Legislative Update 3/25/2023
Last week the Vermont House fulfilled several campaign promises. In the crunch before crossover, the deadline by which Senate bills need to move to the House and House bills to the Senate, a lot of testimony, debate, and dealmaking happens. The House approved several major bills and many smaller ones, all of which now move to the Senate for a new round of debate.
The House gave approval to a Paid Family Leave Insurance program similar to that in 13 other states, although details differ widely. Ours would fold in all Vermont workers, low and high income, to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave in the event of a serious illness or injury, parental leave for a new child, recovery from domestic or sexual violence, and other “qualifying events”. As proposed it would provide 90% wage replacement.
The Vermont plan is funded by a 0.55% payroll tax split between employer and employee. To illustrate: someone earning $75,000 would pay an annual premium of only $206.25, matched by their employer. A worker earning $50,000 would pay $137.50 per year. The 90% wage replacement is intended to provide an emergency benefit people can actually afford to use.
Employers can opt out and buy a private insurance plan as the Governor proposed, as long as it provides equal or better benefits. Critically, this bill provides a cushion for those people —disproportionally women — who need leave from work to care for an ailing family member. If Covid has taught us anything, it is how unexpected challenges can strike any of us.
The House also approved a bill setting a goal of conserving 30% of Vermont land by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Currently about 25% of land in the state is conserved, which does not include the Current Use program. The bill is voluntary and does not require landowners to participate, but encourages permanent conservation of forests and other working lands while still allowing agriculture and timber harvests. It meets multiple goals of protecting rural economies, managing for wildlife habitat and corridors, extreme weather event mitigation, carbon capture, and focusing new housing into already developed areas rather than continuing to carve up open land.
The House also approved free school meals for all children, ending the stigma of being labeled as a “free or reduced lunch kid’. Another bill legalizes online sports betting. Although I don’t personally support gambling and believe that gambling addiction is a very real problem, I reluctantly supported the bill because it moves action that is already happening out of the shadows and into the arena of regulated commerce. New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have already legalized it; an astonishing number of Vermonters simply drive across the border to play, and as many have said, it’s leaving revenue on the table if we don’t legalize online betting.
Perhaps the most gut-wrenching testimony and debate centered around H.230, a suicide prevention bill attempting to reduce suicide by firearms. In 2020 91% of Vermont gun deaths were suicides, much higher than the national average. The suicide rate in Vermont is also much higher than the national average, at over 20 deaths per 100,000 people, and Rutland county has the third highest rate in the state.
We learned some counter-intuitive things as well; that most survivors will not attempt suicide again; many say that they didn’t actually want to die, they just wanted the pain to end. We also learned that though suicidal thought may be present for a long time, the decision to act is impulsive, often with mere minutes between the decision and pulling the trigger. The sad fact is that suicide by firearm is much more efficient than any other means, so reducing access during that impulse is critical.
H.230 achieves this by requiring safe storage of firearms under most conditions (locked) and a 72-hour waiting period for most purchases. The bill passed by a vote of 99-43. We heard conflicting legal opinions about the constitutionality of this bill. Like most firearms questions I expect it will be resolved in court.
Finally, debate on H.483, the controversial bill which among many other things addresses payment of public tuition dollars to independent schools, was postponed until next week.
The bill attempts the difficult work of walking the legal tightrope created by the Supreme Court ruling regarding religious schools. Whatever the outcome, we can be assured that it will not be the end of this issue.
As always, feel free to contact me with questions or concerns at rchesnut-tangerman@leg.state.vt.us or through the Sergeant at Arms Office at 802-828-2228.