Legislative Update 4/4/24
Since my last legislative update, the Vermont House has been extremely busy, including several late nights debating on the House floor. It has also been an extremely productive time, although all these bills still need to pass through the Senate and then the Governor’s office.
Governor Scott vetoed a bill prohibiting flavored tobaccos and vapes, products which have led to a doubling of teen tobacco use, mostly in the form of vaping. The House had approved the bill due to long-term health and nicotine addiction impacts on the population and long term budget expenses.
Bills recently approved by the House include:
Allowing multiple school districts to create a BOCES (Board of Co-operative Services) for greater efficiency in contracting for everything from special-ed services to ordering paper towels.
Expanding access to Medicaid and Dr. Dynasaur for pregnant women, people up to 21 years old, and people earning under 312% of the federal poverty level, which is $97,344 for a family of four.
Increasing efficiency and access in the judicial system to reduce the huge backlog of 16,000 court cases.
Creation of statewide ethics standards for municipal and state officers.
Construction of emergency shelters to transition away from the very costly hotel voucher program.
Three bills that deserve particular attention are the Budget, a Land Use/Act 250 bill, and a Housing bill.
Budget - The Fiscal Year 2025 budget totals $8.6 billion dollars. These allocations thread a delicate line of adhering to fiscal responsibility while meeting desperate needs. As always the budget is balanced, fully funds our pension obligations and reserve funds, and meets the most critical needs of Vermonters and state government. It is also within 0.2% of the governors’ recommended budget although the spending priorities vary. With the decrease in federal funds (though some ARPA money is still available for re-allocation), money is VERY tight and the Appropriations Committee had the unenviable job of making hard decisions and disappointing everybody in one way or another.
Land Use/Act 250 - Vermont’s major land use bill, Act 250, became law in 1970. Recent legislative sessions have seen calls for reform and updating, which is reasonable. But what updates? Permit reform is absolutely a piece of solving our housing crisis, but despite the wishful thinking of a lot of people, that alone is not nearly enough. This bill takes a long view and reduces state regulatory hurdles in certain areas like downtowns with public sewer and water, and strong municipal oversight as well as some other areas. It balances that deregulation with more accurate mapping and protections of critical natural resources. It also changes the governance and appeals structure “to be a more citizen-friendly process applied more consistently across districts” by creating a professional Board. The Board will also hear appeals, a significantly faster process than the court system, and creates “precedent”, further speeding up the process.
Housing - One of two housing bills approved is the first step of a 10-year plan to increase housing in several price ranges, to phase out the hotel voucher program while providing the services and help Vermonters need, and to help renters and landlords alike. In the past few years we have had plenty of federal money to apply toward housing (new building is a multi-year process, so some of that housing is just now becoming available). If we are to continue to ease the housing crunch we must now rely on our own resources. Finding money is hard, but paying lip service to the housing crisis while refusing to fund programs to solve it is absurd. The House has proposed a tax increase on incomes over $500,000 and a revision of the one-time property transfer tax (PTT) which people pay when they purchase a home. For houses under $750,000 the tax rate would go down. For properties over $750,000 it would increase. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of appetite for this in the Senate, so I’m curious to see how they propose to fund building programs.
This is just a snapshot. I will be posting updates on these and other bills in the coming weeks.
As always please reach out to me with questions, concerns, or ideas.
