This week the legislature overrode Governor Scott's veto of the pension bill unanimously. While only addressing less than half of the deficit, the legislature resoundingly chose incremental progress over sweeping reform. Other bills are following this trend, such as the Act 250 bill, shying away from bold reforms and towards minor tweaks to existing laws.

Other bills moving forward include housing and workforce development, economic development, student weighting (headed for the Governor's desk). Universal school meals were also approved by the Senate this week, setting up a likely slash to the $36M in property tax savings that were offered by the House.

The pension bill is now in the Governor's hands after the Senate gave final approval on Friday. He will be faced with a choice to approve a bill he has criticized in recent weeks as not going far enough to address the pension deficit or accept the incremental progress that the bill offers.

We are also, by the way, waiting for the Governor to sign the ethics bill which passed over a week ago...

After the House more or less accepted Governor Scotts plan to return half of the $95M property tax surplus to taxpayers, the Senate may not be so quick to jump on the bandwagon. After testimony this week they seem inclined to reject the 20 cent decrease to property taxes in favor of providing funding for both PCB remediation and universal school meals.

This week Campaign for Vermont introduced an extensive list of workforce development recommendations to the legislature covering a number of bills in motion, including H.703, H.159, S.226, and S.234. As a state we must recognize the issues before us and view them with clarity. Economic vitality is critically linked to workforce participation, recruitment, and housing. Our businesses are starving for workers and those that can move elsewhere will if the problems become worse – hampering the long-term prospects of our state. We cannot practically solve the housing crisis quickly enough to correct some of these issues, however, moves we make now will have profound impacts on that outcome and the equity of our housing system and even the broader economy in years to come.

The public pension reform bill is headed to the House Floor next week after the state treasurer poo-pooed a defined contribution plan for new hires. The current solution being offered only addresses less than half of the pension deficit and disproportionately impacts taxpayers. The legislature will need to come back for more in future years. At the same time, the legislature is considering pension divestment of fossil fuels, benefits for interim educators, new pension groups, and other measures that could actually have a negative impact on the deficit.

Two education initiatives - Student Weighting Factors and Universal School Meals - also passed key committee votes this week and are anticipated to hit the House Floor in short order.

The following is a letter sent to the Senate Economic Development and House Commerce Committees on Friday April 22nd, 2022.

There was lots of action this week as the legislature heads into its final month of the session. The ethics bill passed the House unanimously this week and is now headed back to the Senate where we expect final approval before being sent to the Governor.

In a surprise turn of events, the House is now considering the pursuit of defined contribution plans for new hires. This has the potential to address the remaining $2.3B in unfunded liability that will remain in our public pension funds if S.286 passes (the bill currently only addresses about $2B of the $4.3B overall liability).

Workforce, housing, and economic development bills are all progressing towards final passage but there are concerns around "poison pills" added by environmental advocates that could draw a gubernatorial veto. All three of these bills are critical to addressing Vermont's short and long-term economic challenges.

The bill creating a statewide code of ethics is headed to the House floor this coming week after the Government Operations Committee agreed with most of the provisions we and others asked for.

Pensions are heating up again, on multiple fronts. The "benefits overhaul bill" is being worked on in the House and there are two bills in the Senate that could negatively impact pension liabilities. One that would divest fossil fuels from the investment portfolios and another that would potentially allow retired teachers to temporarily come back to work while retaining their pension benefits.

Other bills, such as workforce development and housing are also gaining steam in the House and Senate. We are likely to see those bills move to the floor in the next week or two.

While we are still wrapping our arms around it, the Senate passed the pension bill this week. The ethics bill is off to a good start in the House. Workforce development and housing efforts are making progress in both the House and the Senate. All in all, it was a pretty good week.

Members of the House Government Operations Committee,

Through Campaign for Vermont, I have been working with the Administration and Legislature since 2015 to encourage the passage and strengthening of ethics laws in Vermont. Today I am writing because you are beginning to take testimony on S.171. I know this bill may be 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 all tie together.

Legislators found out this week that the Vermont child tax credit bill may need a haircut. The workforce development bill received such a large haircut that we may have a headless horseman situation.

In case we scared you, the economic development bill passed out of committee this week and is headed to the Senate floor (mostly intact). Some provisions in the bill received push-back around what business would have access to funds and whether or not revenue replacement is the role of government (that question as largely been decided by ARPA). The workforce bill was passed by the House this week as the House and Senate exchange their flagship bills.

Also, the ethics bill received a warm welcome in the House and we are looking forward to testifying on that legislation next week.

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.