choices.
Although property taxes are a major concern, even proponents acknowledge that the act is not likely to lower them.
While denied publicly, the drive by many for consolidation is to close small schools, which are the life centers of our towns a school official told me, and the souls of our communities a town official said.
Little is gained by Act 46 and so much is lost.
So, in the 2017 legislature I and others first will push to eliminate homestead education property taxes, to be replaced by income based funding. Residential property taxes will be needed for municipal expenses only.
Then, we will begin to undo the damage, caused by Act 46. While not punishing those districts that, in good faith, moved forward in implementing the law, we will fight for those who have the good sense to resist it.
If you want to be part of the fight, join me.

Now is the Time for Worker Fairness
John Moran
October 14, 2016

Now is the time for fairness for those who create our economy: The ski lift operator, home care provider, waitstaff, groundskeeper, sales person, housekeeper and convenience store clerk.
A server in a small cafe tells me “I make $11 an hour, but I need more hours”. A  manager at a local ski resort says, “I had to work many years before I reached the beginning salary offered me elsewhere”.  “I work full time”, reports a single parent, “but still need public assistance to get by”. “Both of us work,” says a couple, “and it’s still not enough to pay the bills.”
  Many who work independently have enough control to secure decent wages for themselves and the workers they hire, but most who labor in the tourism, retail and service industries are subject to pay and conditions determined by others.
It is fair for those who start a business to expect a return on their investment; to those who take the risk should go the reward. Yet who really puts themselves on the line? The families who sign leases or take out mortgages, the parents who enroll their children in the local school, and all who connect with neighbors and create friendships. It is really the employees, along with owners of small businesses, who are locked into the community. For corporations a failure is no big deal, because they just take their money and go elsewhere; but for those committed locally business success is essential. A just return on their human investment calls for control of working conditions, including living wages and on-job respect.
Pay of at least fifteen dollars an hour is politically, economically and morally justified.
The Declaration of Independence asserts that we all have unalienable rights that are to be secured by government. Realizing that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with inadequate resources are not possible, for us not to legislate a living income for all Vermonters is political negligence.
As two thirds of the economy is domestic spending, paying workers a living wage is a positive for all; families have the resources necessary for a good life and more money is put into local circulation, which increases business activity and encourages the creation of new ventures.
Most importantly, what moral argument can justify any industry in Vermont not paying its service providers an income sufficient for  themselves and their families? Many socially responsible businesses already know that the wellbeing of staff is as important as profits. It is time for all of us to determine our economic destiny by supporting an economy that serves our values of progress while taking care of our own and pays all our workers what they already have earned, a living wage.

Financial Security for our Senior Citizens by John Moran

If I am a Vermont senior living on an insufficient, fixed income, I deal with difficult daily realities: Choosing between food or medication or between feeding myself or my pet; not going out because I can’t afford a vehicle and public transportation is unavailable; or, weighing carefully every purchase I make. My only human contact may be the volunteer who delivers Meals-on-Wheels. I am anxious about paying my property taxes or in constant dread that an unexpected expense is going to throw me into uncontrollable debt.
In the second oldest state, with 30% of our citizens over 55 (the fastest population increase being persons over 65) and many seniors finding living in our district unaffordable, financial security for my fellow seniors is to me a major concern.
Ideally social security, funded by worker contributions, provides for a decent retirement after a lifetime of labor. However, funding and distribution prove less than ideal and add to a growing economic inequality. During the work years, whole categories of employees, particularly women, are underpaid and thus receive less in retirement benefits. Meanwhile, the affluent, through regressive funding, do not pay their fair share. Upon retirement, the well-to-do have a variety of incomes and social security for them is supplemental, but for the not-so-well-off social security is survival.
Enemies of social security want to weaken the program, lessen benefits, decrease cost-of-living adjustments and remove government control. Arguing that Americans are living longer, they want to raise the benefit eligibility age, ignoring that it is the rich, not the low income workers, whose longevity is increasing. Hard working Vermonters, who often bring the aches and pains of years of physical labor and limited survival years into retirement, need a lower eligibility age.
For retiring Vermonters, we must continue our government controlled social security program with increased benefits; an eligibility age returned to 65; a more comprehensive medicare (open to 55 year-olds) which includes lower drug prices; supplemental payments to bring everyone to a livable income; and, full commitment to all community services, such as home delivered meals, in-home supports, senior centers, guaranteed transportation, safe public accommodations; and, consumer fraud protection. For Vermonters still in the workforce we need increased contributions from higher income participants, and for lower income workers a living wage, equal pay for women, paid sick and family leave, reasonably priced housing, publicly financed health care, debt-free education, affordable day care and a state sponsored retirement program.

Do not go gentle into that good night, says Dylan Thomas to his father.
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Let us not go gentle into underfunded retirement, but rage against a system that has so many of us struggling to achieve what we contributed to, a comfortable, productive and happy closing of our years.

My best years

My best years, the last twenty-seven, have been living in Wardsboro, married to Chérie, step father to Emi and Eri, and sharing our home with a number of Cairn Terriers. From my arrival in town, on advice from my late father-in-law Tim Keeler, I’ve been involved in various community activities: health officer, Fourth of July Parade, select board, school board and four terms as our state representative to the Vermont House. Looking out for our town and our district has always been my reason for public  service, and so actions by the state legislature over the last two years have caused me  concern.
My eight years in Montpelier protecting community control of eduction, small schools and choice have been jeopardized by Act 46. Instead of lowering property taxes which was the clear call from voters in the last election, the legislature diverted attention to governance, addressing problems that did not exist, while adding complications and confusion to the work of our dedicated school boards.
The results of the March presidential primaries demonstrate voter dissatisfaction  with present economic conditions, and while the legislature continues a quest for elusive good paying jobs, it overlooks the challenges of the current, underpaid creators of our district economy, the housekeepers, ski lift operators and service and retail employees.
To look out for our own, hard working families and students in our town and district, to fight for a livable wage for all and community centered education, and to continue my commitment to work with you at home and for you in Montpelier, I am running to retake the Windham-Bennington House seat. I ask for your support in the primary in August and the general election in November.
Thank you, John Moran, Wardsboro.

Bucketville News — July, 2106

$15 Minimum Wage

Rights and Democracy
Press Conference
March 9, 2016
Cedar Creek Room

Every town in Vermont voted for Senator Sanders in the recent Democratic primary.

Like Bernie, people are angry.
Oppressed by a rigged economy.
Working harder, longer hours for less pay.

Especially those in the retail, tourism and service industries.
The salesman, the waitress, the handy man, the chambermaid, the house keeper, the nursing assistant, the home care provider.
The creators of our economy and providers of our human services.
By use of head, heart and hand every one of them already earns a livable wage.
They're just not paid that.
Through wage theft, they are relegated to servitude.

No business that does not pay a livable wage, according to FDR, has a right to exist.
And I say that no business is entitled to tax considerations in Vermont that does not create jobs that at least pay a livable wage..

In a country where twenty individuals possess as much wealth as one hundred, sixty-five million Americans, it is safe to say that our economic system is not working.

It is time to join Rights and Democracy and Senator Bernie Sanders in a call for economic/social justice and environmental sanity.

And let us start with a livable wage of at least fifteen dollars an hour for all Vermonters.

Vermont Revolution

Now is the time for Vermont to join Bernie Sanders’ political revolution: To go from the 1776 guaranteeing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, through the New Deal creating the middle class, to today’s delivering the American Promise to all. According to our Declaration of Independence, government is instituted to secure our unalienable rights, and in a democracy, government is guided by our cultural, social, ethical, political and economic values. Although no value is superior, at the expense of the others, a robust economy is essential to our Vermont revolution.
During the Eisenhower years, by intentional actions, we came close to a just economy: A shrinking gap between the upper and the middle class, decent paying jobs, strong unions, thirty-year mortgages toward home ownership, secure retirements, and a better future for our children. Many in the nineteen fifties, however, were left out, including minorities, the poor, and the disenfranchised. And now, from the seventies, through Ronald Reagan to today, an ever widening income and wealth gap leaves most of us out. Restoring the middle class will not complete the American Promise. As long as we acknowledge an upper and a middle class, we acquiesce to an abandoned lower class.
Capitalism is the servant of democracy, not her master. Arguments for free markets and limited governance contradict the active role our independence declaration assigns to government. An unregulated system, that institutionalizes unemployment, inequality, and poverty, or that sustains itself (particularly in the service and retail sectors) by under paying its workers, is ethically unacceptable, and demands corrective acton. Our economic system does not determine our destiny; we, the people, do.
Consequently, in the first phase of our revolution, we will advance toward a prosperous Vermont with focus on three interrelated areas:
Fair working conditions: No business has a right to exist, according to FDR, that does not pay its workers a livable wage, nor does any industry that reduces its employees to servitude. Given that 70% of our economy comes form domestic spending, mandating a livable wage for all Vermonters not only does right by our workers but also creates a cash flow crucial to business success. Added worker protections, health care, paid sick leave, and other benefits give the true creators of our economy (waitstaff, home health providers, domestic help, ski lift operators) the resources necessary for full and productive lives.
Job creation through infrastructure expansion: Arguably the greatest public works project in our history (the Eisenhower Highway System), did not come from a trickle-down, limited-government minded president. This bold, nation-wide infrastructure program, which contributed to the post World War II prosperity, can serve as a model to boost Vermont’s economy by employing prevailing wage workers to enhance our transportation, energy, and telecommunications infrastructure, that will in turn attract businesses with good paying jobs to our state.
Progressive taxation: To promote the American Promise we must provide public safety, social services and cultural opportunities available to all Vermonters through equitable, progressive taxation. Income, whether from labor or investment will be assessed equally, tax exemptions will be based on the common good, and business incentives will go only to employers who create sufficient, livable  wage jobs.
In these times of severe economic inequality, it is time for our revolution to make the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness real for all Vermonters.

Acceptance Talk
Murphy Labor Award on September 3, 2015
John Moran

Once upon a time

Labor and the Democratic Party walked together in a grand journey for all Americans. When Woodrow Wilson pushed for the right to vote for women, he turned for help to labor. When FDR wanted support for the New Deal, he turned to the unions. When LBJ wanted civil rights legislation, he turned to Walter Reuther and other labor leaders.
Along the road we have posted landmarks for the good life: the forty hour work week, eight hour workday, overtime pay, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, family and medical leave, occupational safety, collective bargaining, the minimum wage and child labor laws.
In post World War II, it seemed that we were arriving at our destination of the American Promise: strong union membership, secure employment, a thirty year mortgage on a home to raise our children who would have lives better than ours.

Then side paths and road blocks separated us.

Many who achieved the American Promise went off on social and environmental paths, and those denied that promise charted independent courses.
But our real challenge has come from right wing roadblocks: Reagan firing the air traffic controllers, unionized industries moving to antiunion locations, the growth of nonunion service and tourism jobs, austerity and budget cutting, and the systematic hostility, not only to labor, but to all of us with denial of climate change, refusal to fund reproductive rights, thwarting voter registration, opposing campaign finance reform and doing everything possible to increase income and wealth inequality.

Time for us to regroup.

Perhaps we should be thankful to the right wing for spewing forth positions that unite all of us in opposition.
We will march for publicly financed universal healthcare, labor’s right to organize, the honoring of collectively bargain agreements, environmental protection, a woman’s right to equal pay and reproductive choices, a teacher’s right to strike, care for the ill and disabled, and livable wage jobs available to all Vermonters.
In solidarity, we will be the voices for economic, racial, gender, social and environmental justice.
My gratitude to the Democratic Party for this John Murphy Memorial Labor Award, and to all of you for letting me be part of this journey for all Vermonters to achieve the American Promise.

Common Benefit Budget

     “Putting together a budget is never an easy task,” according to the governor in a recent letter, as he likens the state to families deciding between “groceries and medicine,” so to “live within their means.”
  Vermont statutes state: The budget should “be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people...and recognize every person's need for health, housing, dignified work, education, food, social security, and a healthy environment.”
  Continuing a seven year downward spiral, the budget bill reduces funding for home fuel assistance and weatherizing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, libraries, pre-K, community high school, Reach Up, VT Legal Aid, health care, public health, autism and geriatric programs, state employees, developmental disabilities, and adult day care. House Republicans go further, wanting to cut or get rid of property tax rebates; health insurance assistance; pharmacy payments for elders; labor negotiated health care plans; childcare subsidies; state college funding; substance abuse recovery centers; psychiatric and substance abuse designated agencies; and, grants to the Vermont Humanities Council, the Vermont Council on the Arts, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the Vermont Women’s Commission. They would also privatize the state psychiatric hospital and the Vermont Veterans’ Home.
  The task before us, to live within our means, may be easier than the governor suggests. Numerous proposals, alone or combined, from the Public Assets Institute, state employees, the Workers’ Center and others offer structural fiscal changes to reverse seven years of negative budgeting, turn state deficits into surpluses and lighten the tax burden on working Vermont families.
  Raising the minimum wage to a livable level translates immediately to increased consumer spending (two-thirds of our domestic economy), enhanced income tax revenues and decreased public assistance spending.
     Expanding workforce training supports higher worker pay and expanded economic development, which increases state revenue and decreases expenditures.
     Eliminating tax credits to businesses that do not create substantial, good paying jobs, redirects state resources to more productive uses.
     Returning state spending to the benchmark of gross state product (sum of all the goods and services produced and sold in Vermont), which is dramatically increasing, more than offsets current and future budget deficits.
     Broadening the sales tax to include services lowers the rate on goods and enhances state revenues.
     Reconfiguring the progressive income tax brackets based on actual ability to contribute lowers taxes for middle and lower income Vermonters while adding to available state revenues.
     Publicly financing universal health care eliminates insurance companies and greatly reduces costs to the state and all Vermonters.
     Taxing capital gains at the same rate as labor income values the contribution of working Vermonters and moves in the direction of economic equality.
     Placing a cap on deductions a taxpayer can claim limits losses to state revenues.
     And, finally, instituting a wealth-based assessment with an increase in the inheritance tax returns capital to the common good and reduces inequality.
  Besides complying with law, the state budget is a moral document, defining who we are and how we provide for all of us. No Vermonter should have to choose between groceries and medicine.

Taking Care of Our Own

       A 90 year-old Florida man risks 60 days in jail and a $500 fine for feeding the homeless. “Drop that plate right now," the arresting police officer orders Arnold Abbott of Love Thy Neighbor as he hands food to a hungry person.
“Wherever this flag’s flown,” sings Bruce Springsteen, “we take care of our own.”
The purpose of government, whether state or national, is to protect and empower.
In Vermont, we protect and empower through our motto, freedom and unity.
        For freedom from insecurity, we protect with police and fire departments, environmental and fiscal regulations, and monetary safety nets. For freedom to prosper, we empower with infrastructure, economic and workforce development, and cultural activities. Through unity in our budget, we must determine the needs of all Vermonters, and then, equitably, raise necessary revenues.
Our budget is a moral document. It states who we are; instead of arresting a ninety-year-old for feeding the homeless, we take care of our own.

WOMEN, WORK and the FAMILY

When President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, it was a different world than it is now. Work and family responsibilities were more gender determined, with men making up more than two-thirds of the workforce, and women predominately being responsible for the family. Today, women comprise half of the workforce, are still the primary family caretakers, and continue to be paid less than men for the same work. With today’s growing economic inequality, women also are more likely than men to be single parents in minimum wage jobs. Negative consequences for women are immediate in their struggle to provide for their children, and long term in their decreased social security benefits, seventy-five per cent of what men receive.  The fundamentals of human existence center on work and family, each interrelated and dependent on the other. Just as our state needs to be business and worker friendly, Vermont needs to balance the needs of earning a living and raising a family. To ensure gender equity, the General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee of the Vermont House, of which I am vice chair, continues to put forth legislation that creates a fair work environment for all Vermonters. The Equal Pay Act calls for the same pay for men and women performing jobs with similar responsibilities, experiences and training. It encourages salary transparency and prohibits retaliation against employees who oppose any unlawful employment practices. The law also requires employers to consider reasonable employee requests for flexible working arrangements. The Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act requires an employer to provide an employee, who is a nursing mother, appropriate private time and space to express breast milk. The Earned Paid Sick Time bill, which will come up again for consideration in 2015, calls for earned accumulated paid time off to be used when an employee or family member becomes ill. This legislation is important because a great number of the sixty-thousand Vermonters who don’t have this protection are single mothers in low paying jobs. When illness strikes the wage earner or her child, the mother has a choice: Go to work ill or send the ill child to school, or stay home and lose a day’s pay. For public health and financial reasons, none of these outcome is acceptable.  Raising the minimum wage and permitting the forming of unions by direct care and day care providers particularly benefit women who predominate in these low paying jobs.  In a national setting where Congress and the Supreme Court appear to have more respect for the personhood of corporations than women, it is with satisfaction that I can be part of our moving forward in Vermont to create a just balance between work and family, and fairness in employment for men and women alike.  For anyone with questions or comments, please be in touch by mail at 58 Hi-Hopes Road, Wardsboro, VT 05355, by phone at 802-896-9408, by Email at jmoran@leg.state.vt.us or by website at johnmoranvt.com.  Thank you,State Representative John MoranDover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham

Livable Wage And A Healthy Economy

LIVABLE WAGE AND A HEALTHY ECONOMY

     President Franklin Roosevelt stated in 1938: “No business which depends for its existence on paying less than living wages ... has any right to continue in this country. By living 
wages ... I mean the wages of a decent living.”

     Pope Francis, in 2014, called for “general temporal welfare and prosperity ... and above all employment, for it is through free, creative, participatory and mutually supportive labour that human beings express and enhance the dignity of their lives. A just wage enables them to have adequate access to all the other goods which are destined for our common use.”

     Henry Ford spurred the economy in 1914 by raising his workers’ daily wages to $5. Later he explained “We were building for the future ... A low-wage business is always insecure.”

     A fair economy insures, through our labors, a decent living for ourselves and our families. I define a decent living as a place to call home, food on the table, clothes on our backs, heat in the winter, transportation, some money in the bank, a good education, and a better life for our children.

     While Vermont’s pristine beauty is ideal to promote tourism, any industry that exists through underpaying the workers who sell merchandise, operate ski lifts, serve food, change beds and clean toilets, should be examined, not just by FDR, Pope Francis, or Henry Ford, but by all responsible citizens. A decent return on investment for businesses must be matched by a decent return for those whose labor creates the economy.  

     There is good and thoughtful talk of creating high-paying jobs in Vermont through entrepreneurship, incubators and workforce training; all of which I support. Regardless of new jobs created, however, we will still need a hands-on labor force to sustain our retail and service industries.

     An immediate and equitable way to grow the economy is to enhance the pay of existing, necessary jobs. The myth that if wages go up jobs will be lost is dispelled by extensive studies to the contrary. Additional income increases spending, stabilizes the workforce, grows industry and creates more jobs. More money flows into our economy and more residents, not just out-of-staters, will be shopping in our stores and dining in our restaurants.

     Three ways to raise pay are: By enlightened action by employers, which is happening in many businesses in Vermont; by collective bargaining through unions; and by legislative action, which happened in the last biennium with overwhelming citizen support and nonpartisan action. 

     With the continuation of low paying jobs, we are experiencing decreases in tax revenues and increases in financial assistance needs, and thus, are facing another budget gap for 2015.  It is time for us to push for a robust Vermont economy that balances a decent return on investment for those who put forth capital and a livable wage for those whose labor creates our prosperity.

     For anyone with questions or comments, please be in touch by mail at 58 Hi-Hopes Road, Wardsboro, VT 05355, by phone at ​802-896-9408, by E-mail at jmoran@leg.state.vt.us or by website at johnmoranvt.com. 

     

    Thank you.

    State Representative John Moran

    Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham

Local Economic Development

LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH BEER, WINE & SPIRITS PRODUCTION & SALES

    Supporting the production and sales of local malt, wine and sprits is a major economic development focus of mine.

     Act 210, cosponsored by Representative Manwaring and me, authorizes the selling of beer and wine by the bottle at special events. It has been a key factor in the success of the Brewers’ and the Wine and Harvest Festivals in the Deerfield Valley.    

    It is no accident that Vermont is a national leader in creating local beer, wine and liquor. Expanding business opportunities in a highly regulated industry calls for a step-by-step process over time, indicated by some of the actions taken by my legislative committee, including: 

• Authorizing wine producer permits at farmers markets to promote tastings and sales (Act 21, 2007)
• Permitting malt beverage tastings similar to wine tastings (Act 143, 2008) 
• Licensing climate-controlled storage facilities that receive, store and transport wine ordered by third party Vermonters (Act 151, 2008)
• Approving increased alcohol content for specialty beers (Act 167, 2008)
• Improving marketing opportunities for manufacturers: to serve beer and wine at special events and sell by the bottle on premises; to conduct on premises and at farmers’ markets, testing and selling of fortified wine by glass or bottle; and to conduct testing and selling of spirits on premises and at special events (Act 10, 2009) 
• Permitting a malt beverage manufacturer to sell at two locations on its contiguous property (Act 77, 2010) 
• Allowing restaurant customers to take home resealed unfinished bottles of specialty beer, increasing the number of special and testing event permits, and creating a promotional railroad tasting permit (Act 102, 2010)
• Changing statutes to expand caterers’ permits, to export wine, and to increase sales for wine makers (Act 115, 2012)
• Allowing export of malt beverages, sale of competitor products by manufacturers, and brewer direct customer shipping (Act 64, 2013) 
• Accelerating tasting permission for businesses waiting formal license approval, legalizing sampler flights [more than one drink in a single order] and permitting direct retailer pick up from wine manufactures (Act 202, 2014)

    While I am a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, who is a strong advocate for substance abuse treatment, I also respect a Vermonter’s right to drink responsibility and I will continue to support economic development through promotion of specialty Vermont beer, wine and spirits.

    For constituents with questions or comments, please be in touch by mail at 58 Hi-Hopes Road, Wardsboro, VT 05355, by phone at 802-896-9408 and by E-mail at jmoran@leg.state.vt.us.

   

    Thank you,

    State Representative John Moran

    Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham

Dot's Restaurant in Dover, VT

MOUNT SNOW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

DOT’S RESTAURANT IN DOVER

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Dear Chamber Members:

    Thank you for the opportunity to address you this morning.

    From the No-Snow crisis in January, 2007, when I began as our district representative, through this recession, to the present escalating economic inequality nationwide, I have been concerned about our economy and its effects upon our employers and employees.

    Over the years, with others, I have supported legislation promoting economic development: Telecommunications access;Tourism funding; Deerfield Valley and Windham County business initiatives; Road and bridge improvement; Production and promotion of local beer, wine and liquors; Farm-to-plate; Business loans; Workforce development; And, designation of skiing and snowboarding as the Vermont winter sports.

    Unfortunately, in our quest for prosperity we are handicapped by a dysfunctional federal government of sequester and austerity, or sequesterity. I find such an agenda harmful to businesses and employees, especially in the ‘heat and eat cuts’ to our low wage earners. Because of failure at the national level, it falls, as it has in the past, to the states to exercise leadership.

    For the last seven years I have worked to represent the interests of constituents, those in this room and the four thousand who are not present today. I have also been candid in stating I stand on issues. Before Act 3 of 2009 passed, I was a proponent of same-sex marriage. At town meetings last year I was quite clear that I would support revenue increase to improve our failing transportation infrastructure. This most recent edition of the Deerfield Valley News [Moran supports living wage bill, page 1, and Moran seeks feedback on sick leave, page 4A] demonstrates my continued transparency. 

    As Jack Deming of the Deerfield Valley News in a balanced manner addressed the living wage legislation and my letter to the editor covered the details of the paid time off bill, and being aware that other legislators are here to present to you, I will wait for questions before going into any more detail.

    The General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee, of which I am the vice chair, will take testimony on the wage bills after we receive data from our Joint Fiscal Office and our legislative economist. We have already taken extensive testimony on the time off bill and are close to voting on it in committee. As always, we will consider the interests of employer, employee and the general public as we move forward and will craft final legislation that responds to the testimony received.    

    I believe that everyone in this room and in the towns that I represent (Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham), wants Vermont to have a vibrant and prosperous economy, and to be known as the business and worker friendly state.

    

    Thank You.

    State Representative John Moran

    Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham

Town Meeting Report 2014

Download Town Meeting Report 2014

Town Meeting Report 2013

Download Town Meeting Report 2013

wkvtradio.com Live and Local conversation with Rep. John Moran (D) Windham-Bennington

The Legislative Process - Bucketville News March 2013

Letter to The Bucketville News • March 2013 Edition

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

    As it is an honor to be serving you at the State House, I would like to explain the legislative process and how constituents can become involved. 

    In the first year of a new session (biennium) a House Speaker is elected, and this year we reelected Shap Smith of Morrisville. His job is to create legislative agendas and appoint committee members, based on the  legislator’s experience, interest, skills, and needs of the committee. I was reappointed ViceChair of General, Housing and Military Affairs. Each of the fourteen House committees start with a clean slate (anything not passed in the last biennium is gone), taking up new bills as they are introduced by fellow legislators.

     One of my responsibilities as a legislator is to sponsor legislation that  can become law. Constituents, the administration, or advocacy groups may  come to me seeking sponsorship. If I decide to act, I will put in a drafting request with Legislative Council, made up of attorneys for the Legislature. A legislative counsel will then put the proposed legislation in bill form, and after getting
​co-sponsors, I will offer the bill to the House. In first reading, the Speaker presents the bill on the Floor (with an official number, such as H.1) and then assigns the bill to a committee for consideration. If the committee decides to take up the bill, and determines, after probable changes and possible consultations with other committees, to move favorably forward, the bill returns to the full House for formal presentation and debate (second reading). If the bill survives third reading, it is considered passed in the House and goes onto the Senate to undergo a similar process. If the House and Senate pass out the bill in different forms, then a committee of conference will be appointed. If the committee agrees on a compromise, the goes back to each body for approval, and then onto the governor, who can sign it, veto it, or let it pass without a signature. If the governor vetoes the bill, it still becomes law it the House and Senate, by a two-thirds margin, votes to override the veto.

    Many more bills are proposed than are passed. Even if a bill is taken up by a committee, there are many opportunities during the legislative process for the bill to not go forward. Taking time on bills that will not will eventually become law, however, is not necessarily a waste of time. Unsuccessful bills often create valuable policy discussion, and some potential legislation that looks worthwhile at the onset, doesn’t, after due diligence. Our responsibility, as lawmakers, is to not only pass good laws, but to also not pass harmful ones. 

    As each of us spend a great deal of time in one of fourteen assigned committees, it is not possible for any legislator to know everything that is going on in the House or Senate. Most of us communicate with colleagues, but often an issue moving forward comes to our attention by a concerned constituent. Thus, hearing from constituents is crucial to us as representatives. Anyone can know what is happening in Montpelier, follow daily calendars and journals, track bills or resolutions, and locate committee members by going to www.leg.state.vt.us. I look forward to hearing from constituents at 58 Hi-Hopes Road, Wardsboro, VT 05355,
​802-896-9408; or, at The State House, 115 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05633-5201, 800-322-5616 (in Vermont only),jmoran@leg.state.vt.us.     

    Thank you.

    State Representative John Moran

    Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro and Whitingham