The legislature was busy this week moving bills onto the floor in both chambers to meet the looming cross-over deadline (all bills must pass from one chamber to the other before crossover in order to be acted upon this year). Many last-minute requests were denied and a number of bills saw floor action. This includes the ethics bill we have been working on, which was passed by the Senate this week.

Other bills we have been following, including the workforce development, housing, and economic development are all slated for the floor of the House and Senate early next week.

There was progress on several fronts this week with the ethics bill moving to the Senate Floor and the workforce development bill appears to be ready to move by Wednesday.

A bill that steers the state towards divestment of fossil fuels from our public pension systems is also headed to the Senate Floor. This bill is concerning for several reasons, read more below!

We have been busy here at the Campaign! Here is our Spring update on all the activities we are engaged on.

The 2022 legislative season is in full swing. As the legislature transitions back to in-person meetings and start to advance larger policy issues, we launched our annual survey to gather Vermonter's thoughts on what our priorities should be.

In order to further our goal of advocating for issues that boost working class Vermonters, we surveyed Campaign for Vermont followers about what issues impact their daily lives to most, what is most likely to improve the social and financial situation of a family, and what issues people would most like to see the legislature tackle. Here are the results!

There is still much up in the air going into Town Meeting week. The Senate Natural Resources Committee moved an imperfect Act 250 bill that would narrowly address housing, but also include the road rule provision that will likely draw a veto threat from the Governor. We will likely see that bill combined with efforts ongoing in the Senate Economic Development Committee but the overall picture of what the housing incentive package will look like is murky and it seems likely the Senate will fail to address the "missing middle" for owner occupied workforce housing stock that Governor Scott called for in his budget address.

The Pension "fix" was voted out of the Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday. The bill largely follows the Pension Task Force recommendations which only addresses roughly half of the pension liability the state currently faces.

Ethics legislation also ran into stiff opposition from attorneys and judicial employees this week as they refused a compromise that would hold them to the same definition of conflict of interest as other public employees but they could follow their rules for resolving those conflicts. Instead they requested that their rules of professional conduct would override the state code of ethics.

Finally, there was a jump in the projected education spending increase this week as more school budgets came back. It's still unclear what the actual tax rates will be as there is so much volatility in appraisal values and offsetting state and federal funds.

This week saw positive progress on a number of fronts. After looking like it was unraveling last week, a new draft of S.171 (the ethics bill) on Friday showed positive developments. Workforce and economic development bills are also taking shape and are looking promising.

Members of the Senate Government Operations Committee,

Thank you for your hard work and perseverance in working through S.171 this session. I know this bill is confusing in how it interrelates with existing rules, policies, and practices across different branches of government. It is not always easy to step back and see the broader picture of how these tie together.

I want to reiterate that Campaign for Vermont supports this legislation because it offers a universal set of expectations for public officials. We believe Vermonters deserve something that can be articulated simply and applied universally.

Friends, this was a key week in the legislature. We are starting to see the separation between what bills will likely make it and others will not. Bills such as Act 250 reform (downtown housing developments) appear to have legs while project-based TIFs are struggling to move forward. 

Campaign for Vermont is continuing to engage on ethics reform and we are moving to engage on workforce development as well. So many of these issues are intertwined - technical education, housing, workforce engagement. Vermont employers are struggling to find people to fill open positions. Housing has become the largest inhibitor of workforce growth (and thus economic growth), however because workforce participation is so low there is an opportunity to entice some Vermonters back into the workforce.

We hope you find the information we are providing useful and our advocacy meaningful, you can support our efforts by making a donation here.

Friends, what a week. Governor Scott, his administration, and the legislature dove headfirst this week into deciding how to spend a historic level of federal funds and state tax receipts. Also announced was a plan to return almost $100M to Vermont taxpayers through a combination of rebates and tax credits. Historic investments in pension reform, workforce development, housing, and climate change were also pitched.

The crazy part? There is actually agreement. Agreement on what needs to be done and what changes and investments we need to make in Vermont's future. As of today, nothing seems to be off the table. A truly optimistic moment.

Friends, the legislature has wasted no time diving into big issues - housing, workforce development, pensions, and Act 250 just to name a few. We are encouraged by the level of focus the legislature is exhibiting but we are concerned about some of the comments made about Act 250. Strife between the natural resource and economic development committees continues without a clear end in sight. We will need to overcome these differences in order to address our housing shortage.

Also, we had the privilege of testifying on a bill that would create a statewide code of ethics this week. This bill is the next step in the work we started in 2017 to hold our public officials accountable. We hope the legislature will finally get this done so the state's Ethics Commission can move forward with providing certainty to the public around the conduct of our public officials regardless of their position in state government.

Comments on S.171 – January 12, 2022

Chairwoman White and members of the Senate Government Operations Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on the importance of a code of ethics for the State of Vermont. As you well know, this is an issue Campaign for Vermont has followed and advocated on behalf of for a number of years.

Our first legislative update of the year always feels a bit special. This year it is extra special for two important reasons: first, the Governor focused the majority of his 2022 State of the State address on workforce development - a key priority for us that really helps to set the tone for the remainder of the year. Second, the legislature has launched right into discussions on key bills that we are engaged on, including housing, student weighting, pension reform, and yes even workforce development.

Continue to Vote for Vermont

Tourism was one of the hardest hit industries by the Covid-19 pandemic with an estimated loss of over $700 million in revenue in 2020. We identified re-energizing tourism as a key early initiative in our Plan for Economic Recovery this Spring. If you missed our presentation, you can find it here.

We need your help as we work with stakeholders in the tourism industry, local providers, and others to expand our toolbox and advertising practices in the state.

Phase 1 – Educate Industry on Power of Moments and Network Influence

• Efforts focus on upskilling lodging, activity, and food providers and skills for retaining visitors for next season
• 7 Regional Meetings – build awareness and adoption
  • Invite regional businesses, chambers of commerce, etc.
• 5 Statewide meetings – Industry Groups, ACCD, etc.

Pledge below so we can continue with this important work on this iconic Vermont industry and the steps to help rebuild it even stronger than before.

As the Pension Benefits Task Force debated how to solve Vermont's $4.5B pension deficit, we heard repeated claims that public employee benefits (which are 2-3 times as generous as the private sector) were necessary to make teachers and state employees competitive because their salaries are lower. While this has been a long-standing claim, we decided to dig into data and what we found was surprising.

“As a former Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Commissioner of Human Resources, I was surprised by what we found in this report. I think everyone needs to read this report because there were a number of assumptions that were carried through the years that were just plain wrong.” - Pat McDonald (President, Campaign for Vermont)

In November CFV released a new report that compares the wages and benefits of teachers and state employees to the private sector and what that means for the current discussions around pension reform. If you missed it, you can find the report here.

We are planning to continue into Phase 2 of this project over the coming months, which MAY include:

1. A further in-depth comparison of specific jobs between the public and private sector.
2. An analysis of hiring competitiveness between the public and private sector.
3. Comparing benefits offered by top-rated employers in the private sector to the public sector offerings.
4. Analyzing how many private sector workers it takes to support one position in state government.

If you have additional ideas, we would love to hear about them! You can contact us here.

Please support this project by pledging below.

Friends, we have been busy here at the Campaign!

We published one of our most significant reports of the year last month, which found that Vermont state employees and teachers are often in the top 25% of income earners in the state.

It turns out that some government officials have known for a while that state government salaries are competitive. This letter (dated October 29, 2009) from Jeff Carr to Governor James Douglas about a review of a VSEA memo to Donna Sweaney, Chair of Government Accountability Committee. Carr’s letter, over a decade old now, points to many of the same factors we found in our recent report around compensation levels and the growth rate of state employee compensation compared to the private sector.

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What do you think we should prioritize during the 2022 legislative session? We want to hear from you!