Vermont's Legislative Preview for Week 9

February 26– March 1, 2024

 House Committee Work

 Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry – will continue work on H.706, an act relating to banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, and H.128, an act relating to removing regulatory barriers for working lands businesses. They will spend two mornings on a bill to designate the State Mushroom.

 Appropriations – will continue work on the FY 2025 budget and negotiating in a committee of conference with Senate Appropriations on the FY 2024 Budget Adjustment Act.

 Commerce and Economic Development – will review a new draft of H.121, an act related to data privacy on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday,  the committee will get a walk-through of H.536, an act relating to homeowners’ insurance and dog breed discrimination, and spend time on  H.707, an act relating to revising the delivery and governance of the Vermont workforce system.  The remaining schedule is TBA.

 Corrections and Institutions – will devote most of the week to the Governor’s Capital Budget Adjustment and discussions pertaining to many services related to corrections.

 Education – On Tuesday the committee will discuss their bill, an act relating to the development of an updated State aid to school construction program, and continue taking testimony regarding education cost drivers.

 Environment and Energy – will spend much of the week on the Act 250 bill, H.687, an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use.

 General and Housing – TBA.

 Judiciary – will discuss H.543, an act relating to retail theft, on Wednesday with a possible vote on Friday. They will spend most of the week on H.655, an act relating to qualifying offenses for sealing criminal history records and access to sealed criminal history records.

 Transportation – will devote most of the week to the Governor’s proposed FY 2025 transportation budget. There will be a walk-through of S.309, an act relating to miscellaneous changes to DMV, motor vehicles, and vessels on Thursday.

 Ways & Means –  will continue work regarding education spending, will vote on H.10, an act relating to amending VEGI, on Wednesday and also discuss H.679, an act relating to establishing a property tax surcharge and allocation of property transfer tax revenue. They will review H.279, an act relating to the Uniform Trust Decanting Act, and H.350, an act relating to the Uniform Directed Trust Act on Wednesday as well.

 Senate Committee Work

 Agriculture – will continue work on S.301, an act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects, and hold committee discussions TBA.

 Appropriations – will continue work on the FY 2025 budget.

 Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs – will take testimony on S.289, an act relating to age-appropriate design code. They will possibly vote on PR.3 – Right to Collectively Bargain. They will receive a walk-through of: S.175, an act relating to requiring retail businesses to accept cash; S.271, an act relating to a right to charge electric vehicles at home; S.246, an act relating to amending the Vermont basic needs budget and livable wage; and S.247, an act relating to repealing the VEGI sunset. 

 Education – TBA.

 Finance – will continue discussions on school finance. They will receive a walk-through of a housing bill. The rest of the week is TBA.

 Government Operations – will continue work on S.55, an act relating to authorizing public bodies to meet electronically under Vermont’s Open Meeting Law, with a possible vote on Tuesday. They will review a new draft of S.310 (draft 2.1 summary), an act relating to natural disaster government response, recovery and resiliency, along with a new draft of S.159, an act relating to the county governance study. They will consider S.518, an act relating to the charter of the City of Essex Junction, and S.801, an act relating to approval of the adoption of the charter of Town of Waterbury.

 Health and Welfare – will work on: S.189, an act relating to mental health response service protocols; S.192, an act relating to forensic facility admissions criteria and processes; S.197, an act relating to PFAS and PFOA which proposes a ban on products containing PFAS starting in 2030; S.151, an act relating to pay parity and transparency in health care; and S.98, and act relating to Green Mountain Care Board authority over prescription drug costs. On Thursday they will take up S.114, an act relating to removal of criminal penalties for possessing, dispensing, or selling psilocybin.

 Institutions – will review the Governor’s recommended FY 2024-25 Capital Budget Adjustment.

 Judiciary – will possibly vote on S.58, an act relating to increasing the penalties for dispensing a regulated drug. They will continue testimony on Friday regarding Prop 4 – declaration of rights; government for the people; equality of rights. They will also hear testimony on S.259, an act relating to climate change cost recovery.

 Natural Resources and Energy – will possibly vote on S.258, an act relating to the management of fish and wildlife, on Tuesday. On Wednesday the committee will take testimony on S.254, an act relating to including rechargeable batteries and battery containing products under the state battery stewardship program. S.254 is on their agenda for the rest of the week.

 Transportation – will walk-through a new draft of S.184, an act relating to the use of automated traffic law enforcement systems, on Tuesday and continue this work on Thursday and Friday.

Are Vermont’s education funding and housing crises because the state does not tax at a high enough level, even the top marginal rate? Or does Vermont have these crises because we haven’t allowed for growth? Vermont isn’t good at growth in the economic context, yet it is good at it in the spending context. Every conversation legislators are struggling with is about excessive growth or a lack of growth. 

• We’ve had extreme growth in education, healthcare, and spending, in general, has been excessive and has led the country.

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• At the same time, we’ve seen relatively no growth, and at times negative growth, in Vermont’s economy, grand list, and population.

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• Housing stock – between 2000 and 2010, the number of homes in Vermont increased at an average annual pace of around 1% and then slowed after the 2008 recession even to have negative growth some years.

• Vermont’s GDP grew on average 1.24% between 2004 and 2021, with years of contraction. This is far below the national average.

• Meanwhile, many oversimplified the situation and blamed mostly employers for the growing affordability crisis, citing wage growth. A 2020 article from the Economist perfectly encapsulates this, highlighting, “Yet it’s wrong to blame Vermont’s wage woes on policy alone. The state has raised its minimum wage by 36% since 2009.”

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• The Takeaway: Growth in spending without growth in our economy is not sustainable.

With that in mind, in this week’s update:

• What to do about Vermont’s unsustainable education system
• Senate committee slams on the breaks, waits for the House on Housing 
• Ways and Means Committee seeks to tax resourced Vermonters 
• Short-term rental regulation is the topic de jour 
• PFAS legislation debated in Senate Committee 
• The Laundry List 

Vermont's Legislative Preview for Week 8

February 19– February 23, 2024

Note: Legislative Committee Agendas are updated frequently throughout each day. The latest committee schedule can be found on this link. A list of weekly hearings for all committees can be found here.

 House Committee Work

 Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry – will continue work on H.706, an act relating to banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and take up H.128, an act relating to removing regulatory barriers for working lands businesses.

 Appropriations – will continue work on the FY 2025 budget. There will be a public hearing on Tuesday at 5:30 pm so the committee can consider public input regarding their work.

 Commerce and Economic Development – will take testimony on their areas of budget jurisdiction. They will hear about Serve, Learn, and Earn, the Vermont Training Program, and the Working Lands Initiative. They will get a walk-through of a new draft of H.707, an act relating to revising the delivery and governance of the Vermont workforce system on Thursday, and they will be drafting their letter to Appropriations on Friday regarding their recommended spending. Many are following the committee’s work on H.121, an act related to data-privacy. This has yet to appear on this week’s committee schedule.

 Education – On Tuesday the committee will discuss their bill, an act relating to the development of an updated State aid to school construction program. On Thursday morning they will take testimony regarding education cost drivers. Thursday afternoon there will be a joint hearing with Ways and Means regarding education funding.

 Environment and Energy – will spend much of the week on the Act 250 bill, H.687, an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use. They will take up H.812, an act relating to threatened and endangered species on Wednesday.

 General and Housing – will possibly vote on H.132, an act relating to establishing a homeless bill of rights and prohibiting discrimination against persons without homes. They will take testimony on: H.617, an act relating to residential rental application fees; H.616, an act relating to providing protections against eviction; H.686, an act relating to measuring progress toward statewide and regional housing targets; H.553, an act relating to the right of entry following a tax sale; H.556, an act relating to requiring mobile home park flood risk disclosure; H.639, an act relating to disclosure of flood history of real property subject to sale; H.704; an act relating to compensation in job advertisements; H.449, an act relating to creating a short-term rental housing registry; H.137, an act relating to expanding the Vermont Housing Improvement Program; and H.829, an act relating to creating permanent upstream eviction protections and enhancing housing stability.

Senate Committee Work

 Agriculture – will review S.197 as related to PFAS. They will hear from the Cannabis Control Board regarding cannabis regulations. On Thursday they will consider S.301, an act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects.

 Appropriations – will continue work on the FY 2025 budget hearing from the Secretary of State’s office; getting a budget review from the Commissioner of Finance; Judiciary; Department of Corrections; Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs; and Agency of Natural Resources.

 Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs – TBA. 

 Education – will hold committee discussions on the following bills: S.220, an act relating to Vermont’s public libraries; S.204, an act relating to reading assessment and intervention; S.303, an act related to literacy and the Vermont Imagination Library; S.167, an act relating to amendments to education law; S.207, an act relating to revising the funding for and governance of career technical education; S.191, an act relating to New American Advancement Grant Applicants; S.203, an act relating to the appointment of State Board of Education members; S.238, an act relating to the Board of Trustees of the VT State Colleges Corporation; S.216, an act related to making governance structural changes to the Vermont State Colleges; Board of Trustees; Office of Chancellor; S.171, an act relating to the legal residency of a student following displacement by a natural disaster; S.304, an act relating to Vermont’s career and technical education programs; and, S.172, an act relating to the Education Bill of Rights for children who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind. They will also spend more time on S.284, an act relating to the use of electronic devices and digital and online products in schools.

 Finance – will take up S.199, an act relating to mergers and governance of communications union districts with a possible vote on Tuesday. The remaining schedule is TBA .

 Government Operations – On Tuesday the committee will vote on H.554, an act relating to the charter of the Town of South Hero. They will continue work on S.55, an act relating to authorizing public bodies to meet electronically, under Vermont’s Open Meeting Law, with a possible vote on Wednesday and spend time on S.310, an act relating to natural disaster government response, recovery and resiliency. They will work on S.159, an act relating to the county governance study committee and receive introductions to H.516 and H.518, acts relating to approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Essex Junction and the Town of Essex.

 Health and Welfare – will work on: S.189, an act relating to mental health response service protocols; S.302, an act relating to public health outreach programs regarding dementia risk; S.192, an act relating to forensic facility admissions criteria and processes; S.151, an act relating to pay parity and transparency in health care; and S.98, an act relating to Green Mountain Care Board authority over prescription drug costs. On Wednesday, the committee will hear testimony on a strike all amendment to S.197, an act relating to PFAS and PFOA which proposes to ban products with PFAS by 2030.

 Institutions – will review the Governor’s recommended FY 2024-25 Capital Budget Adjustment.

 Judiciary – will possibly vote on Prop 1 – Elections; sheriffs; qualifications and Prop 4 – declaration of rights; government for the people; equality of rights. On Wednesday they will possibly vote on S.209, an act relating to prohibiting unserialized firearms. They will take testimony on S.150, an act relating to automobile insurance and S.259, an act relating to climate change cost recovery.

 Natural Resources and Energy – will receive an introduction to S.258, an act relating to the management of fish and wildlife on Tuesday with a possible vote on Thursday or Friday. On Wednesday the committee will vote on S.213, an act relating to the regulation of wetlands, river corridor development and dam safety.

 Transportation – will continue work on the FY 2025 transportation budget.

As week seven comes to a close, it’s worth looking at a roadmap to adjournment. 

• The Legislature will meet for two more weeks until March 1st, when they take a week-long recess for Town Meeting.
• March 5th is Town Meeting Day, when communities vote on school budgets, which will be more contentious than ever, as the state education fund could see double-digit percent increases, with some towns potentially postponing their vote, as we cover later.
• When the Legislature returns, they’ll be racing the March 15 crossover deadline for policy bills. This means that there are about three working weeks from today, or about 12 legislative days, to pass bills out of its committee of jurisdiction or they are likely dead for the year.

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• • March 15th is also the date that new legislation gives school districts to warn votes on their revised school budgets, if they choose.
  • The following week, March 22nd, is the crossover deadline for money bills.
• The next big date is April 15th, which is the new deadline created for communities to vote on school budgets.

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• • The cumulative school budget will be needed to finalize the yield bill, which along with the budget bill, are the most important for adjournment.
• Typically adjournment can be expected to happen around May 10th, though it’s not unthinkable to go beyond that.

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• • This is an election year, so legislators are usually incentivized to get out a little earlier than they may otherwise.
• Vermont’s fiscal year ends on June 30th, so if the Governor vetoes the budget or any legislation important to state finances, they need to get back to remedy that before then.

With that in mind, let’s jump into this week’s update:

• Affordability pressures persistent amidst pivots, budget adjustments, and new tax proposals 
• BE Home Act passes first committee; Rough road ahead
• Public safety and quality of life conundrums stop legislators
• Federal update: massive packages, razor-thin margin, and little time
• VT Paid Family and Medical Leave Enrollment Open
• The Laundry List

We’re four weeks out from town meeting week, and incredibly five weeks in, after what was a longer-than-normal legislative January due to a strange quirk in Vermont’s constitutional calendar. This means the Town Meeting Day recess is only four weeks away, so committees are in the deliberative phase of legislation, making a week such as this feel as if nothing happened. We’ll keep it very brief with some quicker updates, each taking about a minute to read.  

In this week’s Update:

• Affordability concerns omnipresent: may or may not be on the March 5th ballot
• Building Bridges or Battlegrounds? Housing policy about development for some, environment for others
• Public safety everywhere, but no consensus yet
• Privacy bill affects everyone 
• Renewable Energy Standard advances past committee 
• The Laundry List 

This week saw more agita and acrimony around the now-worsening education funding crisis, which could drive a 20.59% increase in property taxes. 

• We are going to warn you this is a very tax-heavy update, however;
• We have a 10,000-foot overview of the issues of housing, public safety, and affordability, which you can read in less than 3-minutes. 

Also in this week’s Update:

• Overview: 21% property tax increase, a myriad of public safety proposals, and continued conversation on housing (3-4 min read)
• Property tax rates are even worse than expected, leaving legislators scrambling for revenue (5 min read)
• Housing for All toolkit launch and summit 
• The latest version of the data privacy bill released (1-minute read)
• Federal Update: Bipartisan Tax Package Passes Congress (1 min read)
• The Laundry List 

This week is a pivotal week in the legislative session, as the House concludes its work on amending the previous year’s budget and the Governor proposes his budget for the coming year.

• Legislators now have a framework for the budget, even if they do not agree with all of it. The typical session is 17 or 18 weeks, and when the budget is done, the session is too, so the stopwatch on all legislation starts now.
• We’re not quite a quarter of the way in, and the next pivotal time comes at crossover, typically six weeks from now, when legislators need to have bills out of the committee of jurisdiction, or they’re done for the year.
• So, lines are drawn, the course is set – on your mark, get set, go.

This week, we have a 10,000-foot view of the session’s top three issues, public safety, housing, and affordability, that you’ll want to read (4 to 5 minutes), if nothing else. Click here to read more.

In this week’s Update:

• Education financing heading for a cliff
• Governor delivers budget address
• House passes Budget Adjustment Act
• Future economic/workforce development omnibus bill
• The Laundry List