Bennington Banner from Bennington, Vermont • 15

STATEREGION 15 THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2006 BENNINGTON BANNER riTtmrn mm i ietttitt, ffmniTiT; 1 Gov. may opt not to 'raid' schools Rutland 4138 Springfield 38135 Manchester Sdlem 4036 Bennington Data High Yesterday 41 Low Yesterday 13 Precipitation ......0.00" Regional Data Normal High 41 Normal Low 23 Record High .66 in 2000 Record Low in 1989 Precip for Month ...0.01" Normal for Month ...0.75" Precip for Year 5.78" Normal for Year .5.73" All data reported as of 4 p.m. yesterday. 14136 Cambridge I nmmmm TODAY Rain Likely tpTV High: 46 Low: 41 FRIDAY Few Showers nffift High: 58 Low: 37 JjjJU" SATURDAY ZXT jZ Mostly Sunny qn High: 53 Low: 33 pU SUNDAY -gvfti Few Showers jfflfff High: 50 Low: 35 gW- MONDAY VrT Few Showers JlJTjfr High: 50 Low: 32 6138 Bennington 4641 Brattleboio MoosickValls 383A '838 Hoosick 4839 Pownal 44147 All forecasts, data and graphics are provided by Accessweather.com, Inc. 2006.

All rights reserved. MONTPELIER (AP) Gov. James Douglas has quickly given his response to voters who told him and lawmakers on Town Meeting Day to keep their hands off money for schools: He'll drop his plan for shifting money from the education fund in return for a property tax rate reduction. Although the governor said Wednesday he still liked his proposal for redirecting a percentage point of the purchase and use tax on vehicles from education to transportation and making the education fund which gets the bulk of its money from the statewide property tax responsible for paying teacher retirement. "We're not going to raise the gas tax.

That works against the agenda of affordability." JAMES DOUGLAS Governor of Vermont But in the face of nearly 120 towns adopting a resolution opposing so-called raids on the education fund, Douglas said he would be willing to shift his position. "What I was thinking was if the Legislature is disinclined to accept the recommendation I've offered on the purchase and use tax in particular and maybe the teacher retirement switch, as well, they ought to reduce the statewide property tax," Douglas said in an interview. His idea, which would lower the tax rate by a total of 7 cents and reduce the overall money going into the fund by an estimated $40 million, was first reported byWCAX-TV. The administration still does not have an overall plan, though, for the financial needs of the various areas of state government lb meet the ongoing operations of the Transportation Agency and to raise enough money to draw down a large increase in federal bridge and highway money, the state needs to raise an additional $24 million. Douglas initially suggested doing that by shifting the purchase and use tax away from the education fund and supplementing it with a nearly $10 million increase in motor vehicle fees.

The House has proposed increasing the gasoline tax by 4 cents to 24 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by 6 cents to 31 cents a gallon, along with a smaller fees increase. The governor won't support that. "We would have to reduce spending somewhere else and I'd welcome ideas from the Legislature on how to do that and work with them to find some alternatives," he said. "But we're not going to raise the gas tax. That works against the agenda of affordability." Telephone messages left for several legislative leaders were not immediately returned.

i irnimm ir Sunrise .6:15 a.m. Sunset .5:52 p.m. Moonrise 12:31 p.m. Moonset 3:59 a.m. Full Last New First 314 322 329 45 The Northeast will see mostly cloudy to cloudy skies and scattered rain, with the highest temperature of 72 in Belleville, 111.

The Southeast will see partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies and isolated thunderstorms, with the highest temperature of 87 in Winter Haven, Fla. The central United States will see partly cloudy to cloudy skies and scattered rain and thunderstorms, with the highest temperature of 92 in McAUen, Texas. The Northwest will experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies and isolated rain and snow, with the highest temperature of 55 in Pasco, Wash. The 60 50h 40 30 This map shows high temperatures, type of precipitation expected and locatioa of frontal systems at noon. 20 10 Southwest will see partly cloudy cJw Fru Stauawy Froac Wrnrm Frost Lam Prmure High Preuun 0 Today Friday skies, with the highest temperature of 75 in Yuma, Ariz.

The chart above shows the avenge wind chij temperature forecast for today and tomorrow. The Mack bar indicates the forecast temperature. The grey bar indicates the average wind chill temperature projected. Most school budgets were passed on Town Meeting Day Pawlet, Milton, Northfield, Ran StateRegional News in Brief dolph, Randolph Union High School, Searsburg, South Hero, Spaulding Union High School in Barre and Springfield. Francis said school boards this-year prepared fair budgets and were successful in explaining the spending to voters.

"My observation is that this year there was a lot of work done by local officials by both developing responsible budgets and doing a very good jobs to communicate what's behind the budgets," Francis said. Although tax bills are rising, the fate of school budgets are highly localized decisions, Francis said. "I think it speaks to the fact that you have locally elected officials working to develop a budget within the context of a community," he said. "So what you have is school board members trying to be responsive to needs of students in the community with a sensitivity to what the burdens are on MONTPELIER (AP) Fears voiced by school officials that rising property taxes would lead to the defeat of dozens of school budgets this year did not material-EC, Tallies released Wednesday showed that so far this year voters have passed 231 school budgets and defeated 18. Roughly two dozen are to be decided in balloting later in the spring.

"To see between 10 and 20 defeats is not unusual," said Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association. "In 2003 there were 42 budgets defeated. In 2004 there were only six. Between 10 and 20 defeats is not uncommon." At this time last year 19 budgets had fallen to defeat. By Wednesday, voters had rejected spending plans in Addison, Bakersfield, Barre, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Currier Memorial School in Danby, Danby, East Haven, Mettawee Community School in West to do so.

Opponents said the measures amounted to intimidation and racial profiling. They also said that only the federal government has the power to create immigration law. N.H. school funding deemed unconstitutional CONCORD, N.H. (AP) A judge ruled the state's school funding law unconstitutional Wednesday, saying it fails to define or determine the cost of an adequate education and leads to unfair taxation.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge William Groff in Nashua said the 2005 law unfairly allows property-rich communities to keep and spend far more money on their schools than communities without strong tax bases. The Londonderry and Merrimack school districts and about 20 communities sued soon after the law passed in June. Groff ruling is the latest in a series since the early 1990s finding fault with the state's school funding system, which relies heavily on property taxes. Vermont, didn't alert authorities on the scene. But he told Vermont State Police the number of the table where she was playing, the day and the time, and investigators contacted New Jersey State Police, according to Detective Lt.

Brian Miller of the Vermont State Police, the chief investigator in the case. N.H. House strikes bill aimed at illegals CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The House on Wednesday voted down bills that would have allowed police to charge illegal immigrants with trespassing, as well as form agreements with the federal government to let them enforce immigration laws. "We've created a fear of immigration.

We've created a fear of brown and yellow people," said Rep. Kris Roberts, D-Keene. The bills were part of an immigration-reform package advocated by a group of Republican legislators. They said New Hampshire should protect its borders because the federal government has failed Voters easily defeat anti-fluoride measures painted red to imitate the look of roof tiles on buildings in Renaissance Italy. The gold look came later.

David Schutz, the Statehouse curator, learned only a few months ago that Gilman had made two paintings of the third home built for the Vermont Legislature. Now these paintings are on loan at the Statehouse, and state officials are negotiating to buy them. Schutz said the special value of these paintings is that they are the only known color images of the Statehouse during the period when the dome was red. Missing teen may have been sighted in casino ATLANTIC CITY, NJ. (AP) Missing for nearly two years, a Vermont teenager may have turned up at an Atlantic City casino, police said.

On Jan. 17, surveillance cameras at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino captured the image of a woman police say may be Brianna Maitland, 19, gambling next to a man. The video, taken from ceiling-mounted surveillance cameras, shows a dark-haired woman at a table game but her face is only partly visible. It was obtained from the casino after a man who lives near Mait-land's hometown returned from a trip to Atlantic City and contacted Vermont State Police, telling them he saw a woman who looked like Maitland at the casino. That was on Jan.

19. The man, who knew of Mait-land's disappearance and what she looked like from fliers posted in Vermont among top five most livable states CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The annual rating of America's most livable states is out, and again, New Hampshire is tops. The Kansas research firm, Morgan Quitno Press, says for the third year in a row, New Hampshire is the most livable. The ranking is based on dozens of factors, from the economy to high school graduation rates to teen birth rates.

Minnesota was second for the third year in a row. Iowa, Vermont and New Jersey were the other states in the top five. Morgan Quitno said the state, while not perfect, performed well across the board in this year's survey. New Hampshire had the third-highest median household income in America, the highest percentage of residents who had graduated from high school, and the lowest teenage birth rate. Those were just three of the 44 factors used.

Some factors worked against New Hampshire, however. The state had the lOth-lowest daily average temperature. It also had higher-than-average costs for electricity. Statehouse dome red MONTPELIER (AP) There it is, captured in oils by, artist James Gilman in 1889 the Vermont Statehouse adorned with a blood-red dome. Throughout the 30 years that Gilman lived and painted in central Vermont, the dome and roof of the state capital building were tenius Bit, St-irens Be a hero to a kid! Having an adult friend other's.

Critics of fluoride, led in Burlington by the organization Safe Water Advocates, had questioned the substance's health effects and maintained that the city was, in effect, forcing a type of medication on its entire population. Deborah Loring, spokeswoman for Safe Water Advocates, said she was pleased her group had done as well as it could against long odds. "It's going to take considerable effort to reverse what we perceive as 50 years of marketing," Loring said. "This is an education effort, and we have educated quite a lot of people." someone to look up to is the biggest predictor of success in life. Without it, growing up is an explorer without a map.

Join In Saturday, April 1 The 19 Annual Bennington fs. County Bowl For Kids' Sake at 0 Bennington Lanes. Support BURLINGTON (AP) By more than two-to-one, city residents have spoken on the issue of the tooth decay-fighting chemical fluoride in the public water supply: They want to keep it. In a Town Meeting Day vote, 6,908 city residents said they wanted to keep fluoride, while 2,766 voted to have the city stop adding it to the water. "This is an education effort, and we have educated quite a lot of people." DEBORAH LORING Safe Water Advocates Dr.

Steve Arthur, director of the Vermont Health Department's Office of Oral Health, said he was "extremely pleased" with the vote. He called it "a victory for everyone in the city of Burlington. Fluoride is beneficial for children, adolescents, adults and senior citizens. Everyone is a beneficiary." Montpelier voters also rejected an anti-fluoride measure, by a still comfortable but closer margin than in Burlington, 1324 to 802. Capital city voters heading into City Hall to vote were greeted by people on the sidewalk outside holding signs.

"Got teeth? Keep fluoride," one side's signs said. "Got brains? Vote Yes" on the measure to remove it, said the mentoring for kids ages 5 to 14 in-. our give them PROPOSED STATE RULES a gjvu map Call 442-5491 now! Call to register. Or visit Big Brotfters Big Sisters at www.ucsvt.orgbbbs-bowl.html. Prizes galore up for grabs! The top fundraiser will win a fabulous trip for two to Orlando, FL, and tickets to Universal Studios.

Next ten best fundraisers get a free night on the town! By law, public notice of proposed rules must be given by publication in newspapers of record. The purpose of these notices is to give the public a chance to respond to the proposals. The public notices for administrative rules are now also available online at The law requires an agency to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule, if requested to do so in writing by 25 persons or an association having at least 25 members. To make special arrangements for individuals with disabilities or special needs, please call or write the contact person listed below as soon as possible. To obtain further information concerning any scheduled hearing(s), obtain copies of proposed rules) or submit comments regarding proposed rule(s), please call or write the contact person listed below.

You may also submit comments In writing to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, State House, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 (828-2231) Elimination of Medicaid Coverage for Prescription Drugs used to Treat Erectile or Sexual Dysfunction. Vermont Proposed Rule: 06P006 AGENCY: Human Services FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Bill Frasure, Office of Vermont Health Access, 312 Hurrican Lane, Suite 201, Willislon, VT05495; 802-879-5619 fTheVermontCoiintryStore KEVMtat MKS PLACE Bennington Banner ycsji.