Town Meeting Week Legislative Report
From Rep Michael Morgan:
Friends – I had a report all typed up and ready to put out with other material (to include an education update) but with the Governor’s press release today, I think this is a very succinct and to the point testimonial that sums up what I feel we need to do and do it this session. As I travelled our district and the state in general this past year, this was the number one topic on people’s minds. As a side note, this past week before we broke for Town Meeting week, the Senate Education Committee took a huge step by releasing a plan that altered the Governor’s and Secretary of Education’s 5 district plan and amended it to 9 districts. Specifically for the Grand Isle-Chittenden district and all of the Town of Milton the district included in the Senate plan is mainly the towns of Isle Lamotte, North Hero, Grand Isle, South Hero, Milton, Westford, Essex and Colchester. Alburgh is included in a district that is composed of Franklin County and some of the Northeast Kingdom under their proposal. This is the first real step I’ve seen from the Legislature and I’m glad there is finally traction to get something done as I feel we’ve been slow getting out of the gate on this one. One can speculate why that may be, but I do know that when we are back next week that we owe the taxpayers work and legislation on education reform. I will post more as I know more.
TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR PHIL SCOTT HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO ADDRESS EDUCATION REFORM THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Montpelier, Vt. – At Governor Phil Scott’s weekly press conference, the Scott Administration reiterated the need to address education reform this legislative session. Vermonters made it clear they want to fix the education system because our kids are not getting what they deserve from the $2.4 billion we spend – and neither are our teachers or taxpayers. By fixing the system, it will benefit taxpayers and give a high-quality education to all students.
Governor Scott: Good afternoon, thanks for being here.
As many remember, last year Vermonters saw a historic property tax increase with a high of 38% and an average increase of about 14%, which was significant considering inflation in many other areas. I think most Vermonters agreed that the system was broken and wasn’t sustainable.
So, to avoid facing yet another spike, we communicated with school boards throughout the fall and asked them to be disciplined with their budgets to avoid a repeat of last year.
And it appears most school boards did just that, and I want to thank them for their hard work because I know many had to make some tough decisions, which is never easy.
But even with the majority of school budgets passing, which is good news, we can’t declare victory. We have to stay focused and follow through on making our education system more affordable and sustainable while producing greater opportunities for our kids.
In the budget I presented to the Legislature in January, I proposed we use $77 million to buy down property tax rates so communities aren’t faced with another tax increase which was projected to be 6% if we do nothing.
I know many critics will say that using one time money to buy down rates is fiscally irresponsible and short sighted, and I find it hard to disagree. That’s why my plan doesn’t stop there. This year is only a bridge to get us to where we need to be so we can reform the way education is funded without breaking the bank for taxpayers in the process.
The bottom line is, we can’t buy down rates this year without the broader transformation that we must make because we’ll be faced with the same property tax problem next year, with an even larger increase.
As I said, many school boards have done their part to keep spending from growing more than we can afford. And my team has presented a plan to make structural changes, to improve the outcomes for our students, make property taxes more predictable, and create more equitable opportunities for students.
We also need the Legislature to do their part and address education transformation this session because we can’t afford to wait.
At the end of last session, the Legislature passed 70 bills in three days, so I’m confident that if they stay focused, we can accomplish what I believe needs to be done this session.
Representative Michael Morgan, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs and House Ethics Panel member.
Contact: [email protected] or 802-881-7835
Email me or call me with any questions or concerns.
Friends – I had a report all typed up and ready to put out with other material (to include an education update) but with the Governor’s press release today, I think this is a very succinct and to the point testimonial that sums up what I feel we need to do and do it this session. As I travelled our district and the state in general this past year, this was the number one topic on people’s minds. As a side note, this past week before we broke for Town Meeting week, the Senate Education Committee took a huge step by releasing a plan that altered the Governor’s and Secretary of Education’s 5 district plan and amended it to 9 districts. Specifically for the Grand Isle-Chittenden district and all of the Town of Milton the district included in the Senate plan is mainly the towns of Isle Lamotte, North Hero, Grand Isle, South Hero, Milton, Westford, Essex and Colchester. Alburgh is included in a district that is composed of Franklin County and some of the Northeast Kingdom under their proposal. This is the first real step I’ve seen from the Legislature and I’m glad there is finally traction to get something done as I feel we’ve been slow getting out of the gate on this one. One can speculate why that may be, but I do know that when we are back next week that we owe the taxpayers work and legislation on education reform. I will post more as I know more.
TRANSCRIPT: GOVERNOR PHIL SCOTT HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO ADDRESS EDUCATION REFORM THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Montpelier, Vt. – At Governor Phil Scott’s weekly press conference, the Scott Administration reiterated the need to address education reform this legislative session. Vermonters made it clear they want to fix the education system because our kids are not getting what they deserve from the $2.4 billion we spend – and neither are our teachers or taxpayers. By fixing the system, it will benefit taxpayers and give a high-quality education to all students.
Governor Scott: Good afternoon, thanks for being here.
As many remember, last year Vermonters saw a historic property tax increase with a high of 38% and an average increase of about 14%, which was significant considering inflation in many other areas. I think most Vermonters agreed that the system was broken and wasn’t sustainable.
So, to avoid facing yet another spike, we communicated with school boards throughout the fall and asked them to be disciplined with their budgets to avoid a repeat of last year.
And it appears most school boards did just that, and I want to thank them for their hard work because I know many had to make some tough decisions, which is never easy.
But even with the majority of school budgets passing, which is good news, we can’t declare victory. We have to stay focused and follow through on making our education system more affordable and sustainable while producing greater opportunities for our kids.
In the budget I presented to the Legislature in January, I proposed we use $77 million to buy down property tax rates so communities aren’t faced with another tax increase which was projected to be 6% if we do nothing.
I know many critics will say that using one time money to buy down rates is fiscally irresponsible and short sighted, and I find it hard to disagree. That’s why my plan doesn’t stop there. This year is only a bridge to get us to where we need to be so we can reform the way education is funded without breaking the bank for taxpayers in the process.
The bottom line is, we can’t buy down rates this year without the broader transformation that we must make because we’ll be faced with the same property tax problem next year, with an even larger increase.
As I said, many school boards have done their part to keep spending from growing more than we can afford. And my team has presented a plan to make structural changes, to improve the outcomes for our students, make property taxes more predictable, and create more equitable opportunities for students.
We also need the Legislature to do their part and address education transformation this session because we can’t afford to wait.
At the end of last session, the Legislature passed 70 bills in three days, so I’m confident that if they stay focused, we can accomplish what I believe needs to be done this session.
Representative Michael Morgan, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs and House Ethics Panel member.
Contact: [email protected] or 802-881-7835
Email me or call me with any questions or concerns.
Update from Montpelier Grand Isle/Chittenden State Representatives
February, 2025
From Rep Michael Morgan:
The past couple of weeks entailed committees diving into the meat of their work and taking heavy testimony on bills that are within their jurisdiction. To date we are north of 200 bills that have been introduced. Most of the work done in my Government Operations and Military Affairs committee, to date, was in regard to a contested election in House District, Bennington-1. I will speak to this in a moment.
I do not often talk about Floor Introductions that are done in the House, but this past week we had two noteworthy "mentions." First was the recognition of the UVM men's soccer team, honoring their gutsy, Division 1 national championship this past fall. More importantly though, I was honored to recognize Milton High School student Dominic Barcomb and his mother, Jenny this past Friday. Dom suffered a cardiac episode last month while playing in a basketball game at Spaulding High School. Thankfully, quick response by coaching staff and other folks at the game an AED was utilized, and he survived the event. Dom, his mother and the American Heart Association were at the Statehouse advocating for (very worthy) legislation regarding enacting plans for this type of emergency.
Back to the Bennington-1 situation that was dealt with in my committee. The quick backdrop is this: The House race for this single seat district was separated by a mere 25 votes and after a recount only 23 votes separated the two candidates. However, the losing candidate received phone calls stating that voters felt they were not able to vote in the correct district for the House race based on their residence. It turned out that roughly 56 people that should have received the ballot to vote for these two candidates but received a neighboring districts ballot instead. This number could have been enough voters to have moved the election in a different direction. The certified "winner" had been" seated" and sworn in pending my committee working on this issue. A great amount of testimony and deliberation consumed most of the first 5 weeks of the session on this critical matter. In the end my Government Operations and Military Affairs committee made the determination that the seated representative should retain his seat and that no re-vote would take place. In committee, I voted against this stance and was the dissenting opinion on the committee. Every vote was not counted as a result of the 56 getting the incorrect ballot and not all voices were heard. I also stated that this race, no matter which direction it went would have ZERO impact on the balance of power in Montpelier, however, not every vote was counted. This needs to be repaired for the next general election and I think the Secretary of State's office needs to audit the entire state for any other irregularities.
The Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) is annually a "tune up" to the current budget in the form of a recommendation from the Governor's Office. Last month the BAA was sent to our Appropriations Committee. It is assigned a bill number and this year it was H.141. It passed the House on a vote tally of 87-51. I did not support this bill as instead of merely truing up monies to various pieces of work done within last year's budget there were policy changes injected into the BAA. This is not the forum for policy work. These policy changes utilized unexpected revenues that came in to be applied to the funding of excess spending and it ignored some deferred debt payments. There was no real debate in the final product and once again, we have a poorly crafted money bill. We can do better with future work this session and with it now in the Senate I hope they make changes for the better in this bill.
From Rep Leland Morgan:
In the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Committee we have several bills on the wall but yet have not taken any action on them. We have taken testimony on a good number of topics-- logging, sawmills, farming practices, erosion, phosphates, PFOS, wetlands, water quality, flooding, avian flu, climate change, and many more.
As far as housing, school funding, health insurance costs, those are being worked on in their respective committees. Nothing has been fully formulated and sent to the floor yet, and probably won't for a while. It is going to be a long process with much discussion and debate when that occurs. As things progress, we will keep you informed.
Representative Leland Morgan (Ranking Member), Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry – email: [email protected] 802-318-0227
Representative Michael Morgan, House Government Operations and Military Affairs and House Ethics Panel member – email: [email protected] 802-881-7835
As usual, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us the above contact information.
The past couple of weeks entailed committees diving into the meat of their work and taking heavy testimony on bills that are within their jurisdiction. To date we are north of 200 bills that have been introduced. Most of the work done in my Government Operations and Military Affairs committee, to date, was in regard to a contested election in House District, Bennington-1. I will speak to this in a moment.
I do not often talk about Floor Introductions that are done in the House, but this past week we had two noteworthy "mentions." First was the recognition of the UVM men's soccer team, honoring their gutsy, Division 1 national championship this past fall. More importantly though, I was honored to recognize Milton High School student Dominic Barcomb and his mother, Jenny this past Friday. Dom suffered a cardiac episode last month while playing in a basketball game at Spaulding High School. Thankfully, quick response by coaching staff and other folks at the game an AED was utilized, and he survived the event. Dom, his mother and the American Heart Association were at the Statehouse advocating for (very worthy) legislation regarding enacting plans for this type of emergency.
Back to the Bennington-1 situation that was dealt with in my committee. The quick backdrop is this: The House race for this single seat district was separated by a mere 25 votes and after a recount only 23 votes separated the two candidates. However, the losing candidate received phone calls stating that voters felt they were not able to vote in the correct district for the House race based on their residence. It turned out that roughly 56 people that should have received the ballot to vote for these two candidates but received a neighboring districts ballot instead. This number could have been enough voters to have moved the election in a different direction. The certified "winner" had been" seated" and sworn in pending my committee working on this issue. A great amount of testimony and deliberation consumed most of the first 5 weeks of the session on this critical matter. In the end my Government Operations and Military Affairs committee made the determination that the seated representative should retain his seat and that no re-vote would take place. In committee, I voted against this stance and was the dissenting opinion on the committee. Every vote was not counted as a result of the 56 getting the incorrect ballot and not all voices were heard. I also stated that this race, no matter which direction it went would have ZERO impact on the balance of power in Montpelier, however, not every vote was counted. This needs to be repaired for the next general election and I think the Secretary of State's office needs to audit the entire state for any other irregularities.
The Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) is annually a "tune up" to the current budget in the form of a recommendation from the Governor's Office. Last month the BAA was sent to our Appropriations Committee. It is assigned a bill number and this year it was H.141. It passed the House on a vote tally of 87-51. I did not support this bill as instead of merely truing up monies to various pieces of work done within last year's budget there were policy changes injected into the BAA. This is not the forum for policy work. These policy changes utilized unexpected revenues that came in to be applied to the funding of excess spending and it ignored some deferred debt payments. There was no real debate in the final product and once again, we have a poorly crafted money bill. We can do better with future work this session and with it now in the Senate I hope they make changes for the better in this bill.
From Rep Leland Morgan:
In the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Committee we have several bills on the wall but yet have not taken any action on them. We have taken testimony on a good number of topics-- logging, sawmills, farming practices, erosion, phosphates, PFOS, wetlands, water quality, flooding, avian flu, climate change, and many more.
As far as housing, school funding, health insurance costs, those are being worked on in their respective committees. Nothing has been fully formulated and sent to the floor yet, and probably won't for a while. It is going to be a long process with much discussion and debate when that occurs. As things progress, we will keep you informed.
Representative Leland Morgan (Ranking Member), Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry – email: [email protected] 802-318-0227
Representative Michael Morgan, House Government Operations and Military Affairs and House Ethics Panel member – email: [email protected] 802-881-7835
As usual, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us the above contact information.
Jan. 21 - Jan. 24, 2025
This past week saw the introduction of almost 50 new bills in the House putting us near 100 to date with a week to go for crafting of new bills. We’re hopeful that the number of bills in these next two years is more meaningful and thoughtful as we don’t have the capacity to deal with the nearly 1,000 bills, we had last bi-ennium. The Senate, to date has less than 50 bills.
We’d like to address public safety as the focal point of this report. We have pulled excerpts from the Vermont Daily Chronicle that covered Governor Scott’s press conference on this subject, last week on Tuesday, January 14th.
In the face of climbing homicide, aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, identity theft, retail theft crime since 2018, Gov. Scott said at his press conference that his administration will push four anti-crime measures in the Legislature.
First: more bail revocation, within constitutional limits, for repeat offenders.
Government must both protect civil liberties and promote public safety, and “we are clearly not striking the right balance,” Scott said. “The safety of the public comes first.”
A reporter noted that Vermont prisons are at 135% of capacity. Scott responded that the ‘catch and release’ serial offenders are a small number of people. Bail revocation and other measures may actually reduce imprisonment long-term. His policies may not require more prison beds, he suggested.
“Holding people accountable will be a deterrent. There’s nothing holding them accountable now,” Scott said. He repeated that Vermonters are insisting on change.
“It will give comfort to the community,” Scott said. “John Q. Public doesn’t understand how the system allows current dealings with bail - and we’re trying to address that.”
The Scott administration will also push to change laws allowing the expungement of criminal records. Instead, records could be sealed, allowing people to find housing and jobs while still giving law enforcement access to criminal records.
And Scott wants a new law limiting judicial use of suspended sentences for violent crimes. Too many judges are letting felons go free post-sentencing, including violent repeat offenders, he said.
Last, the administration also will try to repeal the ‘raise the age’ law that as of April 2025 will allow 19-year-olds to be tried as juveniles.
Scott also said he wants the Department of Public Safety raised to a cabinet level agency.
Our caucus in the House and Senate are behind these initiatives proposed by the Governor that are aimed at making our state safer. As a result, we are sponsoring bills that aim to achieve the above.
This past week, on Wednesday, January 22nd, the Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders gave a very broad brushed brief to the House and Senate on Governor Scott’s plan to transform Vermont’s education system.
This coming week, the Governor will be giving his budget address, and we expect to hear from that and other correspondence from his office more details on the proposed funding system/his proposed way ahead. What is known is that conceptually they are proposing to have the state return to a foundation formula (similar to what most states do) that provides a generous per pupil education payment to local schools. This per pupil payment is supposed to cover the cost of an adequate education. Schools can choose to spend above this foundation (if they vote for such), but it would increase their tax rate. The idea is to reconnect voters with the impacts of their votes and reign in runaway property taxes. A recent study looked at what level of spending would be adequate, and it identified cost savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. One would surmise that this may be a component of where the Administration is heading. The Governor’s office has informed us that they plan to roll out more of the plan over the next several weeks.
We will bring forth more as we get more detailed information but know this is front and center and actively being worked on (mostly in the two committees of jurisdiction – House Education and House Ways and Means and in the sister committees in the Senate). Everyone (regardless of party affiliation) appears to be on board with reforming our educational system.
As always you can reach us at:
Representative Michael Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-881-7835, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, House Panel on Ethics
Representative Leland Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-318-0227, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry (Ranking Member)
Senator Pat Brennan – [email protected], cell: 802-578-2763, Senate Committee on Appropriations (Vice Chair) and Senate Committee on Transportation
We’d like to address public safety as the focal point of this report. We have pulled excerpts from the Vermont Daily Chronicle that covered Governor Scott’s press conference on this subject, last week on Tuesday, January 14th.
In the face of climbing homicide, aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, identity theft, retail theft crime since 2018, Gov. Scott said at his press conference that his administration will push four anti-crime measures in the Legislature.
First: more bail revocation, within constitutional limits, for repeat offenders.
Government must both protect civil liberties and promote public safety, and “we are clearly not striking the right balance,” Scott said. “The safety of the public comes first.”
A reporter noted that Vermont prisons are at 135% of capacity. Scott responded that the ‘catch and release’ serial offenders are a small number of people. Bail revocation and other measures may actually reduce imprisonment long-term. His policies may not require more prison beds, he suggested.
“Holding people accountable will be a deterrent. There’s nothing holding them accountable now,” Scott said. He repeated that Vermonters are insisting on change.
“It will give comfort to the community,” Scott said. “John Q. Public doesn’t understand how the system allows current dealings with bail - and we’re trying to address that.”
The Scott administration will also push to change laws allowing the expungement of criminal records. Instead, records could be sealed, allowing people to find housing and jobs while still giving law enforcement access to criminal records.
And Scott wants a new law limiting judicial use of suspended sentences for violent crimes. Too many judges are letting felons go free post-sentencing, including violent repeat offenders, he said.
Last, the administration also will try to repeal the ‘raise the age’ law that as of April 2025 will allow 19-year-olds to be tried as juveniles.
Scott also said he wants the Department of Public Safety raised to a cabinet level agency.
Our caucus in the House and Senate are behind these initiatives proposed by the Governor that are aimed at making our state safer. As a result, we are sponsoring bills that aim to achieve the above.
This past week, on Wednesday, January 22nd, the Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders gave a very broad brushed brief to the House and Senate on Governor Scott’s plan to transform Vermont’s education system.
This coming week, the Governor will be giving his budget address, and we expect to hear from that and other correspondence from his office more details on the proposed funding system/his proposed way ahead. What is known is that conceptually they are proposing to have the state return to a foundation formula (similar to what most states do) that provides a generous per pupil education payment to local schools. This per pupil payment is supposed to cover the cost of an adequate education. Schools can choose to spend above this foundation (if they vote for such), but it would increase their tax rate. The idea is to reconnect voters with the impacts of their votes and reign in runaway property taxes. A recent study looked at what level of spending would be adequate, and it identified cost savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. One would surmise that this may be a component of where the Administration is heading. The Governor’s office has informed us that they plan to roll out more of the plan over the next several weeks.
We will bring forth more as we get more detailed information but know this is front and center and actively being worked on (mostly in the two committees of jurisdiction – House Education and House Ways and Means and in the sister committees in the Senate). Everyone (regardless of party affiliation) appears to be on board with reforming our educational system.
As always you can reach us at:
Representative Michael Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-881-7835, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, House Panel on Ethics
Representative Leland Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-318-0227, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry (Ranking Member)
Senator Pat Brennan – [email protected], cell: 802-578-2763, Senate Committee on Appropriations (Vice Chair) and Senate Committee on Transportation
Jan. 8 - Jan. 17, 2025
We just wrapped up our first full week in the Legislature. Last week was highlighted by all House and Senate members being sworn in and getting familiarized with the machinations of the processes we use in Montpelier. Voters this last year sent the message that they wanted better balance in both bodies of the House and Senate. We are hopeful that this will drive a more meaningful, thoughtful, and bi-partisan spirit of legislation that is passed and is good for Vermonters. It is time for the Legislature to work together and make changes that will control property tax rates and foster a more affordable education system, promote public safety, and fix the Global Warming Solutions act to align it with reality. These are the issues that we ran on and the people of Vermont clearly agree.
Education Funding (which drove up property taxes last year) is finally getting the attention of the whole body of the Legislature. The message was sent that taxpayers were not happy (and should not have been) with what happened with their tax bills due to the lack of proper action in the 2024 Legislative Session. Controlling property taxes is going to take an entire system overhaul. The Secretary of Education has been working closely with the administration to produce a proposal. It will be up to the legislature to get elements of the proposal passed. To that end we will have a “Caucus of the Whole” this coming Wednesday, January 22nd with the Senate where we will hear the Administrations proposal for the way ahead with regards to education funding. It will take bipartisan “buy in” to make this happen.
Public safety is of the utmost concern; the catch and release policies that have been pushed are clearly not working. We are continually re-releasing dangerous offenders with no accountability. We must hold offenders accountable for their behavior or they will continue to re-offend. Our caucus in coordination with the Governor and his staff have a host of initiatives that we will be working with in this arena to bolster public safety. We will report on these as they get rolled out as bills.
Revising and repealing portions of the Global Warming Solutions Act, and the Clean Heat Standard must be done immediately! The clock is ticking on the unrealistic benchmarks that were included in this legislation. We will not be able to meet the overly aggressive reductions in carbon output that was prescribed in this poor legislation, and we have opened ourselves up to lawsuits when that does not happen.
Making progress on these issues means that the Legislature needs to work together and work with the Governor's office. Finally, it appears that both major parties are poised to do this as they have signaled that they are eagerly waiting for the Governor's plan for education funding as a start in this year’s session. For once, both parties are speaking to affordability as that message too, was sent. We look forward to tackling the hard work and sincerely hope that we will be listened to in 2025 and 2026. The majority party still has larger numbers, and we cannot advance logical policies without their approval. We must work together.
We will put out reports at reasonable intervals and/or when large issues of note are in front of us.
Representative Michael Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-881-7835, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, House Panel on Ethics
Representative Leland Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-318-0227, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry (Ranking Member)
Senator Pat Brennan – [email protected], cell: 802-578-2763, Senate Committee on Appropriations (Vice Chair) and Senate Committee on Transportation
Education Funding (which drove up property taxes last year) is finally getting the attention of the whole body of the Legislature. The message was sent that taxpayers were not happy (and should not have been) with what happened with their tax bills due to the lack of proper action in the 2024 Legislative Session. Controlling property taxes is going to take an entire system overhaul. The Secretary of Education has been working closely with the administration to produce a proposal. It will be up to the legislature to get elements of the proposal passed. To that end we will have a “Caucus of the Whole” this coming Wednesday, January 22nd with the Senate where we will hear the Administrations proposal for the way ahead with regards to education funding. It will take bipartisan “buy in” to make this happen.
Public safety is of the utmost concern; the catch and release policies that have been pushed are clearly not working. We are continually re-releasing dangerous offenders with no accountability. We must hold offenders accountable for their behavior or they will continue to re-offend. Our caucus in coordination with the Governor and his staff have a host of initiatives that we will be working with in this arena to bolster public safety. We will report on these as they get rolled out as bills.
Revising and repealing portions of the Global Warming Solutions Act, and the Clean Heat Standard must be done immediately! The clock is ticking on the unrealistic benchmarks that were included in this legislation. We will not be able to meet the overly aggressive reductions in carbon output that was prescribed in this poor legislation, and we have opened ourselves up to lawsuits when that does not happen.
Making progress on these issues means that the Legislature needs to work together and work with the Governor's office. Finally, it appears that both major parties are poised to do this as they have signaled that they are eagerly waiting for the Governor's plan for education funding as a start in this year’s session. For once, both parties are speaking to affordability as that message too, was sent. We look forward to tackling the hard work and sincerely hope that we will be listened to in 2025 and 2026. The majority party still has larger numbers, and we cannot advance logical policies without their approval. We must work together.
We will put out reports at reasonable intervals and/or when large issues of note are in front of us.
Representative Michael Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-881-7835, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, House Panel on Ethics
Representative Leland Morgan – [email protected], cell: 802-318-0227, House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry (Ranking Member)
Senator Pat Brennan – [email protected], cell: 802-578-2763, Senate Committee on Appropriations (Vice Chair) and Senate Committee on Transportation
April 30 - May 3, 2024This past week the House passed S.259, An act relating to climate change cost recovery. The bill attempts to collect money from “big oil” for their part in contributing to climate change. Not only that, but it would also consider the covered period of liability to be retroactive to January 1, 1995, an almost 30-year period! Here we go again; becoming the first in the nation to pass legislation regarding “climate cost recovery.”
Folks, this is another affordability issue. This bill purports to make “big oil” pay for their part in increasing the carbon footprint of Vermont. The State of Vermont will attempt to “charge” oil companies for disasters (floods, hurricanes etc.) that they feel are caused by fossil fuel usage. The oil companies will sue. The state will counter sue. This legislation will be dragged through the courts for years. In the end...once again, the end user, we Vermonters will pay. Vermonters will pay for all of the State’s legal fees in defending the lawsuits that will undoubtedly drag on for years. Additionally, Vermonters will also pay an extra seventy cents per gallon of heating oil due to the passage of the Clean Heat Standard Bill passed last year. I simply could not support a bill based on the premise that we should look back thirty years to punish companies who provided heating oil, gasoline, etc., in order for the people of Vermont to live and work. Vermonters have reduced their consumption of gasoline and diesel fuel in the last two decades. We are doing our part. Most of us feel we should be good stewards of our environment. We rely heavily on fossil fuels to run our cars, farm machinery (that produces our food), highway equipment to pave our roads and plow our roads, emergency vehicles (police, fire, and rescue) – and the list goes on and on. But, until there are long term, viable, cost-effective alternatives available, we will have a dependence on some level of fossil fuel usage unless we are willing to revert to living life like most in the world did prior to 1900. This is not the way Vermont should be doing business. Once again Vermont is doing its part with reduced consumption. This bill will ask Vermonters - the end users - to bear the brunt of this monetarily as you can be guaranteed that these costs with the actions of this bill will be borne on the backs of hard-working Vermonters. This will cost Vermonters. April 23 - April 26, 2024This session is winding down (projected end date of May 10th) with heavy activity in the Legislature. House Committees are considering Senate proposals of amendment to House bills passed earlier in the session and Senate bills sent our way. As they pass out of committees these bills are rapidly hitting the House Floor for votes. The following bills were passed: S.30, S.109, H.887, S.209, S.191, H.881, H.40, H.861, H.563, and H.659. Readers can find the content of these bills by typing the bill letter and number in the bill tracker on the General Assembly website and looking at the most recent “as passed by” copy. The Budget (Big Bill), H.883 was returned to us from the Senate and immediately sent to a Committee of Conference to resolve the differences between the two Chambers. This is one of the major bills left to be sent to the Governor that are “must pass” - typically this is the last bill to be accomplished before we adjourn.
In my committee, House Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) we finished our work on S.310 (Natural disaster government response, recovery,and resiliency), HR18 (Resolution from the Special Committee on Impeachment) and a few more municipal charter changes; we also continued to work on S.55 (Changes to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law), S.96 (Act relating to privatization contracts), S.159 (County and Regional Governance study), and took a straw poll on H.887 (Homestead property tax yields, non-homestead rates, and policy changes to education finance and taxation – the Yield Bill). As I reported last week, the final vote on H.887 (Yield Bill) was taken and passed – I could not support it. There is nothing in this bill for either short-term or long-term cost containment, or structural reform. Instead, it imposes two new taxes totaling $27 million and a study. As fellow Representative Chris Taylor stated on the House floor: “We need to let Vermonters know we are willing to help, but we will not rely solely on taking more money out of their pockets as the go-to solution. This system does not need more revenue; it needs to be restructured to be more cost effective, transparent, and predictable.” House Minority Leader, Pattie McCoy had these words in her comments before the final vote on the Yield Bill: “The study committee in this bill sounds like just more of the status quo. Folks, we better start listening to our constituents; Vermonters who are trying to make ends meet, while we sit here in Montpelier and continue to raise taxes and fees each and every year. Adding the two tax mechanisms in this bill, we will have passed and delivered to the Senate a total of approximately 160 million in new taxes and fees; and this is over and above the 8.5 Billion Dollar budget that was passed out of this House, and on top of the one-half a billion dollar increase in taxes and fees passed last year! Vermonters will pay the cloud tax. Vermonters will pay the Short-term rental tax. They will pay the property tax hike. Vermonters have had enough. I cannot support a bill that has no systemic change in how we deliver education in this state. Vermonters are demanding change. The status quo is failing. Enough is enough!” My colleagues, Representatives Chris Taylor (Milton) and Casey Toof (St Albans) offered an amendment to H.887 to sunset the new taxes levied in the bill, but it was defeated. This would have at least made the bill more “accountable,” and forced a harder look at it next year. As I said last week I hope the Senate can make changes for short and long term containment. This past week I had the honor of introducing youth members of Vermont’s Civil Air Patrol and the 2023 Eagle Scout class for Vermont. Two Milton, young men were among those recognized as 2023 Eagles: Ayden Honnon and Colby Schlegel-Barber. On a more somber note, I would like to extend my condolences to the Hackett family of South Hero. This past week they lost the matriarch of their family, Mrs. Celia Hackett. The Hackett’s are a part of the fabric of our local communities, and we are saddened by their loss. April 16 - April 19, 2024This past week in the House, the Ways and Means Committee passed out H.887, An act relating to homestead property tax yields, nonhomestead rates, and policy changes to education finance and taxation – simply known as the “Yield Bill.” The bill passed on an 8-4 vote. Ways and Means is the committee of jurisdiction that can most affect education spending now.
I attempt to make my reports as non-partisan as possible, but in this case, there was a clear philosophical difference between the Democrat and Republican members in the committee vote. The bill was crafted, debated, and had testimony on it for only 10 days. In the earlier drafts of the bill there were plans for near and long-term cost containment, which were part of the demands of Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee. However, the final draft of the bill saw most of these initiatives stripped out. Instead, we ended up with a bill that used two new taxes contained in it. These taxes are being utilized as an attempt at helping reduce the 200 million/20% tax hike projection that was highlighted last December 1st by Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio. The two taxes are in the form of a “cloud tax” on internet software and a short-term rental tax. They collectively raise approximately $27 million. Once again, we are saddling businesses with more tax burden. This cannot continue. From a press conference held by Republicans on Thursday, Ways and Means member, Representative Scott Beck stated: “The Education Fund has grown from $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion in 10 years – It is now bigger than the General Fund of the State. It is the first time it has been bigger.” He went on to quote Albert Einstein’s famous quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He went on to say that without the aforementioned provisions of cost containment (near and long term) that we are “simply left with insanity.” He suggested that a combination of budget cuts and long-term reform are the answer. Let me be clear that I emphatically support our students, teachers and support staff who work tirelessly to educate our children in a tough environment. However, I think we can all agree that something needs to be done differently moving forward. In Governor Scott’s weekly press conference, he had the following words to say about where the House bill stands: “Vermonters already face a daunting tax burden. Too many are struggling to get by, and simply cannot afford to see their costs continue to go up. Vermonters have also made themselves abundantly clear: taxes are crushing them. Months ago, when the December 1 property tax projection letter came out, my team warned about the consequences of such a historic tax increase. Unfortunately, many in the Legislature brushed it off and downplayed it. For years, I have voiced my concerns about the sustainability of our education system and have offered ideas for the Legislature to consider that would contain costs. They have rejected those ideas, time and time again – without following through on solutions of their own. Today, it is clear the House’s only plan is to accept an unbearable property tax increase, without any cost containment, while adding other taxes and studying the problem for a couple years. That means we will be in this same mess for years to come. I cannot accept this, I know Vermonters will not, and I hope the Senate does not either.” I have advocated for change this session with my peers, but it appears this bill will likely pass on the House floor next week. My hope is that we can possibly make some amendments for positive change to this bill or convince the Senate, when they get the bill to re-consider containing costs……… I hear from many people every week that Vermont is not affordable for them any longer. I will continue to fight for affordability in our state. March 12 - March 15, 2024March 15th marked crossover day; bills that committees wanted advancement on (without a monetary appropriation as a component), had to have an affirmative majority vote to be considered for passage. Any bills that have an appropriation have until this Friday, the 22nd, to be passed out of committees. These bills then must be debated on the House floor then, if passed they move over to the Senate and vice versa.
This week in House Government Operations & Military Affairs, we took testimony at a very rapid pace, producing several drafts of legislation as we tried to keep up with all the changes generated from committee members’ questions, wording that needed finesse, and after hours reworking of language to try to achieve majority consensus. Bills passed out of committee this week were: H.702, Legislative operations and government accountability; H.872, VT criminal justice council amendments; H.606, Professional licensure and immigration status; H.644, Access to records by individuals in foster care; H.622, Emergency Medical Services; H.140, State-funded grants; H.845, Designating November as Vermont Month of the Veteran; H.585, Amending the pension system for sheriffs and certain deputy sheriffs; H.875, State & Municipal Code of Ethics; and H.626, Animal Welfare. On the House Floor, we had extensive debate on S.18, Banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids and H.645, Expansion of approaches to restorative justice. We also passed H.534, Retail theft; H.870, Professions and Occupations regulated by the Office of Professional Regulation; H.766, Prior authorization and step therapy requirements, health insurance claims, provider contracts, and collection of cost-sharing amounts and H.856, Medical leave for a serious injury. On Friday, the 15th, I had the distinct honor of having introduced a House Resolution honoring Torpedoman Henry Breault. The Resolution was read on the House floor and then I spoke to the Resolution to further honor Torpedoman Breault. It was the centennial of him receiving the Medal of Honor in 1924 from our own President Calvin Coolidge. Breault was the first Navy, enlisted member to have ever received the Medal, for saving the life of his fellow submariner while in the Panama Canal. A multitude of Navy and Coast Guard active members, retirees and veterans were present in the House chamber for this presentation. Of note, Henry Breault was living in the town of Grand Isle at the time of his enlistment in 1920 and was sworn in at Ridgecrest Farms in Grand Isle. Ridgecrest Farms is currently owned by retired dairy farmer Andy Paradee and he still actively works his farm as a crop farmer. If you would like to read more about these bills (and those passed by the Senate), you can type the bill number into the bill tracker on the General Assembly website and click on the most updated version of that bill (“As passed by the House” or “As passed by the Senate”). Next, these bills will involve more testimony in sister committees in the other body. You can follow the progress in the committees where the bill is assigned by viewing that committee’s posted agendas. All committee hearings are available and recorded on YouTube through the General Assembly website. Feb. 20 - Feb. 23, 2024The pace at the Statehouse is picking up – every Committee has its eye on
crossover (March 15 for policy bills and March 22 for money bills) and is. taking testimony fast and furiously. The House Floor had 4 bills passed and now residing with the Senate for consideration: H.861, Reimbursement parity for healthcare services delivered in person, by telemedicine, and by audio-only telephone; H.132, Prohibition against discrimination based on housing status; H.745, The Vermont Parentage Act, and H.543, An act relating to Vermont’s adoption of a Social Work Licensure Compact. The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (GOMA) this week heard a couple of brand-new bills: H.622, An emergency medical services bill, and an Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) expansion of Optometric scope conceptual bill. We continue to hear from the same witnesses repeatedly on H.612, Miscellaneous amendments to cannabis statutes; Miscellaneous amendments to alcoholic beverages, and both the State and Municipal Codes of ethics, each time with changes to the proposed language. I’m not so sure that these can all make it to the March 15th finish line. The last thing I would like to see is a bill moving forward that has not been properly vetted with all stakeholders – in other words, passing a bill for the sake of passing a bill! This week, Governor Scott signed into law H.850, An act relating to transitioning education financing to the new system for pupil weighting. However, this bill is only a near term solution to some districts that were negatively affected by pupil weighting in previous legislation. And the Governor was very clear in his messaging on the signing of this bill: “While I appreciate your commitment to this bill, affirming it is the intent of the General Assembly to address the delivery, governance and financing of Vermont’s education system, this bill does not fix it. To be clear, I remain ready to work with you to both improve student outcomes and contain costs to a level Vermonters can afford.” In other words, Governor Scott is signaling that he expects the Legislature to work with him and construct meaningful legislation with regards to the funding of education. However, it will require tri-partisan collaboration in the Legislature to produce true reform on how education is funded. If that will power is not there, change will not occur. I talk to members of all three parties daily, and I’m hopeful that the message is resonating that we owe this to Vermonters. Feb. 13 - Feb. 16, 2024This past week the following bills passed the House: H.247 the Occupational Therapy Licensure Compact; H.563 an act relating to criminal motor vehicle offenses involving unlawful trespass, theft, or unauthorized operation; H.649 amendments to the VT Truth and Reconciliation Commission; H.801amendments to the Town of Waterbury charter; and S.154 an act relating to the Vermont State Plane Coordinate System. We sent H.839 the Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) to a Committee of Conference as it went to the Senate, and they amended it from the original form from the House. Now the House and Senate must come up with a compromise.
The biggest Statehouse news of interest to constituents this week is H.850, a bill developed by House Ways & Means and House Education to “fix” a loophole in Act 127 from 2023. When the implementation of the new pupil weighting system formula that determines the tax capacity of a school district with respect to the needs of its individual student population was enacted, a 5% cap was included for certain districts that needed a “soft-landing” for a few years because they would be losing tax capacity. Keep in mind that because of Act 60 in 1997, Vermont has a statewide education fund that all taxpayers pay into, and all school districts receive funding from. Also, not all students cost the same to educate (for instance, students who are multi-language learners or who live in poverty are more expensive to educate, as are high schoolers vs preschoolers). Unfortunately, there were some districts across the state that submitted budgets over the 5% cap “because they could”, and that resulted in warned budgets that greatly exceeded education spending from last year and could cause all of our property taxes to rise, regardless of how many fiscally frugal districts submitted reasonable budgets. H.850, which passed the House and is in the Senate, seeks to remedy this by allowing school districts who wish to re-work their budgets to hold that vote up until April 15. It also provides a discount for those districts that lost tax capacity due to the aforementioned changes in the pupil weighting formula. In my opinion we have reached a point in this state where we have to take a very deep dive into the funding of education as I don’t think the current model works any longer. However, we’ll have to see if the rest of the Legislative body agrees with my line of thinking and has the will to greatly reform a system that no longer works. In the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, we continued our work on: H.612 miscellaneous amendments to cannabis statutes; a state and a municipal code of ethics; H.626 animal welfare; miscellaneous amendments to the Department of Liquor and Lottery statutes; H.794 services provided to the Vermont Veterans Home; and H.641authorizing boards of abatement to hear like cases as a class. On Thursday we elected two trustees of the Vermont State College System and the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Vermont National Guard. My good friend and Guard colleague, Major General Greg Knight ran unopposed and was unanimously re-elected to his office. Of note, we are the only state in the US that still elects its Adjutant General. Feb. 6 - Feb. 9, 2024Most of the work in the Vermont House this past week was spent with committees hearing testimony on bills that the Committee Chairs are trying to move forward prior to “crossover.” Crossover is defined by the dates that bills must move from the House to the Senate and vice versa for consideration. Anything that does not move forward by the deadlines are then considered “dead on the wall” as this is the second half of the biennium, and they are null and void unless reintroduced as new bills in the next biennium (2025/2026). Crossover dates for this year are March 15th for policy bills and March 22nd for bills with money as the driver. As we get closer to these crossover dates, the House Floor will take up a much larger portion of our days as we are passing items to move them to the Senate. Therefor we can expect committee testimony in the next couple of weeks to be very heavy as we vote them out and onto the Floor for passage (or not).
My House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (GOMA) dug into several bills: H.549 siting of cannabis cultivation; H.726 compliance checks by the Dept of Liquor and Lottery; H.426 creation of new cannabis licenses; State and municipal ethics committee bills (not numbered as it is a committee driven bill); H.730 uniformly removing members of State Boards and Commissions; H.667 Vermont-Ireland Trade Commission; H.801 Town of Waterbury charter change; a miscellaneous Committee, Dept of Liquor and Lottery bill; H.641 authorizing boards of abatement to hear like cases as a class; and S.154 VT State Plane Coordinate System. As you can see our portfolio is wide and varied. If you would like to learn more about these bills, they can be found by using the bill tracker function on the General Assembly website or looking at our committee webpage. On the House floor, our business was completed quickly. We passed H.666, an act relating to escrow deposit bonds and H.751, an act expanding equal pay protections. Of note, the Senate passed H.839, the Budget Adjustment Act, with further amendments, so that bill will now go to a Committee of Conference (made up of a select group of appointed House and Senate members), which will result in a compromise bill to send to the Governor. Jan. 30 - Feb. 2, 2024In the House this past week we saw a handful more bills trickle into the committees of jurisdiction. Committee Chairs are trying to hear bill introductions from sponsors of as many of the almost 900 bills that have been introduced as they have time for. Based on whether they think the bill will have traction for passage, they will then take the bill off the wall, and the committee will hear testimony from various witnesses and subject matter experts.
Bills that we took testimony on in my committee, House Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) this past week were miscellaneous amendments to cannabis statutes (outdoor cannabis cultivation, cannabis special events), municipal and state codes of ethics, modifications to liquor licensures and amendments to statutes relating to the Office of Professional Regulation. On the House Floor, we passed two bills this week, H.363, an act relating to prohibiting discrimination based on certain hair types and styles. This bill takes language from the national CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair) Act and H.160, an act relating to state education property taxes and flood-related damage. This bill had unanimous support in the House and was expedited to the Governor for his signature due to the immediate requirement for those impacted by this past summer’s flooding. It indirectly provides education tax relief to those that suffered loss in the federal disaster declaration extending from July 1st through October 15th of last year. It provides a mechanism for the state to reimburse towns that have revenue loss due to tax abatement of individual property owners through their towns due to the flooding loss. On Thursday, the VT National Guard completed their four-part series of presentations on the mission and vision of the Guard. These recordings may be found on the General Assembly website under “Announcements”. The depth and breadth of what this organization does for the State of Vermont is profound, and we are grateful for their service. In that same vein, GOMA heard from the Vermont Veterans Home on how their facility in Southern Vermont is faring during this time of healthcare worker shortages and nursing home closures (I am happy to report that they are doing very well!). Last, the State Treasurer’s office put out an email in regard to “unclaimed property.” The state currently holds more than $120 million in unclaimed property and in 2023 paid out 20,000 claims totaling $3.6 million back in the pockets of Vermonters. The average claim was $180. If you’d like to see if you fall on the list: [email protected] go to this link to check. Jan. 23 - Jan. 26, 2024Again, this week, work on the House Floor was light with more municipal charter approvals (including the Town of South Hero charter approval which I reported) and a captive insurance bill (H.659) passing.
On Tuesday, we heard the Governor’s Budget address, where he laid out his priorities within the confines of the resources, we currently have without raising any new taxes or fees. The House, this week, passed H.839, the Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) late Thursday. This Act is an annual “tune up” to the current, Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget, whereby any remaining funds are re-distributed, and any emergent issues are taken care of. Unfortunately, in this BAA there was inserted 32 million dollars more than the Governor’s recommend on the bill. As a result, this diminishes one-time monies available for the next Fiscal Year. In essence we have now spent most of the surplus dollars that were available to us to use in the next fiscal year’s budgetary needs. I was opposed to the use of this 32 million at this juncture. So, now, there is potential to either cut items from FY 25’s budget as it is formulated OR taxes get, once again raised! Again, we can not afford to be hitting Vermonter’s wallets like was done last session. In my House Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) committee we took testimony on a Municipal Code of Ethics and a State Code of Ethics bills that are being contemplated. We also heard testimony on H.626, an animal welfare bill. This coming week we are hearing testimony on a couple of cannabis related bills and some more charter work. On Friday, we hosted the Milton High School Girls, 2023 State Champion soccer team. They received a tour of the Capitol. I had a resolution crafted for reading on the House Floor honoring this 17th championship for Milton girls soccer. They were then recognized by me with their statistics on their stellar season and received an ovation as they were seated in the balcony of the House. Last, I want to take a moment and recognize recent events surrounding an egregious act that occurred in Isle Lamotte at Sandy Bottom Farm. The vandalism, theft and destruction of their property is a deplorable act. I have had multiple conversations with authorities on this situation and it still very much, an active investigation. There should not be any room for this type of behavior in our communities and when caught, the individual(s) should be prosecuted to the greatest extent possible with which they are charged. Jan. 16 - Jan. 19, 2024This week in the Statehouse things have settled into our “normal” routine – bill introductions have slowed down, and we’ve begun the work of heavy testimony and debate in our individual committees on these bills. The House Floor was light this week as we passed only a few bills that made municipal charter changes (H.516 for Essex Jct and S.141 for the Fairfax Fire District), some technical corrections (H.560 to workers’ compensation rulemaking and H.599 reinstating a statute that was inadvertently removed last session) and heard commemorative Resolutions.
In the Government Operations & Military Affairs (GOMA) Committee, some of our testimony dove into reports filed by the State Ethics Commission, the Cannabis Control Board, the Department of States Attorneys and Sheriffs, the Law Enforcement Advisory Board, and a joint hearing on the EMS Regional Coordination Study. Each of these reports comes with recommendations for further legislation, which we must be diligent about researching and weighing the pros and cons of them while being mindful of their impacts on the State Budget. As a result, we are considering bills relating to a State and a Municipal Ethics Code, miscellaneous amendments to adult-use cannabis statutes, and further initiatives around public safety. In the vein of our charter work in GOMA, Tuesday the 23rd, I will be reporting on H.554 – Adoption of The Town of South Hero Charter. It should be a smooth report and I expect it will transition through the Senate just fine. Additionally in GOMA we have continued our work making recommendations to House Appropriations on the portions of the Budget that fall under our purview. While a majority of these programs have merit, there will be strain to expand them all in a year when taxes and fees are rising and COVID era funding is rapidly waning. As a result, the Appropriations Committee has a very difficult and arduous task ahead of them. This Tuesday, January 23rd, Governor Scott will be giving his annual budget address with his “recommends” for the unveiling of a budget number and how he feels we need to be mindful on how we arrive at that number. Earlier in the month, the Governor in his state of the state address alluded to the fact that his budget address would be “sobering.” However, I’ll credit the State Economists with their recent testimonials that revenues are staying, unexpectedly a bit stronger than initially predicted. But with tremendous pressures on how we move forward with many programs that we are trying to balance these unexpected revenues could be “gobbled” up very rapidly. I just know that many, many of you have reached out to me with your stories of how your checkbook is being literally decimated in our current economic condition of the state and the nation. Please know that I’m listening to that. We cannot afford to continue to raise taxes at the pace we set last year. The Vermont National Guard continued with their Guard 101 series of briefings. This past week they briefed the missions of both the Army and Air Guard. It focused on their state missions and how they can be activated to support National or Global reach missions. The series is brought to us by the VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs caucus in collaboration with the VT National Guard and the House Speakers’ Office as an educational resource for legislators. These briefings are important as, soon, we will be voting in the upcoming election for the Adjutant General of the VT National Guard. Major General Gregory Knight will be running for re-election, and it is notable that we remain the only state in the United States that still elects our Adjutant General; all other states’ Adjutants General are appointed by the Executive Branch. Jan. 9 - Jan. 12, 2024This week had another large quantity of new bills hit the House Floor. We have now exceeded 700 bills from this biennium that are (if they haven’t been voted out yet) sitting in their committees of jurisdiction for consideration.
In my committee, Government Operations and Military Affairs we have just started the meat of our discussions against bills on our “wall.” Most of our attention at this point has been focused on Town Charters. As a reminder, Vermont is a Dillon’s Rule state, meaning that municipalities receive all their legal authority from the Vermont Legislature. So, for a community to create or alter a charter it must go through the state legislative process for approval. We saw changes to a Fairfax Fire District, the town of Essex, the city of Essex Junction and most germane to our District, me and South Hero Select Board Chair David Carter presented changes to the South Hero charter. The charter made some changes to municipal appointments and institutes a local option tax on rooms, meals and alcoholic beverages. I would expect to be reporting this bill on the House floor in the next couple of weeks. A very controversial bill hit the House floor this week – H.72, An Act relating to a harm-reduction criminal justice response to drug use – otherwise publicly known for the inception of a pilot program for “Safe Injection Sites.” The 2 million dollars in the bill for these sites comes from settlement money from 5 drug makers. For multiple reasons, I was not able to support this bill. First, these sites are illegal under federal law. Second, when talking about the accessibility of these sites, there was debate on how many people do these serve within walking distance of the site? In rural Vermont, none. If they drove there instead, would they be under the influence of this substance while driving home? Third, the concern that there are no age restrictions in this bill. Are we ok with 14- or 15-year-old children walking into one of these sites and “shooting up?” Is that a level of child neglect on parents – will they now be subjected to legal issues? Those questions could not be answered. Last, I had several folks ask me not to support this. I even had one person call me and say: “you and I probably do not see eye to eye on a number of issues, but these sites are just too much and too radical for me, our money is better spent helping these addicted folks in other ways - please vote no.” If we truly want to help, the money could be better spent on treatment and rehabilitative services for people that are ravaged by drug addiction and accessible to all Vermonters. On Wednesday, Governor Scott conducted a press conference that addressed H.719 – An act relating to housing development and unit rehabilitation. This is one of the Governor’s focus areas for this session. Here is a very broad brushed take away from the press conference: H.719 encourages development in downtown, infill areas by, a) extending current mileage limits of downtown designated areas, b) increasing numbers of units allowed to be built in these areas and c) eliminates the time limit on building new developments. Again, this is very broad in scope and for a much deeper look you can view the Governor’s press conference https://www.orcamedia.net/ and click on the Governor’s Weekly Update from January 10th. January 2024January 5, 2024, Legislative Report
Friends – Happy New Year! This Wednesday was the kick-off to this year’s legislative session. In just three days, well over 150 new bills have been introduced with many more to come. Some would say that is good, and some would say that is bad. My next paragraphs focus on (from Governor Scott) what we as YOUR legislative body should really be laser focused on. On Thursday the 4th, Governor Phil Scott gave his annual State of the State address to the Senate and the House. He had many, many important points but his focus was on: Affordability/The Budget, Housing and Public Safety. First, The Budget and Affordability – he implored the legislature to stop crafting legislation that is (collectively) financially crushing to our Vermont families. For instance, the 20% increase in DMV fees that was passed last session and went into effect January 1st of this year. Several of you have reached out to me about these fees that, sadly, DMV did not even ask for. Many of you are already seeing the impact of this increase. Last year the VT Legislature enacted a budget that the Governor vetoed (and unfortunately his veto was overridden) that did not fund the state in the manner he recommended. The Governor stated that “With historic one-time federal aid ending, another large increase in our pension obligation, and last year’s spending decisions catching up to us, we are back to where we were several years ago with difficult decisions to be made. In three weeks, I will present my budget for Fiscal Year 2025, and it will be a much different picture than previous years – “sobering” comes to mind.” He further went on to say: “For many of you (we legislators) this will be the first time you will work on a budget without hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus. For others it is déjà vu. Once again, we will face the discomfort of saying “no,” choosing between many good things, and maintaining the discipline to focus on what Vermonters need most.” I will keep you posted as this morphs through the session. Second, the Housing shortage. Right now, Vermont currently has 2200 housing units permitted each year, but census data and vacancy rates show that we could use 6,800 new units NOW! The Governor asked for us to massage Act 250 to allow for more housing, not impede it. He stated that when Act 250 was crafted it was needed to slow growth as we were growing too fast, but now, we cannot live with that level of restriction. Anyone that has recently sought out housing knows how difficult it is to find something. Third, Public Safety. Every day we read about or see in the news increased crime at all levels that is unacceptable. The proliferation and use of illegal drugs is also at an all-time high. We should be focusing on legislation that allows for very stiff sentencing and stop with all of the “catch and release” politics we are seeing in the legal world in relation to criminal behavior/action. This is unacceptable. It must stop. I have collaborated with other legislators to seek reforms in our legal system, and we will see how all of this progresses. You can read the full text of Governor Scott’s address here: https://governor.vermont.gov/press-release/governor-phil-scott-delivers-2024-state-state-address I am hopeful that my legislative colleagues are heeding the Governor’s recommendations, words and ideas and doing the right thing to help Vermonters in his quest to have the state be a place that we can afford to live in....... I will, as last year, be publishing a weekly report to you and as always feel free to reach out to me at: [email protected] or my cell at: 802-881-7835. End of SessionThis past week the Speaker of the House and the Senate Pro Tempore had established Tuesday the 20th of June through Thursday the 22nd for a “veto session” to debate on and vote whether to override 7 more vetoes issued by Governor Scott. He had earlier issued a veto against Senate bill S.5 – “The Affordable Heat Act” but that was already voted on and overridden during the regular session. I will not get into that bill as that dialogue already occurred in earlier reports/conversations I’ve had with you folks.
The veto session that could have taken up to 3 days with deliberation and compromise turned into the majority party in the House simply taking swift and decisive action to override the Governor on all 5 bills that he vetoed. The Senate followed suit and voted to override them as well. The session ended at roughly 5:00 pm the day that it started. No compromises were made, and all 5 bills will now become law. This was all done despite the House Republicans asking for compromise and concessions to make the bills more palatable for all Vermonters. With the current construct of the House and Senate, there is one sided “rule” with little to no back-and-forth dialogue and no compromise. Without this, we end up with one-sided legislation without a diversity of thought and work going into the bills. This does not bode well for Vermonters. The Senate had two bills that were vetoed but not taken up as it appeared they did not have the votes to override them, so they were simply sent back to their committees of jurisdiction with no further action on them. Despite pleas on the House floor for reason and fiscally palatable bills, the majority rapidly overrode the Governor’s concerns on: H.494 (Budget). This budget has grown 13% over last year’s baseline and contains $20M in unsolicited DMV fee increases (20% increase in one year). H.217 (Childcare) - sets up a brand-new, (multi, multi millions of dollars) payroll tax largely funded by employers, although all workers will be required to pay their share. H.305 increased professional licensing fees for all state licensed occupations. H.509 - non-citizen voting in Burlington and H.386 - 16/17-year-old voting in Brattleboro. As Governor Scott has stated on numerous occasions – he proposed a budget that had no new taxes or fees and yet provided the very best in services to all Vermonters. These overrides will financially hurt every Vermonter. Don’t get me wrong – these bills may have been well intended but the cost to enact them was too high. Again, the Governor had a plan, but it was largely ignored. In addition to these new expenses being levied on all Vermonters, the non-citizen voting and 16/17-year-olds voting bring to light a constitutionality component that is questionable. With nearly a half billion dollars of new spending in this one budget, Vermont has become one of the top 3 or 4 taxed states in the nation. I don’t think that Vermonters should be pleased with that notoriety………. May 8 - May 12Around 11:30 Friday evening the gavel fell on the 2023 legislative session. We debated late into the evening several bills and we ended the session on a very heated dialogue on the budget or the “Big Bill.”
The major bills of topic this week were: H.479 - The Transportation Bill was a solid bill from the beginning stages until, earlier in the year, the Ways and Means committee added in a 20% (unasked for) price increase, across the board on DMV fees (licenses, registrations, etc). In the end, the T-Bill finally came back to us with the DMV fees removed and instead placed in the Budget. The Transportation Bill ended up as a well-done product and it was unanimously supported by the House. H.217 – The Workers Compensation Bill with S.56 (Child Care/Pre-K) folded into it. Finding adequate childcare that pays providers a fair wage and provides families with facilities to accommodate their children is a challenge today. That we all agree on. In January, the Governor presented a comprehensive budget that didn’t raise any fees or taxes on already struggling, working Vermonters. In Governor Scott’s proposal for childcare, specifically, he allocated $56 million dollars which would have assisted families all the way up to 400% above the poverty line (roughly $120,000/year income for a family of 4)! The Governor’s proposal would have made us number one in the nation for childcare state assistance. Unfortunately, this proposal was ignored, and instead the bill came to us with a price tag of $135 million/year, with $82 million of it raised by a payroll tax. This proposal allows for families with incomes at 575% above the poverty line ($172,500 dollars/year income for a family of four) to qualify for assisted childcare! By far, this was the toughest vote for me this session as I’ve always supported childcare initiatives in the past. However, I could not support a bill that raises taxes on hard working Vermonters and would be a regressive tax on our lower- and middle-income earning families. On Wednesday of this week, S.39 a Legislative Pay Raise bill came to us from the Senate. We are paid $812/week currently. This bill raises that number to $1000/week in 2025, $1100/week in 2026 and $1210 in 2027. It also allows for off session pay of $250/week. All told this results in a 50% raise with “in session” pay over the next 4 years with additional monies on top of it for “off-session” work and the possibility of health care added in. I absolutely did not support this proposal that will ultimately add approximately 5 million dollars a year to the baseline of the budget for a citizen legislature to operate. Under this bill annual pay and benefits for a legislator could roughly double by 2027 from today’s standards. Unfortunately, a majority voted for this pay raise for themselves. This bill was a slap in the face to the hard-working people of this state and I voted no on this shameful bill. The Budget/” Big Bill,” H.494 - In the Governor’s budget address back in January, he proposed a 5.2% increase to the baseline budget (baseline means it will be there, theoretically forever, in future budgets). The House/Senate committee of conference came up with a budget increase of one-time expenditures and baseline increases of 13.3% (8.8% is baseline costs). The budget also creates or converts, (temporary positions to full time) at least, 136 new state positions to add to the annual payroll! Back in January our state economists briefed us that we should expect a steady economic decline in the next year. As predicted, as of April, personal income tax revenues were $43 million dollars below projections for the year. A memo provided to the Ways and Means committee by the Tax Commissioner outlined his concerns regarding state spending, taxation, and income revenue projections. He stated that we are the 2nd least populated state and the 3rd highest taxed. This is all gravely concerning. We need to be living within our means and we are not. The budget passed on a 90-53 vote in favor. With these above concerns this budget to me was out of touch with reality for Vermonters and I voted no on it. I have talked with so many of my constituents that are financially living in hard times. We are already experiencing high inflationary costs. These largest financial bills will be costly for our hard-working Vermont families. We need to get back to reasonable and sustainable spending that does not break the backs of those trying to make ends meet. Stay tuned – I expect Governor Scott to veto several bills and we already have a tentative, veto special session scheduled for June 20-22nd. I will provide an update on where we are at after that session. May 2 - May 5This past week saw us spending most of our day on the House floor debating and voting on the bills that we have time for this session. We spent a morning session at 10:00 am and an afternoon session at 3:00 pm doing this work. In between we listened to testimony in committee on the very last few bills that we have time to pass and then get back to the Senate, if we amended them. We are scheduled to wrap up for the year this week.
On the Horizon this week will be a couple of bills that I’ll discuss. The first one is S.100, An Act relating to housing opportunities made for everyone. We have not seen the final product yet, but from the information I’ve received so far it has enough good components to it that makes it supportable. The Governor asked for deeper Act 250 reforms to allow for more affordable housing, but at this point it appears that the committee of jurisdiction has done enough on it that it’s a possible compromise. It will be debated on the floor on Monday. The second proposal (not its own stand-alone bill) addresses our work in my committee, Government Operations and Military Affairs (HGOMA) on Sections C.112 and C.113 of the budget (H.494 – also known as the Big Bill). In these sections we are working on language to improve dispatch services in Vermont. The way dispatch services for 911 services in Vermont occurs is an interesting network that works, now, but needs some shoring up but, at the same time that we don’t disrupt or in any way jeopardize the systems already in place. Our goal is to simply support, strengthen and build upon the efforts and initiatives already in place. The Public Safety Commissioner, in consultation with the Public Safety Steering Committee (which would be newly established) would head this effort up. The Legislature would receive feedback in January of 2024 on a preliminary design established with the Steering Committee including the following components: a timeline and any additional data and resources needed to develop a final design on or before January of 2025. Another bill, S.39 – An Act relating to compensation and benefits for members of the Vermont General Assembly saw fast and furious testimony in HGOMA. It came to us from the Senate. It was first introduced to us on Friday, the 28th of April. We debated it as a committee and took limited testimony. A few of us felt it was too fast tracked. A very quick overview of what it contains: a) it would take effect for the 2025/2026 legislative session and b) This is the big one – would increase our current $811/week to $1000/week in 2025 (a 23% increase) and moves to $1100/week in 2026 (a 36% increase). We already enjoy the same cost of living increase given annually to all state employees. S.39 unexpectedly came back up for discussion in HGOMA today (May 8th) and was voted on to move forward as a bill for floor debate. In good faith I cannot support this proposal to my constituents. I voted no on it. I’ll touch on a couple bills that passed the House this past week. The heavily debated S.5, The Affordable Heat Act, passed the Senate with House amendments and went to the governor. He, as expected, vetoed the bill. We will likely see it come back to the Senate and House this week for a potential override of the Governor’s veto. The Senate passed it on a 20-10 vote. The lack of 2/3 of one legislative body sustains the veto. If one Senator that voted for the bill changed their mind and it became 19-11, the veto would be upheld. H.81, An act relating to the fair repair of agricultural equipment. It requires equipment manufacturers to relax proprietary restrictions in the form of offering the diagnostics (manuals and electronic medium), parts and various codes for machinery to farmers (or any other users of this equipment). This allows for faster repair, loss of time in the field moving equipment back and forth to dealerships and gets them back into the fields. All in all, a good bill. Last, HGOMA along with House Judiciary took testimony/a rollout from legislative counsel on HR.11 – a resolution regarding impeachment proceedings for the Franklin County Sheriff and Franklin County State’s Attorney. The House Resolution allows for the establishment of a Special Committee on Impeachment Inquiry and granting it investigatory powers. There will be much more to this as it unfolds. April 18 - April 21We are winding down our legislative session and with 3 weeks to go, we are tackling some of our largest pieces of legislation. Arguably, one of the most debated bills (inside and outside of the Vermont Legislature) is S.5, The Affordable Heat Act (also known as the Clean Heat Standard from a similar bill from last year).
I fully believe that most of us feel action is needed to address climate change. In the Vermont House we have supported significant investments to do just that. In our current fiscal year budget, we committed over $200 million dollars to climate action. A lot of money has been directed to weatherization projects for homes, which is a huge priority for Governor Scott. S.5 punishes Vermonters for their use of fossil fuels. Last year, our own Joint Fiscal Office stated: “It is too soon to estimate the impact on Vermont’s economy, households and businesses. The way in which the Clean Heat Standard is implemented, including the way in which clean heat credits are priced and how incentives and subsidies are offered to households and businesses, must be established before meaningful analysis is possible. At the same time, those incentives or subsidies could be costly for the State, suggesting larger fiscal impacts in future years”. JFO reiterated the concern this year regarding S.5 stating, “The fiscal impact of the bill would likely be greater (than the $1.725 million in FY24) because of increased investments over time.” As elected officials, we have an obligation to ensure Vermonters know what the financial costs and impacts of any bill will be on their lives and the State’s economy, before passage, because that is how lawmaking and governing is supposed to work, and what Vermonters expect and deserve. Studies are done before a program is stood up. As stated by a member of the Environment and Energy Committee, “This bill is not a study”, it stands up a program! Further reinforcing that this bill is not a study, in Governor Scott’s press release yesterday he quoted from the bill: “Effective on passage, the Clean Heat Standard is established, and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) shall adopt rules and may issue orders to implement and enforce the Clean Heat Standard Program.” Again, that is not a study. Once again, we are usurping our authority by delegating our job as elected officials to the Public Utility Commission (PUC), an unelected body of individuals. Further, we give the PUC authority to stand up two committees, without one elected official serving on either one. The PUC can adopt and issue orders to implement and enforce the Clean Heat Standard Program that they are standing up without legislative approval! Yes, we will receive a report on or before February 15, 2024; however, the Program is being stood up, without a study as to what the effects are with this Program regarding costs to Vermonters, businesses, or the State. S.5 requires more thought, study, and analysis to ensure those who can least afford it are not harmed or punished. The level of work, data collection and technical analysis to ensure this does not happen has, quite frankly, not be done. There are too many Vermonters who cannot afford to pay an additional 70 cents or more per gallon of heating fuel. And many certainly cannot afford to pay the upfront costs to upgrade their service panels, weatherize their homes and install cold climate heat pumps. Again, quoting Governor Scott: “If the Legislature was serious about S.5 being a study, the language would be clear and there would be no debate about it. In case it’s not abundantly clear, my opposition to this bill has nothing to do with the overall goal to reduce emissions, it has everything to do with protecting Vermonters and legislative transparency.” Collectively, the Legislature is asking a lot of Vermonters this year with:
When is enough, enough? In closing, I’ll paraphrase from my floor comments on Thursday evening during debate of S.5: “I have heard from my constituents in petitions, emails, text messages, phone calls and face to face dialogues on S.5. Overwhelmingly, they have voiced their opposition to this bill. I remember who elects me and who I represent – I am listening to my constituents on this bill and will be voting NO!” April 11 - April 14In my committee this past week, House Government Operations and Military Affairs, we continued to take testimony on and pass out several town charters. Again, they are not subject to crossover and can be worked the entire session. We continued to take testimony on S.17 - Sheriff reforms and S.32 - Ranked-choice voting. We also received the Vermont
National Guard Annual Sexual Assault Prevention Response Report with our colleagues from Senate Government Operations. In the Statehouse, Committees continue to work on bills, and the House floor saw minimal action. Bills passed this week include:
The last charter I could not support as it violates the Vermont Constitution which states in Chapter II, Section 42 (Voter qualifications and oath): Every person of the full age of eighteen years who is a citizen of the United States, having resided in this State for the period established by the General Assembly and who is of a quiet and peaceable behavior…… (followed by the Oath of Office) A bill to keep a close eye on as it makes its way through money committees and to the House floor this week is S.5, the Affordable Heat Act. Last, I called into a Zoom meeting this past Thursday evening that detailed the work that is to be done on the North Hero/Alburgh connection bridge also known as the Mother’s Bridge. Construction is slated from now through November of this year with hopes to have all work done by then. Weather dependent there could be some small finishing touches that’d have to happen next spring (2024). Essentially the project entails the removal of the asphalt and concrete decking and completely replacing it and then replacing all the guardrail with a rail very similar to that used on the drawbride project. When done, there will be 11-foot lanes for each direction of traffic and a 5’4” shoulder on each side. One side will be done at a time with a temporary traffic light on either end that will direct the one 12-foot span open while the other side is worked. Timing on the lights is set for a 10-car passage before turning. For cyclists there is a button to push that will allow a greater interval of time. There is also an emergency vehicle preemption feature for first responder vehicles. Please use caution and patience as the construction workers do their work to keep this bridge in good working order. April 4 - April 7This week in the State house, work on the House floor was short compared to the last couple of weeks. Committees were working on and passing out a small number of bills that are not subject to crossover rules. We also had numerous Senate bills that were sent to the House from the Senate following their matching crossover period.
Bills that passed on the House floor this week were: H.146, Amendments to the charter of the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District; H.271, Amendments to the charter of the Town of Springfield; H.418, Amendments to the charter of the Town of Barre; S.54, an act relating to individual and small group insurance markets and H.282, an act relating to the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. In my House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee (GOMA), our work continued to focus on additional Town Charters (they are not subject to crossover). In committee we also received testimony on a couple of Senate bills – they were: S.17 - An Act surrounding Sheriff reforms; S.6 - An act relating to law enforcement interrogation policies and S.9 - An Act relating to the authority of the State Auditor to examine the books and records of State contractors. A couple of noteworthy items relating directly to our district this past week: -- I had the privilege of presenting on the House floor, H.150 – An Amendment to the Charter of the Village of Alburgh. This bill allows the Village of Alburgh to appoint versus elect their Town Clerk/Treasurer. The Village Trustees would have the hiring authority for this position. It passed the House on a unanimous voice vote and is now headed to the Senate. -- Thursday, April 6th was Alzheimer’s Awareness Day and a group of Legislators met with the Alzheimer’s Advocacy Group on the Capitol steps followed by a group photo. They then headed inside for the floor session of the House. The Rev. Jane Dwinell of Alburgh gave our devotional for the day and spoke to this day that has deep, profound meaning to her. Her husband Sky Yardley passed away in 2021 at the early age of 66 from this horrible disease. During his struggle with Alzheimer’s, Sky and Jane co-authored a book titled “Alzheimer’s Canyon – One Couple’s Reflections on Living with Dementia.” During the announcements on the floor, I was honored to give a brief biographical overview of Rev. Dwinell’s storied life of service to others. This past Tuesday marked the beginning of the Month of the Military Child. The Vermont National Guard family programs division brought parents and children of these families in to spend the morning with us. As a retired member of the Vermont National Guard, I was asked to give opening remarks to all of them in our committee room. We had our guests from the Guard seated in the balcony at the beginning of the floor session – I had a resolution read and passed, thanking them for the sacrifices they make with their families to maintain our freedoms. I then introduced them to the House legislative body. I felt it important for my colleagues to understand the sacrifice these children make when their parents are called away for months at a time and sometimes more than a year for deployments in austere environments. On a separate note, for those following the work on military pension tax exemption, I attended the testimony of Representative Lisa Hango with the Ways and Means committee. She testified on H.255, An Act relating to exempting all military retirement and military survivor benefit income from State income tax. I will keep folks updated on whether this bill gains traction or not. March 28 - March 31This past week was a very busy and “spirited” week in the House; most notably on the House Floor for debate and voting on bills. I’ll get to that in a moment. In my House Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) committee we spent only minimal time on other topics as the floor was long and intense. In GOMA we took testimony on the Emergency Communications system and the pitfalls that are in it that need working out. We will be working more on that; I hope this session. The rest of the limited committee time that we had was primarily used for testimony and voting out charter changes for several towns. As a reminder, Vermont is a Dillon’s Rule State, which means towns are granted their legal authority by the Legislature. GOMA is the committee of jurisdiction for these changes.
I’d like to address two of the major bills that were on the floor this week: H.494 – the Annual State Budget affectionately known as the “Big Bill” – Governor Scott, in his budget address to us, back in January offered up an $8.4 billion budget that provided for Paid Family Leave, Child Care, Housing needs, School Meals and much more without raising ANY taxes or fees. His budget also ensured that we took care of our most vulnerable populations. The Governor’s proposal demonstrated responsible spending. It also, heavily leveraged federal dollars with matching state dollars to work on critically needed infrastructure projects. This would all be done with historic levels of COVID era, one time money that we’ll not likely see ever again. These funds were to be allocated in the ballpark of $4 of federal money for every $1 of state money spent to get these direly needed projects done. Sadly, the Appropriations Committee stripped away these matching dollars to be used for programs/initiatives that only affect this year and don’t take care of projects state-wide that will benefit us for decades to come. Additionally, the structure of these programs add 70+ jobs to the already 800+ jobs that the state can’t fill. Ultimately the budget climbed from the Governor’s recommend of 8.4 to 8.53 billion. We are using one-time available monies for recurring programs and that is not sustainable. This will lead to two things: increased taxes/fees and program cuts. The budget passed out of the Appropriations Committee on a party line vote of 8-4. This has not happened in over a decade – the two major parties have consistently come to a compromise spending bill that is palatable by all. Sadly, that was not accomplished this year. With the addition of $118 million over the Governor’s recommend and the reallocation of the above-mentioned matching dollars for infrastructure, I could not support this budget. Again, the budget stripped out matching dollars for other programs. As a result, the following roadways/clean water/drinking water projects that will be in jeopardy in Grand Isle County/Milton are: Alburgh – Rest Area sidewalk replacement South Hero – Community Wastewater project North Hero – Route 2 Water Main Replacement Colchester to Milton, US-7 corridor - resurface and paving. Milton-Georgia US-7 corridor - slab removal Milton - New Collector Sewers, Flanders Development Sewers Milton - Railroad Street water main and pressure sustaining valves Statewide, we are losing out on $661 million dollars’ worth of much needed work like the above projects and a multitude of projects throughout our other communities in Vermont. H.479 – The Transportation Bill (T-Bill) – this bill initially left its committee on a solid, bi-partisan vote of 11-0-0 and would have been a bill that I could have solidly supported. However, when it went over to Ways and Means, that committee added in a slew of Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) increases. In total, these increases added up to $22.2 million dollars which is a 20% increase across the board for Vermonters. These fees were UNSOLICITED by the DMV. Unfortunately, when you raise fees like this, it affects the most vulnerable and least able to pay Vermonters – it’s a regressive tax in nature. For this very reason I could not support this bill either. My hope on these two bills, especially (now that they’ve been sent to the Senate), is that the Senate takes a critical look at them and adjusts them to a posture that we all can support when their alterations come back to the House. I typically would like a more positive, upbeat report, but I felt it was important for you all to know that I felt that these bills were in the form of irresponsible spending. This is all being done in a near record inflationary, recovery period. To paraphrase a comment that Senator Randy Brock said at a Republican press conference held this past Thursday: “There is a dark cloud looming and budgets in the coming years which, if spending isn’t cut, means raising of taxes on Vermonters.” March 21 - March 24This past week was the deadline for money bills to crossover to the Senate – we spent many long hours on the House floor hearing debate and voting on bills, as well as committee meetings sprinkled throughout our days to hear amendments from money committees to bills that had previously passed out of Government Operations & Military Affairs(GOMA).
Since we are now into the heavy floor time of the session I would like to remind folks that if they’d like to follow a particular bill you can find the text of a bill, by typing in the bill number on the General Assembly webpage and see the various iterations of a bill – please click on the bill as passed by the House for the most up to date version ; if it is a Senate bill at this time of year, click on as passed by the Senate. Among the bills that passed on the House floor are the following, listed by bill number and title: H.55 unemployment insurance amendments; H.110 extending the sunset on siting telecommunications towers; H.171 adult protective services; H.471 technical and administrative changes to VT tax law; H.476 radiologist assistants; H.178 commissioning Department personnel as notaries public; H.288 liability for the sale of alcoholic beverages; H.476 miscellaneous changes to law enforcement officer training laws; H.481 public health initiatives to address death by suicide; H.230 implementing mechanisms to reduce suicide; H.482 Vermont Criminal Justice Council recommendations for law enforcement training; H.126 community resilience and biodiversity protection, which requires that 30% of land will be conserved by 2030 and 50% will be conserved by 2050 by purported voluntary means; H.66 paid family and medical leave, which has an estimated cost of $118 million/year and requires an employer-funded payroll tax; H.165 School food programs and universal school meals; H.157 the Vermont basic needs budget and last, H.127 Sports Wagering. I would like to address a couple of the bills that were passed. H.66 – Paid family leave: This is a noble idea and is absolutely good for workforce development. However, the Governor had proposed a voluntary program that would not have cost all taxpayers more out of pocket money. The passed bill would make participation of all current working Vermonters mandatory and is regressive. It is in the form of a payroll tax of .55 cents for every dollar earned. It is split between the employer and the employee. The bill also adds over 60 new jobs at a time when we can’t even fill 800+ state, open jobs. Ultimately I could not support this bill in its current construct. We will see if the Senate modifies it in any way. H.165 – Universal School Meals – I was originally on the fence with this one but with significant constituent support of it and feeling that benefits outweighed costs I worked to a “yes.” I would have preferred a bill that put a cap on household income where families would pay for their own meals (and many, many that I’ve spoken to want to pay). H.230 – implementing mechanisms that reduce suicide. This bill came to us as a bill to reduce suicide but in reality was a bill to restrict firearms. Coincidentally, the same day that this bill passed the House, another bill was brought to the floor (H.481 that I mentioned above) and that truly addresses suicide. H.230 was debated heavily on whether the recent Court case known as the Bruen decision (Supreme Court ruling) applied and was valid. The Bruen case states that firearms laws, in general, are not constitutional. In our jobs in the legislature, we have taken an oath that we will not “directly or indirectly, do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or Government thereof.” Additionally, I had significant constituent input to not vote for this bill – I value and use that input on bills. With all of the above said, I felt obligated to vote no. March 14 - March 17I got right back at it early Tuesday morning after our Town Meeting break! As a member of the Vermont National Guard and Veterans Affairs caucus, I attended our monthly meeting and heard two briefings from the Guard. The Adjutant General, Greg Knight spoke to us about the newly created Provost Marshall position. This position is utilized for various investigatory work within the Guard. Next, we heard from Captain Anne Turner. She is one of our Army Guard commanders in the Vermont National Guard. She was deployed to Southwest Asia with her troops to in-process the first waves of Afghan refugees as the US exited that region, militarily.
This past week was the “crossover” week for bills in the House and Senate committees. Any bills that are not money related had until the 17th of March to make it off the various committee’s “walls” and made actionable for vote on the House floor. If the bills are considered a money bill, they have one more week for the above process to occur. The Senate has the same constraints for movement of bills to the House. As a result of this crossover period, committees are feverishly taking testimony on a multitude of bills that have the greatest amount of priority to them. Many ask what drives a bill to be put above others that don’t make it off the wall. There are a host of reasons for lack of movement on a bill – some reasons are: The Governor’s priorities, emergent needs of the state, and you guessed it – just plain politics! Testimony in my Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) committee this week included the following bills: H.470 – An act relating to miscellaneous amendments to alcoholic beverage laws; Committee Bill 23-0907 – An act relating to miscellaneous changes to law enforcement officer training laws; H.178 – An act relating to commissioning of Department of Corrections personnel as notaries public; H270 – An act relating to miscellaneous amendments to the adult use cannabis programs; H.291 – An act relating to the creation of the Cybersecurity Advisory Council; H.125 – An act relating to boards and commissions; H.251 – An act relating to the issuance of a Brady or Giglio letter as misconduct under the jurisdiction of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and Committee Bill 23-0959 – An act relating to Vermont Criminal Justice Council recommendations for law enforcement officer training. All of these bills except for H.251 were passed out of committee and moved forward for voting on the House floor in the next week or two. It was felt that more testimony and legwork was needed to properly coordinate the structure of the bill. I am a big fan of this “pause” taking place as I never want a hastily crafted bill that has not had the appropriate homework put up against it. On the House floor this week these bills passed: H.461 – Making miscellaneous changes in education laws; H.175 – Modernizing the Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs; H.62 – The Interstate Counseling Compact; H.77 – Vermont’s adoption of the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact; H.86 – Vermont’s adoption of the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact; H.465 – Regional emergency management committee’s meeting quorum requirements; H.466 – Technical corrections for the 2023 legislative session. The last two bills came out of my GOMA committee. I did the floor report on H.465 – this bill gives good relief to the Grand Isle County portion of our district on quorum requirements for our Regional Emergency Management Committee. While on break this past week, I was able to attend 3 of our 6 town meetings in our Grand Isle-Chittenden district. I was able to be present at South Hero’s, Grand Isle’s and Milton’s Town meetings and say a few words at each on what was happening in Montpelier. I wish I could have made all the town meetings but I could not logistically be at all 6! February 27 - March 3
This last week leading up to the Town Meeting Day break was a whirlwind.
Last Saturday we did a Legislative Update at the Snow Farm Winery in South Hero. It was well attended, and a lot of good dialogue took place. On Monday, Feb. 27, the Governor’s administration hosted a town meeting style event at the North Hero Community Hall to work with the towns in our district to access programs that still have American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money available to them. It, too was well attended and I think many walked away with good information on how to proceed in accessing these monies. After the meeting, I joined Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts and Deputy Secretary of the Administration Doug Farnham at Happy Bird Poultry Farm in Isle La Motte for a visit. Co-owner, Ember Boyle gave us a nice walk through of their facilities and showed us where past agricultural grants had served their business well. This is important to the Boyle family and especially so to the area as we desperately need places to access, good local food products that are raised and processed right here! I next joined Assistant State Librarian Tom McMurdo at the Alburgh library. We were greeted by librarian Gina Lewis and several of the library trustees. Mr. McMurdo briefed them on other potential state assistance for enhancing their facility. The libraries are a critical asset in all of our rural communities as they provide internet, educational materials and social meeting spaces among other numerous upsides to their existence. In the House Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) we continued to take a great amount of testimony on several topics. We took more testimony on the Cannabis Control Board regarding a re-write of legislation regarding regulation of cannabis in the state (it falls under H.270). Our legislative counsel gave us an annual update of technical corrections for the current legislative session that will be wrapped into a committee bill. Late in the week we took more testimony on a trio of alcohol related bills (since liquor and lottery now fall under our jurisdiction) and on Friday we took testimony from the Vermont Emergency Management folks on a committee bill that addresses Regional Emergency Management Committees. Last, in the testimony world we spoke once more with Sheriff Mark Anderson, the Windham County Sheriff and State Sheriff’s Association President. He did a walk-through of another committee bill that relates to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and recommendations for improvement in policing/law enforcement training. Crossover dates for this half of the biennium are as follows: standard bills – March 17th and money related bills – March 24th. What crossover means is that each body (House and Senate) have until these dates to vote on and move over bills to the other side for consideration or they must wait until the following year. There are a few exceptions to this, especially in GOMA – for instance Town Charter changes are not subject to these dates. The reason that the Legislature validates and approves town charters is because Vermont is a Dillons Rule state which means that our towns are granted legal authority by the Legislature. With crossover looming, this past week saw a flurry of bills go through the House. And here is a sampling: H.41 – Referral of domestic and sexual assault violence cases to Community Justice Centers; H.305 – Professions and Occupations regulated by the Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR); H.67 – Household products containing hazardous substances; H.148 – raising the age of eligibility to marry; H.227 – The Vermont Uniform Power of Attorney Act; H.94 – Removing the Reach Up rateable reduction; H.217 – Miscellaneous Worker’s Compensation amendments. There were more and with crossover looming I anticipate the week that we are back in session for there to be a great number of bills hitting the House floor. Senate bill S.5 (titled the Affordable Heat Act) passed the Vermont Senate on a vote of 19-10 on Thursday. It will now come to the House for a look and any changes. To date, I have had dozens and dozens of emails, text messages and phone calls asking for me to vote NO on this regressive form of legislation on Vermonters. I told folks at last Saturday’s update at Snow Farm that I do not support this legislation. The Governor does not either. Stay tuned and keep sending me your thoughts on this bill. February 13 - 17
This past week was a relatively quiet week on the House floor. Now, committees are deeply entrenched in taking testimony and massaging bills sent to them as the committee of jurisdiction. To this Legislator, this is not a bad thing, as I’m forever the optimist that we are doing thoughtful, non-knee-jerk work on behalf of Vermonters.
On Tuesday, I kicked off the week with a briefing to the National Guard and Veterans Affairs Caucus (of which I’m a member). As a Guard retiree I was able to educate and pass on the inner workings of the Vermont National Guard, having served in the organization as a senior leader. My committee, Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) took a great deal of testimony on our Sports Betting bill. We finished it today and passed it out of committee. It has several more stops in the House before it goes to the floor for a vote of the whole body. It will have to be viewed by Ways and Means and Appropriations for sure and possibly a couple of other committees. We also passed out a committee bill, 23-0908, An Act relating to Professions and Occupations regulated by the Office of Primary Responsibility. It is a bill dealing with oversight of professional, licensed occupations in the state. This week, three bills that I either sponsored or co-sponsored were introduced in the House: a) H.225 – An act relating to exempting all military retirement and military survivor benefit income; b) H.263 – An act relating to emergency medical services and c) H.284 – An act relating to regulating drones above privately owned real property. One that was introduced last week that I am sure will interest several readers is: H.158 An act relating to authorizing dredging for navigation of public waters. It is a bill that would set up a working group to study the dredging of Lake Champlain between Mallet’s Bay and the Inland Sea. This is something that has been talked about by many over the years. Additionally, I have signed on as a co-sponsor to the Rural Caucus Omnibus bill – this bill encompasses the top ten concepts adopted by the 33-member Rural Caucus. During a special House session on Thursday morning, we elected 3 individuals to the University of Vermont Board of Trustees as well as re-electing Janet Miller as our Sergeant of Arms for another 2 years. On Thursday, after session, I participated as a member of the Sportsmen’s Caucus. This was very well attended by 35+ Legislators. Our primary speaker was Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife Chris Herrick. He spoke to us on several topics that are of immense importance to his department and our district. He also talked about bills that are being worked in committees that affect him and his staff and ultimately our sportsmen. Last, please join Senators Brock, Norris and Mazza (the three of them are tentative pending firming of their schedules) and Rep Leavitt and me for a Legislative update/roundtable at Snow Farm Vineyard, Saturday, February 25th from 9:30-11:00. February 6 - 10
This week was heavy with testimony in our Government Operations and Military Affairs (GOMA) Committee. We delved more into online sports betting. Legislative counsel presented the latest iteration of the bill. We also spoke with an agency that specializes in geo-fencing. Geo-fencing is a set of “permissions” for location based participation in sports betting. It basically only allows folks to bet online when in the physical confines of a specific entity (in our case, being present in Vermont). Data shows that there were 139,000 attempts from the confines of Vermont, since the start of the current National Football League season, to gain access to other states online sports books. These were attributed to 16,800 people making these attempts. Proponents feel this is a reason for starting a program here as we have folks willing to participate. In turn revenue is generated for the state. Another pro, according to the briefer, is that thousands of folks attempt access via illegal, offshore sports book accounts – so, we are losing revenue and folks are gaming with no protections in place. As a committee we do not have a full recommendation on this topic, yet.
Testimony on another GOMA Committee Bill delved into licensure of various entities/persons that the state oversees. Current statute regulates fifty-one professions with a total of 85,000 licenses activated. This updates the original bill. Some drivers for licensure are federal statute, consumer demands and market place conditions. A major topic within this arena was compacts. Compacts are agreements by two or more entities such as drivers licenses – a license issued in Vermont is honored throughout the United States. Compacts that are on Vermont’s horizon are for nurses, doctors, and physical therapists. If a person is licensed in one state with a compact and loses their license, they lose their license in all states that have compacts with that state. Compacts have commissions which make their rule sets. We took testimony on three proposed bills involving compacts: H.62 Interstate Counseling Compact – this would allow mental health counselors to do tele-health across state lines. It is close to being online. H.77 Physical Therapy License Compact. H.86 Speech and Audiology compact would also allow for tele-health. For instance, in our district a patient talking with a specialist in Plattsburgh. The Secretary of State’s Office (the office of primary responsibility for these actions) is fully supportive of these to ease barriers to health care in these arenas. I see positive impacts for all of these if stood up. New testimony was taken from the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) – this was an agency created via Executive Order by Governor Scott during his first term in office. He saw that there were many redundant services provided in each state agency that made sense to consolidate under one entity. This was done to save duplication of effort and ultimately, money. The ADS Secretary Shawn Nailor with his Chief Financial Officer, Kate Slocum, discussed with us the economies of scale that were realized by bringing a majority of the state information technology (IT) systems under their purview. Josiah Racine, the Director of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for ADS also discussed his program that he runs for the state. AI is the development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. One that most of us know is Siri on our phones: Siri recognizes your voice and performs the function from your audible command. Three Bills passed on the House Floor this week. H.46, Dissolution of Colchester Fire District #3 – this bill addressed a legacy concept that is no longer suitable in the town’s current construct of fire protection and water services. Fire services have been assumed by the town’s fire department and water services have moved over to Champlain Water District (CWD). H.89, Civil and Criminal Procedures Concerning Legally Protected Health Care Activity – this addresses protections for health care professionals and those supporting them. It prohibits litigation being levied upon them in performance of certain medical care procedures that are legal in Vermont. The last bill we moved over to the Senate was H.161, Issuance of Burning Permits – this adds a provision to existing law giving authority to the Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation to direct town fire wardens to halt burn permits for specified periods of time. I voted in favor of all three bills. We have reached the 1/3 mark of the session. We bid adieu to our first set of Paige’s in the State House. New Paige’s show up next week. Bills should start popping up on the House floor with greater frequency from here forward. January 30 - February 3, 2023
This past week was very busy!
On Tuesday, I took part in Governor Scott’s press conference introducing the PACT (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins) Act. This is a federal program that gives all veterans, that deployed in certain regions of the world, the ability to sign up on a registry that shows service with a connection to hazards such as burn pits, agent orange, etc. Use this link to learn more: https://veteran.mobilehealth.va.gov/AHBurnPitRegistry/#page/home That same afternoon, I was honored to attend the swearing-in (for another 4-year term) of Grand Isle State’s Attorney, Doug Disabito. It was conducted by Governor Scott in his ceremonial office. State Treasurer, Mike Pieciak released February 1st as National Unclaimed Property Day. Vermont has 119 million dollars in unclaimed property (forgotten bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, and more). In 2022, Vermonters filed 15,000 claims that yielded 5.3 million dollars in payouts. To see if you are owed anything go to: [email protected] In my committee, Government Operations and Military Affairs we took testimony on various bills in our jurisdiction. We took testimony on online sports betting – the pros and cons with stakeholders on both sides of it – those that conduct that type of business venture and gambling addiction entities. We also had testimony on the Sheriff’s Departments in Vermont and the roles they play in our communities. Bad press in a couple of departments has brought unfortunate attention to their ranks. My comments to committee and testifiers were simple: our Sheriff’s play an integral role in our communities with a multitude of invaluable services. I went on to say, “don’t let a couple of bad actors taint their image.” The Sheriff’s duties include courthouse security, prisoner transfer, highway security, and fulfilling the policing role in many of our towns that do not have a police department. Our communities are safer because of their valuable presence. On Thursday I met with the Vermont Alzheimer’s Association Policy Director and her staff/volunteers. One volunteer was a constituent from Alburgh, Jane Dwinell. Her husband suffered from Alzheimer’s til his death, and they collaborated on a book titled: Alzheimer’s Canyon. I intend to purchase the book and read it. It addresses the horrible disease that took my grandfather’s life and currently inflicts one of my other family members. I thank them for their work. Two bills passed in the House this week. First, H.45, Abusive litigation filed against survivors of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault. In essence it protects victims of stalking or abuse from having abusive litigation levied against them. This was a very good bill with bi-partisan support and I wholeheartedly supported it. The only other bill passed was H.145, the annual Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget. The Appropriations Committee recommended everything the Governor asked for in the adjustment but went even further with 91 million of additional monies that were not asked for. His requests covered essential services and especially was thoughtful when it came to our most vulnerable populations. However, as a body there were fundamental disagreements on getting the adjustment accomplished without “mortgaging” a portion of the next fiscal year budget to get there. For that reason, I could not support this level of fiscal irresponsibility. January 17-20, 2023
This was the third week of legislative session. Bills are being introduced at a brisk pace. As of today, 86 bills have been introduced on the House Floor. 3 bills passed on the House floor this week. H.1, an act relating to legislative oversight for case management for individuals with developmental disabilities. H.28, an act relating to diversion and expungement for juveniles, and H.42, an act relating to temporary alternative procedures for annual municipal meetings and electronic meetings of public bodies (our committee bill that was introduced and I discussed last week). A review of what happens next with bills that we pass is as follows: Their next stop after we pass them is with the Senate. If it passes the Senate it is then sent to the Governor for consideration. The Governor can do one of three things: sign the bill into law, veto the bill or not sign it and let it go into law without his support.
Each week I’d like to expand on one of the aforementioned bills that passed. H.28 is a really good bill that had unanimous support. It allows a young person to have their record expunged if they meet the following criteria:
Again, I am a member of the Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (GOMA). In committee this week we took a great amount of testimony on many subjects that fall within our jurisdiction. One interesting piece of testimony was from the Department of Liquor and Lottery, an area new to our committee. They briefed the workings of their department and how they manage liquor and lottery for the state. It is very closely regulated. We also took testimony from the Cannabis Control Board, the Agency of Digital Services (also new to us), the Department of Public Safety and Vermont Judiciary. We also had several of the 86 introduced bills referred to our committee for consideration. Some of the bill sponsors came to committee and spoke to their individual bills. I spoke last week about my membership in the National Guard and Veterans Affairs Caucus. I am also a member of the Rural Caucus. Rural Vermont is a hot topic in the legislature this year. Much attention was given to rural capacity and how we can put human capital to work to ensure our communities remaining federal relief funds (from various COVID stimulus packages) are expended in a timely manner before the rapidly approaching deadline of Dec 2026. The work of many folks on the Rural Caucus has yielded a rural administrative capacity bill that should be introduced next week, as well as a comprehensive rural omnibus (many things rolled into one bill) package dealing with many issues unique to rural life that are in the works. Through collaborative, tri-partisan efforts, these bills and others like them seek to highlight the plight of many rural towns with respect to overwhelming public safety, infrastructure, and housing needs. All of the bills being introduced need to go through the committee process but many legislators seem on board at this point. Lastly, on Friday afternoon we heard the Governor’s Budget Address for the year. His proposal is a record 8.4 Billion dollar budget with a strong amount of federal (COVID related relief) dollars attached to it. He warned that this is the year to use the remaining pieces of this money in “investments” rather than just “spending” it. I could not agree more. Future budgets should look different in my humble opinion. Some major points of investment that he spoke to were: infrastructure buildout (roads, bridges, water, sewer etc.), monies toward climate – specifically with a lot of weatherization, regulatory reform, investment in our youth, monies for our invaluable state college system, focus on training of folks in the trades (have you tried hiring someone to do anything in that arena lately?) and finally he asked that this year we look to fully eliminate tax on military pensions. If you’d like to see Governor Scott’s full address, you can find it on You Tube – it is about 50 minutes long. January 10-13, 2023
This was our first full week of legislative session.
Bills are being introduced at a brisk pace. All committees are starting to get into the meat of their work. As I mentioned last week, I am assigned to the Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (GOMA). For those that want to know about various bills and where they stand; that process is in its infancy stages and we are merely introducing bills. However, in one instance, my committee had the first actionable bill in House Bill 42. H.42 is an “Act relating to temporary alternative procedures for annual municipal meetings and electronic meetings of public bodies.” This bill seeks to continue pandemic provisions for our municipal bodies to have the ability to meet remotely if they choose. The reason for the bill is that current law only allows for these provisions through January 15, 2023. Town Clerks, for the most part, want this capability for their communities. It gives them options for the public having access to the meetings for a whole plethora of reasons – the Clerks and various town boards found this to be a very useful tool during the pandemic. If passed, which I fully expect it to do so, it would extend these provisions through July 1, 2024. So, in essence, it would cover the next two town meeting cycles. The bill is currently sitting in the Ways and Means committee and I am confident that it will be “fast tracked” for passage in the next week. In GOMA we already have several additional bills that have been introduced and are sitting on our “wall.” That means it is a bill that has potential to be taken up by the committee and testimony is solicited to look at the pros and cons of the bill. The committee then uses testimony and committee dialogue towards a bill’s passage (or not). There are a whole host of reasons that bills may or may not leave the “wall” for committee consideration. Other bills sitting on our wall awaiting action are: Modification of the reapportionment process (H.20); Establishment of credit for temporary state employment (H.52); and amending the definition of cider vs. hard cider (H.7) – liquor and lottery also fall under GOMA’s jurisdiction. There are more but these are just a few examples. Of course, all the other committees have their own bills for consideration. This past week, we also had our first National Guard Caucus meeting of the session, I am a member of this caucus. We had our first briefing from the Selective Service, VT Director. We learned, that sadly, VT has one of the poorest levels of participation in this mandatory requirement for 18–26-year-olds. What folks may not realize is that lack of participation, in addition to being a violation of federal law, can deny these folks access to state and federal jobs. We also were introduced to the newly formed, national level program in the Guard for the Integrative Primary Prevention Program (IPPP). Each state is allocated a funded program in this arena with several full-time employees to administer the elements of it. The program will focus on prevention of sexual assault, harassment, substance abuse and suicide prevention. We also received a brief on the newly created Provost Marshall position. Last, the Adjutant General spoke to us on the initiative of the VT Guard making a concerted effort to reach out to New American populations. The Guard, much like the civilian work-force is hurting for manpower and these lawful, permanent residents are great candidates to help fill the ranks of the VT Army and Air National Guard. January 4-6, 2023
Whirlwind first week of the Legislative session!
The House and Senate were sworn in on Wednesday. On Thursday, Governor Phil Scott was sworn in with several other state elected officials. Gov. Scott then gave his address to the House and Senate. He implored us to use one time federal assistance wisely and to make sure we helped Vermonters in need due to inflation and record fuel/heating prices. He is deeply concerned we don’t tax Vermonters further and worsen their economic postures. The Governor further recommended we look how to bridge the gap between our cities and our rural communities. I am 100 percent with him on these priorities. I was fortunate to be assigned to the Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee. This is a great assignment for me to be able to utilize my extensive Select Board service on the Government Operations side of things and my 38 years of military experience for the Military Affairs piece of our committee. Today, I wrapped up the week with about 25 of my House colleagues with a couple of briefings at my alma mater, the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing. We did a base tour and ate lunch with some of our awesome Airmen. The real meat of our work will begin next week and as we get moving forward I will have much more to report. |
Feb. 13 - Feb. 16, 2024This week on the House floor we passed, by voice vote, H. 850 , which creates a mechanism for schools to rework and rewarn their budgets if they want to. The Legislature has done this to try and stave off the predicted double digit increases in property taxes. There are many complex pieces to this puzzle that we are all learning about. Here's what I know so far.
Act 127 (passed with strong bipartisan support in 2022) created a pupil weighting system that was supposed to equalize the true costs of educating all pupils. Data shows it costs more, for example, to educate rural students and English Language Learners, so it was a way to ease this extra cost burden on certain communities. There was a built-in 5% cap that the state was going to cover but many school budgets came in well over this cap for a variety of reasons. Add $250 million of unanticipated school expenses due largely to the loss of COVID dollars this year and a perfect storm was created that will raise property taxes. A note on the COVID money and what it was dedicated to —additional school counselors, para-educators, increased special ed costs —all of which the pandemic revealed as vital, and continues to be so. Add to that rising health care costs and salary increases. This new system negatively affected many school districts, including Champlain Islands Unified Union School District (which includes Grand Isle, North Hero and Isle La Motte), South Hero and Milton. Short of devastating budget cuts that would increase class sizes, decrease the number of support staff, eliminate extracurricular activities, etc., H.850 hoped to lessen the blow by allowing schools to choose which budget mechanism they prefer and re-warning their budgets if they think that's better for their communities. H.850 offered a different cost formula that for our particular districts would have ended up costing us more. The school budget is decided locally by elected school board officials. They are making the best decisions for their towns based on constantly changing information. The help that H.850 would have provided our district would have caused a larger property tax increase than going with the original budget numbers that came from our schools. Our school board decisions were to stay with those original lower numbers. As far as I know, all schools in our area are sticking with their original budgets. I want to remind everyone that Income sensitivity is available for anyone who earns less than $128,000 a year. If you've never gotten a property tax credit you can request one when you file your homestead declarations or by using the link. All you'll need is the first few pages of your 2023 tax return and your property tax bill. If you qualify, you can get up to $8,000 taken off your property tax bill. If folks want more detailed info, please email me and I can provide it. Jan. 23 - Jan. 26, 2024This past week we addressed the Budget Adjustment Act. This is a time where the budget is looked at and "trued up" six months after its passage. The state brought in $32 million more than anticipated. The Governor wanted to apply that money to the next fiscal year. Some are saying that the Democrats are overspending with this money by not following the Governor's wishes. However, the Democrats decided that money was needed for extra flood relief, which was decidedly underfunded by the Governor's Office.
Here's my take on the BAA this year. We're helping Vermonters who need it most right now. There was a massive flood in July, which largely missed our district, but greatly affected many municipalities in central Vermont. No one can fully anticipate the financial costs of such a devastating flood. There are folks still waiting to find new housing as their homes were destroyed or condemned. Roads need to be rebuilt, public buildings are unusable. All of these costs are being borne by the towns and FEMA. FEMA doesn't come for free. There is a match required for all FEMA spending. This BAA helps towns meet these obligations. We also were able to fund (at half their request) the Vermont Food Bank at $1 million. The Food Bank, like our food shelf, has seen an enormous uptick in usage and every dollar helps distribute food to food shelves throughout the state. The BAA also allowed Meals on Wheels to get $1 million in funding as they have seen a huge increase in their services to Vermont seniors. This is what Vermonters do, we help each other. We are using an unexpected boost in revenues to help as many Vermonters as possible. I would hope that if the floods hit our district and destroyed our homes, businesses, infrastructure and public spaces, this extra money would be directed our way as well. January 2024This week marked the beginning of the Legislative session. Yes, there were bills a-plenty, which I think is a good thing. Each bill represents an idea. If that idea has merit, it gets discussed in committee meetings, witness testimony is taken and then, and only then, does it go before the entire Chamber for a vote.
What had my attention this week was not in Montpelier, but in Isle La Motte. Sandy Bottom Farm, owned by Patrick Helman and Mary-Catherine Graziano, was vandalized for flying a pride flag. For those who don't know, the pride flag is a multi-colored rainbow flag that is flown in support of LGBTQ+ people. Patrick and Mary-Catherine have flown this flag for years to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.. Two years ago pride flags in Isle La Motte were torn down, burned and in other ways vandalized. Patrick and Mary-Catherine continued to fly their flag, and now two years later, the vandalism got worse. This incidence of vandalism affected the greenhouses where veggies were over-wintering. All three greenhouses had enormous slashes in them rendering them unusable. One even had an expletive slashed in the plastic. All of this happened at 1:30 in the morning on January 2nd. I'm not going to get into the details of the letter that was left for Patrick and Mary-Catherine. Suffice to say, ignorance and hate appear to go hand in hand. The overwhelming community support shown to these farmers has reminded me that there are so many good people in the Islands. The GoFundMe campaign (insurance isn't covering the damages) has seen almost 900 individual donations totaling well over the original amount of $40,000 needed to repair the greenhouses. In a town with just over 500 people, it's clear that the support these two have goes well beyond Isle La Motte, which speaks to the community they've built. Any money raised above the repair costs will be donated to Outright Vermont, an organization that supports LGBT+ youth. As a gay person, I am so appreciative of Patrick and Mary-Catherine's steadfast support of my community, at their peril. It saddens me greatly that people see the pride flag as a reason to be hateful. What flag someone chooses to fly at their house, on their private property is really no one's business. If you don't like the flag, then don't shop at the farmstand and leave it at that. We can disagree about everything without resorting to violence. There are lots of flags I see flying in the Islands I do not like, or agree with, and am offended by, but this is what free speech looks like. Fly your flags, whatever they may be and I hope that they will be respected. As always the best way to reach is via email: [email protected] JulyA lot of folks have asked me what legislators do when we’re not in session. As this is my first session, I was curious too. Turns out we do a lot. There are many constituent issues that come up. I get many emails a week about issues that folks are concerned about.
“Is the Grand Isle Post Office closing?” is one I’m hearing a lot about. I reached out to the Postmistress, and was assured that it’s not closing. I also wrote to our Federal delegation (Senators Sanders and Welch and Congresswoman Balint) to find out more and to lobby hard for it remaining open. I’m working with the Congresswoman’s office on this and we’re in regular communication about this issue. Many folks have reached out to learn more about how Universal School Meals will be paid for. I tell everyone that it will be a 3-cent increase on the education tax for property taxes. Here’s what I didn’t know until I reached out to the non-partisan Joint Fiscal Office to learn more. 65% of Vermonters receive an income sensitivity rebate on their property taxes. 35% of Vermonters pay their property taxes in full. So, the wealthiest Vermonters are paying into the system more and funding more of the school meals. I’ve been working with Milton Democrats to help them with organization and planning. This has been lots of fun and it’s been wonderful to get to know the dedicated folks from all over Milton. This past Thursday Congresswoman Balint did a tour of the Islands and our state delegation joined her for much of it. We went to Turn to Joy Early Learning Center where we tried very hard not to wake the children up during their naptimes. I heard from the folks who work there as well as the planners for the Alburgh Family Clubhouse how pleased they were with that the Childcare bill, S. 56. It creates larger subsidies for families to pay for childcare and for more money being paid to child care centers so workers can be paid a liveable wage. We then went to Island Arts where the Board shared their fundraising goals for expanding the building. We headed up to Alburgh for an event organized by Josie Henry, the Selectboard Chair. We heard from the Selectboard, the Fire and Rescue Chiefs, the school principal and others about issues that are affecting them. The big issue seems to be finding enough staffers for the town offices and volunteers for the rescue squad and town boards. Housing came up as an issue as well. Our last stop was Arbor Farm Market where Alisha spoke about staffing issues which led to another discussion about the lack of affordable housing on the Islands. Hopefully, S. 100, the HOME bill (Housing Opportunities Made for Everyone) which was signed into law by the Governor, will help address that. It's been a great off-session. Please keep the questions, concerns and comments coming via email [email protected] April 18 - April 21S. 5 passed the House Friday. The bill as passed creates a study group that will collect data from fuel dealers. This data will be used to create an implementation plan to help move Vermonters off of expensive fossil fuels. This implementation plan will be presented to the Legislature in 2025 where it will be voted on again before it can be enacted.
Your fuel bill will not change. You will not be asked to change how you heat your home. This two-year plan will create the framework for how to make clean heat affordable for all Vermonters. In the last two years there has been a $2 increase in the price of heating oil. Kerosene prices are astronomical right now. There is no basis in fact on the 70 cents or $4 a gallon figures that have been spread throughout the state. The study plan will use actual data and create the real costs to help Vermonters shift away from fossil fuels to cleaner, more reliable forms of heating. Should the plan come back and show an increase in costs, lack of work force to implement the plan, or anything else that doesn’t help Vermonters, the Legislature can (and should) vote it down. Voting yes now doesn’t obligate us to anything other than learning more. I voted yes because I couldn't vote against learning how to do it better. This is a chance to see how we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, how we can ensure the most vulnerable among us can be insulated not only from the weather but price volatility. I voted yes because I want Vermont children to have faith that there will be a world they want to raise a family in. I voted yes because nothing changes for Vermonters. In 2025 the Legislature will vote on the actual plan. My yes vote is for study, learning and creating that plan. April 4 - April 7This past week was a quiet one on the floor because we're in a lull period and also because I got sick with a horrible cold.
One highlight was seeing the Alburgh Village charter come through. I had been working on this since December and it's a perfect illustration of how a piece of legislation comes to be voted on. In December, a trustee of the Village reached out to me about getting this charter change done to reflect what was voted on in May of 2022. I then worked with Legislative Counsel on drafting the bill. I sent the bill back to the Trustee to make sure it reflected what they wanted. It did. The bill got assigned a number H. 150. The charter change was quite simple. It sought to allow the Village trustees to appoint a Village clerk and treasurer, and to allow for these positions to be filled from outside the Village. This charter change addressed two needs the Village had. The first was to no longer have an elected clerk or treasurer, but to hire them instead, allowing for greater oversight of these positions by the trustees. The second was to expand the area from which the Village could draw applicants. Rather than keeping it limited to the small population of Village, it expands it to anyone in the state. The bill was read a first time in February and assigned to House Government Operations and Military Affairs committee. Last month I testified before the committee about this bill. This past week Rep. Morgan from the committee, presented the bill on the House floor for its second reading. Then the following day, on its third reading (all bills must be read three times on the floor). It passed by a unanimous voice vote. It makes me very happy that the first bill I worked on as Legislator was for my district. The bill now goes to the Senate for their approval. Here's hoping Alburgh Village can now get the staffing they need. March 28 - March 31I’ve heard some concerns about the newly-passed budget affecting projects in our district. I have fact checked with the Chair of the Transportation committee and members of the Appropriations committee and here’s what I’ve learned.
The Transportation Committee followed all of the Governor’s recommended transportation budget and funded all his priority projects. None of these priority projects are at risk, including for Grand Isle and West Milton projects. I’m waiting to hear to back from the Secretary of Transportation to confirm our district’s projects are still viable. The Transportation Committee also addressed funding gaps for the State Transportation exactly the way the Governor wanted. They cut nothing. Per the governor, they filled the funding gap of $31 million by using $10.9 million from the General fund and $20.7 million of unused monies from last year. This allows the state to match $15 million of Federal grants, so we are not leaving any money on the table. Going forward, the Governor has suggested that we continue to pull money away from the General fund (which funds all other aspects of the budget). This is not smart fiscal policy and could imperil the Transportation fund in future years. The solution was to increase DMV fees to ensure a funding stream for the transportation needs of the state, something that hasn't been done since 2016. These are modest increases. Yes, 20% sounds like a lot, but for most of us the increase is $6 for drivers licenses and $15 for car registration. This will allow transportation projects to be funded by these fees and not dip into the General Fund and take money away from other projects. So, we are spending a little more now, so we don’t have to spend a lot more later. When I hear the accusation of tax-and-spend Democrats throwing around money, I would like to always remind people that the government's job is to collect taxes and spend the money for the state's priorities and needs. Our work is to spend that money wisely, and when we can invest early and efficiently, we save money, and protect our future. With that money, we are also expressing and protecting all that we value as Vermonters. March 21 - March 24This was a very long week in Montpelier with many important bills getting passed. We had long floor sessions, with the longest ending at 11pm on Thursday night, after ten hours on the House floor. The following bills were passed:
H. 230, an act relating to implementing mechanisms to reduce suicide, was the most debated. Vermont has the highest suicide rate in New England, and approximately 87% of these suicides are committed with firearms. To be clear: this bill will not ever take your guns away. This bill just requires that in homes with people under 18 guns are stored safely, unloaded and with trigger locks. You can keep a loaded weapon in your home if it is under your control at all times if there are folks under 18 living or visiting you. If there are no people under 18 in your home, then you have no requirements. There will be a 72 hour waiting period to purchase a firearm. A lot of people are opposed to this. I am not. A waiting period would allow folks to not act rashly. This is especially important in the case of younger adults whose frontal lobes are not fully developed (that doesn't happen for men until they're 26). The waiting period is intended to allow someone more time to think about their situation and get help, or to realize that the precipitating event is not as bad as originally thought. This bill passed on a roll call vote of 99-43. H. 66 Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance creates an insurance fund to allow employees and self-employed people to be eligible for up 12-weeks of paid leave (up to $1025 a week) for the birth/adoption of child, medical emergencies, the need to care for a relative, and to create a safety plan in the case of domestic assault or being a victim of a violent crime. The cost of this is .55% of salary and can be split with the employer and employee. The cost works out to be less than $300 for someone making $60,000. And I've been hearing that a fair number of employers will cover this 100%. H.165 Universal School Meals passed by a resounding voice vote. You've all heard me extoll the benefits of feeding all school kids. This is a win-win for kids, parents and local farmers. Should this bill pass the Senate, it will allow schools to budget better for including local farm purchases in their meal plan. This can provide farmers a reliable revenue stream, increase the amount of local food purchased and allow schools to get more federal money per meal if they hit a minimum threshold of 15% local food purchased. H. 127 Online Sports Betting was passed. This bill will allow up to six companies to provide online betting platforms to be used in Vermont. The expected revenue is about $3 million a year for the first three years. There will be money set aside ($250,000 the first year, $500,000 the second year) to address the issue of problem gambling. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this bill as I think it might create problems with gambling addiction because of the nature of sports betting, where you can bet on every play in a game. But there are protections in place to help folks and these protections made me feel comfortable voting yes. March 14 - March 17This past week was the famous “cross-over week” where bills from the House have to get voted out to go to the Senate and vice versa. Bills that don’t get voted out of committee can still be worked on, but often will remain until the next session where they either get picked up or they die.
My committee (Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry) spent a lot of time on H. 81, a right to repair bill. This bill’s goal is to provide farmers and independent repair shops with the tools, parts, and information necessary to repair agriculture and forestry equipment themselves and not rely on the manufacturer. As we see more and more computerization of farming equipment, being able to access source codes can make the difference between being able to bring the hay in, or waiting (and possibly missing the weather window) for a technician to come out. When a piece of equipment breaks, often the farmer can fix it themselves, but cannot clear the computer code to get the equipment running again. Often the user has no other course of action than to use an authorized dealer to make repairs. The lag in time it takes to acquire service from a sole provider can be costly to the farmer, particularly in such a time- and weather-sensitive industry. In addition, repair services come without a reasonable price ceiling because of the lack of competition in the industry. Sending a tractor out for servicing can cost hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars, just in towing fees to the authorized dealer repair shop. If this bill were to become law, then more local repair shops could open to service equipment here in the district. Sometimes, Legislators get to work on bills that support a passion that’s outside their committee. I have been working on an eviction diversion bill, H. 391, that would create a small fund of $1.5 million to help folks who make just too much to qualify for emergency rental assistance, but have fallen behind in their rent. These are the folks who live paycheck to paycheck and budget carefully. Often one unanticipated expense (car repair, medical bill, etc.) is enough for them to fall behind. When folks like this face eviction for non-payment of rent, it is usually for less than $2,700. This bill would allow tenants and landlords to work together to stop the eviction proceedings, keep them out of a costly courtroom and get the landlord paid the back rent. (The average cost of an eviction is between $8,000-12,000.) This is a one-year pilot program. At the end of the year, we’ll see how many people were able to stay housed, and how many still fell behind in their rent. We’re looking at this as a bridge program, but if there are greater needs, then we’ll need to totally regroup and think about rental relief differently. I want to address the question I get asked the most: how will I vote on S.5, the affordable heat act. As it stands now, I’m a no vote. But the bill has yet to come to the House and our committees haven’t begun to work on it to make it better. There’s a long way to go, and now is the time to share your concerns, and thoughts on how to make the bill better. There have already been some positive changes, and I’m hopeful the House can make this bill something that works for both the environment and us. February 27 - March 3
This week was very busy in Montpelier. Many bills were presented and discussed at length on the floor. It was a first-hand view of democracy in action.
Bills come to the House after committees vote to move them forward. Then each bill is read once on the House floor. If the bill needs to go to another committee, for money appropriations or for tax purposes, that committee then votes the bill out and the bill gets read a second time. It is during this second reading where anyone can make an amendment to change the bill. This happened this week with H. 429, a miscellaneous elections bill. A lot of people didn’t like this bill for a variety of reasons. Among those reasons were increasing the dollar amount that can be donated to a political party from $10,000 to $100,000 for state-wide or federal candidates, and eliminating the ability of candidates to run as what’s known as fusion candidates—Dem/Prog or Prog/Dem. I was not a fan of the huge jump in the donation amount and limiting the fusion candidates. I was not alone. At the second reading of this bill many changes were suggested. Each potential change was brought to the House floor and discussed and then voted on. What impressed me was every voice was heard and every opinion mattered. We voted on amendments, either passing them or not (meaning the bill didn’t change). We did this for the second reading and then again when the bill was ready for its third reading. This process can literally take hours. While at times it might feel tedious, this process is a hallmark of our democratic process as it allows all parties to air their concerns and ideas every step of the way. Nothing is written in stone until that final vote on the third reading. More amendments were brought to the floor, and we discussed, debated and voted on them. Finally, after all the amendments were dealt with, we voted on whether the bill should pass. And it did. The donation limit was brought down to $60,000, and fusion candidates are now allowed. The Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry committee spent the week looking at our committee bill H. 205. This bill works to create a grant program with money pulled from the Agency of Agriculture and Food Markets to help small farmers transition or diversify to a more successful kind of farming, so ag land stays as ag land. I’m a big fan of this bill and think it will help small farmers stay in farming. The Legislature is on vacation this week, so my next update will be two weeks from now. Please don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, March 7 for local town races. February 20-24
This week we voted Universal School Meals out of committee. By a vote of 9-2, along party lines, we sent the bill to Ways and Means for their financial analysis. The bill is now out of the committee’s hands. Ways and Means will decide the best way to fund this program, then the bill is likely to go to the Appropriations committee, so it might be a while before I can say how we’re looking at getting this funded.
Our committee is actively and creatively working on ways to keep small farmers operational and thriving. We began working on H.205, an act relating to establishing the Small Farm Diversification and Transition Program, which is a bill with bipartisan co-sponsors. Vermont is an agricultural state with a long history of farming of all types, and this bill addresses the real needs of some small farmers to either diversify their products or transition to another kind of farming to stay financially viable. The transition often occurs when a dairy farmer switches to beef cattle, or a produce farmer shifts to hemp or someone begins adding goats into the mix for milk. The bill addresses four main areas of concern: - diversifying the agricultural commodities produced; - transitioning a small farm from one form of farming to another; - on-farm processing of agricultural commodities: - development of accessory on-farm businesses. The current market shifts have created challenges to farming. This bill establishes a $250,000 grant program designed to help small farmers continue farming and maintain agricultural land as open ag land. Saturday morning we had a legislative meet and greet with a Q&A at Snow Farm Vineyards. I was so heartened to see more than 30 people coming out on a frigid morning to ask Senators Brock, Norris and Mazza and Representative Morgan and myself questions about the current legislative session. The questions were good. Look for another one in Alburgh sometime this spring. If there is a bill you feel strongly about, please do not hesitate to let me know. This information is extremely helpful and I group the emails by bill for easy reference, so please keep them coming. February 13 - 17
This week found my committee busy hearing testimony about bills that have come to us. Bills (anyone in the Legislature can sponsor one) are assigned to committees by the Chair of the House. They then go on our cork board in the committee room. We take testimony from all sides to learn more about them, make edits to them, and then at some point, we'll vote on the bills and either decide to not move them forward, or to take them off the wall and present them to the entire Legislature.
This week we heard about H. 205, an act relating to establishing the Small Farm Diversification and Transition Program. This bill seeks to set up a grants program of $250,000 for small farms wanting either to diversify what they grow, or to transition to a different kind of farming to remain viable. The funding would be an appropriation from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. This was the first time we discussed this, and we'll be meeting Legislative Counsel to go over the bill and what the legal ramifications might be. Sometimes, to move forward, you need to look back. In discussions about H.165 Universal School Meals, we needed to learn about Act 67 which created the Local Food Incentives program. This established a tiered system where schools were able to get 15-25 cents back per meal if 15-25% of the food they used was Vermont produced. There are a lot of rules to this initiative, and the committee needs to know all of them to make the best decisions and to get more reimbursement to schools who are using at least 15% Vermont farm products in their food budget. One of the other bills we discussed from the wall was Act 23-0761 — an act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects. One of those subjects was the dollar amount attached to the stipend for Vermont State Fairs and Field Days. This week we heard from Jackie Folsom representing the Fair and Field association. She was asking that their line item in the budget remain as it has been for the last few years. We learned that to qualify as a State Fair or Field Days and therefore be eligible for grant money, the event must run 3 consecutive 8-hour days, have at least 5 judged categories and much more. This is what I love about being a Legislator. I am learning things I would have never known before from the complexity of dairy farming, to how to feed every kid two meals a day at school, to learning that judged categories at Field Days have to have prizes attached to them and so much more. I have two loose ends to tie up. When I said last week the ice wasn't safe, I should have cited a source. Now I have one—the Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued an advisory to stay off the ice on Lake Champlain until the warm spell stops. Several people have asked me about how Universal School Meals and other bills will be paid for. I don't know yet. Bills that have an appropriation of funding attached to them go from committee to the Ways and Means Committee whose job it is to figure that part out. Then the bill goes to the Appropriations Committee who looks at how that funding will work in the State budget. Once I know more, I'll share it. January 30 - February 3, 2023
I've presented H.150 to the Legislature to allow Alburgh Village to change its charter to reflect the town-wide vote last year to appoint a Town Clerk and Treasurer and expand the applicant pool to folks outside of the Village. Any town Charter change has to be approved by the Legislature. Michael Morgan has joined me as a co-sponsor of the bill and it feels good to work together. Stay tuned for another bill he and I are working on.
H.165, an act relating to school food programs and universal school meals, has come through the Education and Agriculture Committees this week. I am very proud to be one of the four sponsors of this bill. Both committees will begin taking testimony on the bill as well as hearing from the Joint Fiscal Office on ways to pay for it. One of the biggest points I'd like folks to keep in mind is that for every $1 we spend on school meals, there is a $1.60 return to the Vermont economy. This largely comes from purchasing food from local farmers. I know I said this last week, and I'm going to keep repeating it, because it's important. I'm also going to remind folks that Grand Isle County has a very high incidence of childhood hunger. Feeding children two nutritious meals a day ensures that they're eating. When a family faces hunger, knowing that their kids can get two meals a day at school often means everyone gets to have dinner. We heard in committee how much more focused the kids have been since this program started. There is no stigma with Universal School Meals, everyone eats and school administrations don't spend time acting as bill collectors for lunchroom debts. I believe that feeding people is never a bad thing. The annual cost of this is less than 1% of the entire $2.1 billion Education Fund. As I learn more about funding this (should be this week), I will keep everyone posted. The Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) was approved along party lines after two days of floor discussion. One piece of the Act was a request from the Governor for $3 million to give to underserved rural towns to help them maximize their ARPA funds. This money can be used to hire consultants, grant writers, engineers, etc. to help towns leverage ARPA funding. Currently Isle La Motte is the only town in the district that qualifies. Grand Isle town is close to qualifying and I've heard that towns that are close to the underserved limit will also be able to apply for funding if they need it. The BAA also allowed funding for $9.2 million of relief for organic dairy farms. Since my last update, we've lost four more organic dairy farms. I've heard from many of you about things you like, things you don't and things you'd like to see happen. Please keep these letters coming. I read all of them and am catching up on responding. January 23-27, 2023
This week my committee (Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry) spent much of the week focusing on learning more about Universal School Meals and the crisis facing organic dairy farmers throughout the state.
We spent a lot of time hearing about Universal School Meals from five school nutritionists, and from Rosie Kruger, State Director of Child Nutrition Programs for the Agency of Education. It seems abundantly clear that the program is working. One aspect of USM is the Farm Fresh School Meals which uses food from local farmers in school meals. Scaling up to use more Vermont products is something all the witnesses want to do. Currently, the schools who came to us buy 12-27% of their school’s food from local Vermont farmers. The more local food school districts buy from farmers, the more money they get reimbursed from the federal government and the less they’ll use state money. For every $1.00 spent on Universal School Meals, $1.60 is returned to the Vermont economy. We held a joint hearing with the Senate Agriculture committee to take testimony about the organic dairy farm crisis. Maddie Kempner of NOFA-VT (Northeast Organic Farming Association of VT) started off the discussion by asking that we consider a one-time $9.2 million appropriation for Vermont organic dairy farmers in the Budget Adjustment Act. The BAA is the time mid-way through the fiscal year where the Governor and the Legislature adjust the budget. We stand to lose up to 20 organic dairies in the next few months if nothing changes. We heard from seven organic dairy farmers about the severe economic issues they’re facing. There has been a snowball effect for these farmers borne of sky-rocketing production costs— from rising fuel costs and feed that’s more expensive than ever because of the conflict in Ukraine, unanticipated inflation increases, and a severe drought last summer that has left many farmers struggling. These farmers are smart, hard-working and diversifying their farms as much as they can. And they’re still struggling. The price for organic milk has not kept pace with that of conventional milk. Organic dairy farmers do not have the safety net that conventional dairy farmers have because the calculations the Dairy Margin Coverage uses do not take into account the higher costs incurred by organic farmers. The DMC is an insurance program which helps bridge the gap when dairy prices are lower than production costs, and since organic dairy farms don’t have the volume of many conventional farms, their reimbursement from the DMC is insufficient. Our committee voted unanimously to submit a letter to the Appropriations Committee in support of this one-time $9.2 million appropriation for organic dairy farmers as part of the Budget Adjustment Act. January 17-20, 2023
This past week was very busy as my committee really dug into the issues that face Vermont food producers of all kinds as well as the complexity of Universal School Meals. NOFA-VT (Northeast Organic Farmers of Vermont) and the Vermont Farm Bureau came to the committee. The main take-away was our farmers are in trouble and as one farmer put it, “We’re not okay.” She elaborated that dairy farmers are facing the same struggles as other industries: Housing costs, healthcare, and childcare. If you’re a farmer and have particular issues you’d like me to know about, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.
Some of the issues farmers have addressed have been taken up by the Rural Caucus’ two bills: Workforce Housing bill. To address the housing shortage, this bill proposes to 1) break down regulations barriers, 2) provide strategic investments, 3) add capacity at the local and regional level for planning and zoning. Right to Repair Equipment. The bill would reform existing laws so farmers and independent repair businesses can access the same repair documentation, diagnostics, tools, parts, firmware, etc. that authorized dealers have. My committee also took testimony from Hunger Free Vermont to explain more about the success of Universal School Meals and to start the discussion about making it permanent. To put this in perspective, Alburgh’s Community Education Center has just over 80% of their students qualifying for these meals, and just under half of the students in Grand Isle School qualify. We will hear much more about Universal School Meals this week as well. I forgot to mention that last week we had a community gathering at the Milton Library where folks could meet all the Legislators and Senators who represent Milton. This was a truly non-partisan event as we’re all striving to keep party politics out of things and focus instead on what people actually need. I was so happy to see over 25 people in attendance. Everyone asked great questions and I was so impressed, not only with the turn out, but the interest and commitment of the audience. Be on the lookout for similar events in Grand Isle County. Staff at the County Courthouse in North Hero reached out to me to see if I could help with their understaffing situation. This week I met with Teri Corsones, the Vermont State Court Administrator, and she said plans were in the works to help alleviate some of the problem. January 10-13, 2023
It’s been an exciting blur of a start to the legislative session.
I’m on the Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry Committee. While I come to this with experience from my work at the Champlain Islands Food Shelf as a volunteer and Board member, I am learning a great deal about ag and forestry from committee presentations. Currently, my committee doesn’t have any bills (this should change soon), but we’ve shared issues of concerns that we’re going to be working on. One of them is supporting farmers who might be transitioning away from the farming they’ve been doing. Last week I met with a constituent who is using four acres of his family dairy farm to grow hemp as a way to supplement their dairy farm income. If you’re a farmer, I’d love to talk with you about any issues you might be facing and how my committee can be of assistance. Other things my committee is focusing on is sustainable farming and forestry, and within that soil replenishment and carbon sequestration. As another committee member put it, “How can I, as a farmer, leave my land in better shape than when I began farming.” I’m also a member of the Rural Caucus. This caucus looks at all the bills that are being offered to ensure the voices of rural Vermonters are heard. This is a truly non-partisan caucus and a real highlight of my week. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and questions. |
