Legislative Update 5/1/24
As we enter the final weeks of the legislative session, time only continues to speed up with 17 bills on Tuesday’s agenda, for example. Many of the larger bills like the Budget, the Transportation Bill, the Act 250 Bill, the Housing Bill and others are in or heading into conference committees to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions. Meanwhile a lot of “smaller” bills, some very important, continue to flow between the chambers.
The House approved the annual Yield Bill, H.887 which sets the property tax rates for the coming year. By law, the House receives all of the approved school budgets state wide, adds up the total, and figures out how to pay the bill. Lawmakers don’t set the spending level.
As discussed in this space before, this year the total education spending increased substantially due to a perfect storm of factors including inflation, rising health insurance costs, skyrocketing psychological needs, staffing challenges, etc. The result is a brutal and unacceptable increase in property tax rates. Individual school districts have little possibility to decrease spending other than cutting staff positions.
Due to these pressures, this year’s Yield Bill goes far beyond simply setting tax rates. For starters: it generates $27 million in new revenue through a cloud tax on pre-written software accessed remotely, and a 1.5% surcharge on short term rentals. That money goes directly into the Education fund and reduces the tax rate by about 5%.
Additionally the bill makes adjustments to the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA), establishes an excess spending threshold, provides a 15% one-time increase to the property tax credit, and creates a new finance data analyst position. None of this, including the tax credit, will be felt this year as taxes always operate on a one year lag.
Possibly the most important provision of the bill creates the “Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont” with a wide-ranging mandate to make recommendations on structural changes in how education is delivered and funded. That bill is now in the Senate Finance Committee.
The Pollinator Protection bill H.706 which I sponsored has passed both the House and Senate and is heading to a conference committee. I am excited that this important bill will help protect the pollinators essential to agriculture and the health of our environment.
As always, please contact me with questions, ideas, or concerns at rchesnut-tangerman@leg.state.vt.us
