I was laid up with a fractured fibula for the last eight weeks, so spent most of the summer rather immobile, but worked on legislative issues regarding Recovery Homes expansion, updating Vermont’s wage laws, and analyzing admissions’ tax issues. These fall under the purview of my General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee.
Overdose deaths spiked to all time levels during the pandemic, demonstrating the desperate need for more help for those with substance use disorders. I continue working on a bill with advocates and hope to move something forward in the new legislative session in January.
As well, wage disparities were magnified and need to be redressed. Vermont’s compensation laws need updating, and minimum wage should move up to $15 per hour. Currently many businesses are paying this rate for workers to return, so it seems right to equalize this for all Vermonters. I reintroduced legislation moving minimum wages up to this level over a three-year period.
Vermont’s entertainment industry was also devastated by Covid, being the first to close and last to open and will take years to recover. Many of our neighboring states do not tax admissions and I have been studying what the fiscal impact of this would be, both for our venues as well as state coffers.
While I missed the grand opening celebrations of our new Library and City Hall, I did make it to photographer Todd E. Lockwood’s exhibition, One Degree of Separation, which inaugurated the gallery in the main entrance of the new building last Saturday. Lockwood’s high-resolution black and white digital portraits are technically virtuosic and poignantly intimate, inviting the viewer into relationship with his subjects. Every well-earned wrinkle and blemish are magnified and gloriously rendered in large scale formats.
He photographs friends, thus the title, One Degree of Separation, and many of the subjects might be familiar to visitors: Governor Madeleine Kunin, VPR’s Robert Resnick, filmmaker Jay Craven, visual artist dug nap, and poet Claude Mumbere. Yet these are not celebrity airbrushed photos, but elegant portraiture of their profound humanity. I am honored to also be included in the exhibition.
Lockwood’s extraordinary work has been exhibited at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (2011), Burlington City Hall (2014), and Champlain College (2016). As he is a South Burlington resident, how fitting that his unique photographic vision opens our new gallery space. One Degree of Separation runs through October 14 and can be viewed whenever the Public Library, City Hall, or Senior Center are open, Monday-Thursday 8 am-7 pm, Friday 8 am-5 pm., and Saturday 10 am–2pm. You can also view Lockwood’s work online at this website: www.toddrlockwoodphotography.com.
If my healing fibula is up to it, I plan to join your other state representatives and senators at this week’s SoBu Nite Out in Veterans Memorial Park. Look for our “Ask your Legislators” sign and stop by and have a chat. Otherwise, you can always email me @ jkillacky@leg.state.vt.us with your concerns and questions.