The Brattleboro Reformer from Brattleboro, Vermont • 3

VERMONT Brattleboro Reformer Friday, March 17, 1995 Burlingtons ex-mayor dies House takes funds for computers, puts them into services AP HURT BY CUTS Vermont Secretary of Human Services Cornelius Hogan, second from right, holds a chart showing how federal welfare cuts will affect the state as he talks to reporters in Montpelier Thursday. With Hogan are, from right, William Young, commissioner of Social and Rehabilitation Services, Hogan, Jane Kitchel, commissioner of social welfare, Jan Carney, health commissioner and John Gorczyk, corrections commissioner. Federal cuts hit heating aid BURLINGTON (AP) Gordon Paquette, the man who served air mayor of Vermonts largest city for 10 years, has died. He was 78. -Paquette died Wednesday aC Fletcher Allen Health Care itf Burlington after a short illness.

Paquettes decade as mayor Burlington was longer than any other person ever held the office. He promoted business and downtown development while crusading for the poor, elderly and disabled. I think hes one of the greatest mayors that the city has had, said F. Lee Austin, who was city treasurer in Paquettes administration. He was kind of like a friend to everybody, knew everybody pretty much.

Theyd stop and talk to him on the street. Under Paquettes leadership, the city of Burlington acquired Leddy Park, built the Church Street Marketplace and launched a fight against the Pyramid Mall in Williston. It also built hundreds of homes for the poor and the elderly. Paquette was elected mayor in 1971 and served until 1981 when he was defeated by Bernard Sanders. Paquette was born Nov.

25, 1916 in Burlington. Before entering public services, he owned and operated Paquette Brothers Grocery with a brother. St. Johnsbury restaurant burns ST. JOHNSBURY (AP) A landmark restaurant in St.

Johnsbury was heavily damaged in a fire Thursday. The fire at Aimes Restaurant, located at the junction of U.S. Route 2 and Vermont Route 18, was spotted at about 6:30 Thursday morning by a passing state trooper. No one was inside the restaurant at the time and there were no injuries. Damage appeared to have been confinetT mostly to the 55-year-old restaurants interior.

Inside, the floors and walls were blackened and the furniture melted beyond recognition. The outside appeared relatively unharmed, but there was heavy structural damage. should give the administration the tools it needs, Sorrell argued. He cited the screaming in the fall of 1993 when Medicaid contractor Electronic Data Systems Inc. had trouble putting a new pharmacy payment system in place and some clients had trouble getting medications.

Everybody wants to scream when we cant deliver, Sorrell said. And yet they turn around and take our machinery and our tools that make us able to deliver. That makes no sense. While lawmakers complained that the administration has provided inadequate justification for its expenditures, Sorrell turned the charge around and said lawmakers cuts were not well thought out. This is just kind of a nameless, faceless cut, Sorrell said.

I think they wanted to spend the money (on child care) and this was a convenient target. Thursdays House action was the third major whack lawmakers have taken at computer spending in recent weeks. The House Appropriations Committee sliced $1 million from the Human Services Agencys $11.7 million computer spending proposal and ordered that the administration find $500,000 in computer funding cuts elsewhere. Thursdays cut was in addition to those. Meanwhile, the newly formed Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee recommended to the Institution Committees in the House and Senate that they cut nearly $1 million of the $3 million the administration wanted to spend in the capital budget borrowed money for long-term investments.

Senate Institutions Committee Chairman Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, said his panel is likely to follow that recommendation. Sorrell granted some of lawmakers complaints that the administration has not provided the utmost detail. By DAVID GRAM Ttte Associated Pres MONTPELIER Lawmakers skeptical about the Dean administrations computer purchases moved $540,000 from that part of the human services budget into child care funding Thursday. The amendment to the fiscal 1996 budget came as the House prepared it for final passage. It underscored an ongoing controversy over what some legislators see as a lack of accountability for the more than $33 million the administration wants to spend on information technology next year.

The administration doesnt have a plan for computer spending, said Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, a key backer of the amendment that shifted money into child care. Times are too tight for us to throw money away when we dont know where its going, she added. After a full day of debate, the House finally approved the $735.3 million general fund budget by a vote of 85-57. The accompanying transportation fund total, also approved by the House, was $157.5 million.

The Houses general fund spending is about $11 million more than the governor recommended and transportation spending was $7.5 million higher. The administration actually does have a plan: its first-ever Information Technology Five-Year Plan, issued in January and widely regarded by lawmakers as providing inadequate information on the shape of likely future technology spending. Pugh said the money would go to restore child care slots for 220 children of low-income families that were to have been cut. The House action and lawmakers complaints drew an angry rebuke from Administration Secretary William Sorrell, Gov. Howard Deans top aide on budget issues.

If lawmakers are concerned about constituent service, they include nearly $5 million for summer jobs and youth training, more than $2 million for a safe and drug-free schools program and nearly $1 million in housing subsidies. The heating aid cut, which would eliminate Vermonts funding entirely, would be in effect for next winters heating season. Sanders spokeswoman Tina Wisell warned the 24,000 Vermonters who received heating aid this year, Next winter, dont count on any heating assistance at all. The vote in Washington came hours after six top officials in the Vermont Agency of Human Services warned that if the GOP House leadership succeeds with proposed block-granting and budget cuts in social programs, Vermont could lose $50 million a year during the next five years. Human Services Secretary Cornelius Hogan provided estimates that he said were inexact because its early in the federal budget-writing process.

The block grants appear to be code for reducing federal (support) in a wide range of human services, Hogan said. Hogan and his agencys department heads disputed Republican assertions that moving social spending from entitlement programs into block grants will give states greater flexibility on how the money is spent. Jane Kitchel, the commissioner of the Department of Social Welfare, said the work requirements being built into federal welfare reform legislation actually would be quite onerous and likely would result in Vermont and many other states being penalized. The penalties would be expected to cost Vermonts welfare reform efforts $36 million during the next five years, Kitchel said. By DAVID GRAM The Associated Press MONTPELIER The U.S.

House on Thursday voted a round of current-year budget cuts expected to cost Vermont more than $7 million in low-income heating aid, and officials warned of more cuts to come. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, was the biggest loser in a $17.1 billion round of budget cuts expected to cost Vermont a total of $41 million, said Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt. What the Republican leadership has brought forth today is extremely unfair and will cause reltl pain for millions of Americans, Sanders said in a statement, adding that he hoped the Senate and President Clinton would be able to stop or at least mitigate the cuts. Other Vermont programs affected in Thursdays House vote Leahy taps Middlebury attorney to fill vacant federal bench seat 4 DAYS' jCPenney od Judge Franklin S.

Billings of Woodstock has reduced his workload by being placed on senior status. Leahy has recommended J. Garvan Murtha of Dummerston to fill the vacancy at the Rutland court. Sessions, 48, has practiced law in Vermont for 22 years. He served for five years at the Addison County public defender, he is the president of the Middlebury firm of Sessions, Keiner, Dumont Barnes and has been on the faculty of the Vermont Law School for 17 years.

Sessions served as Leahys campaign manager in his 1992 campaign. He said Leahy told him of the recommendation Thursday. But Sessions said that when he expressed an interest in becoming a federal judge, Leahy made it clear that favoritism could not play a part in the selection. He indicated he was above all looking for a person who would treat all Vermonters, whether they be rich or poor, equally, Sessions said. That above all was his top priority.

Session said he went through two days of interviews with Leahy. I am absolutely humbled, Sessions said. I do know Senator Leahy well. He is one of my heroes. His value judgements are always correct.

By WILSON RING The Associated Press MONTPELIER Middlebury attorney William Sessions III has been recommended to fill one of the vacant federal judgeships in Vermont. Sen. Patrick Leahy, said Thursday that he forwarded Sessions name to President Clinton, who will fill the vacancy at the U.S. District Court in Burlington. Bill is concerned about apply-ing the laws fairly, and he is very much aware of the rich history and tradition of the distinguished judges who have served before him, Leahy said in a statement released by his Washington office.

He will be an outstanding judge. Leahys recommendation must now be considered by the president. If he concurs, Sessions nomination would then be considered by the Justice Department, the American Bar Association and his background will be checked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After that, his nomination must be confirmed by the U.S. Judiciary Committee.

The entire process could take sue months. Sessions was giddy at the news. I am absolutely thrilled at the selection, he said Thursday. Both of Vermonts federal judgeships are vacant. Judge Fred I.

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