Bennington’s Southwestern Vermont Medical Center grappled with a shortfall, Vermonters weighed in on President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination, additional stimulus dollars have been approved for the state and the budget continued to be a point of contention at the State House. These were some of the voices in the news this week:
SVMC struggles with $1.3 million shortfall (5/26)
(Bennington Town manager Stuart Hurd) "There’s no sense of panic that I’ve heard in the community. We understand there are some services that have had to be reduced but that’s happening in a whole host of industries. We feel pretty comfortable that the hospital is stable."
Leahy, Sanders approve of Obama’s pick for high court (5/26)
(Senator Patrick Leahy) "I think he’s saying that here I’m sending you somebody who has more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in over 100 years and I think that is one message. The other message I believe he’s saying we need some diversity on the Court the Court’s got to be more reflective of America."
(Cheryl Hannah, Vermont Law School professor) "It’s really Roberts who’s going to shape the direction of the court and I think he’s looking for somebody who can work with Roberts to keep the court from splintering as much as it has. But also I think what he gets with Sonia Sotomayor who like Scalia will be able to communicate effectively with the public."
Vermont gets $30 million for housing and economic development (5/28)
(Ken Sassarossi, vice president, Housing Vermont) "When the Vermont application was ranked, it scored highly, but when it was ranked vis a vis the other applications, Treasury ran out of money before Vermont got its application. When the stimulus bill was passed, there was about a billion and a half dollars nationwide that allowed Treasury to go back and fund those high-scoring applications submitted in 2008."
House Republicans say Dems trying to ‘buy votes’ with new budget proposal (5/28)
(House Speaker Shap Smith) "I think it’s important to recognize that we haven’t wanted a veto showdown. We’ve continued to have conversations with the Administration. We would love to reach some sort of an agreement but if we can’t we have the mechanisms to go forward and we will go forward on June 2nd."