The Senate Economic Development Committee spent most of the week working on their draft bill titled 'BE Home'. The bill would overhaul the current Act 250 framework and development designations into a new mapping structure.

Legislative Counsel started reviewing Section 15 of H.719 for the House General Committee on Tuesday afternoon. This section creates some time limits on and on venues where they can be brought.

Judge Walsh introduced himself to the House General Committee and highlighted his 18 years as an attorney after being an engineer. For six years he represented the former Environmental Board and was also in private practice. His experience goes back to before Act 100 and the appeals process.

Chair Kornheiser and members of the House Ways & Means Committee,

I have worked on education finance and policy issues in Vermont since 2014, including navigating the leadup to Act 46 and its aftermath. The crisis before you today is perhaps the gravest we have seen in decades. Sadly, nearly everyone who is part of the education system is culpable.

The basic facts are that we have more adults in our schools than any state in the country (and it’s not even close), resulting in the second highest cost per student. Over the past decades, we have seen steady spending increases[1], while staffing levels have persisted. Further, test scores have declined compared to other states who spend less[2].

Chairman Kornheiser on Tuesday asked Legislative Counsel to walk the House Ways & Means Committee through the new education finance mechanism in Act 127. It sounds like there were some side conversations after last week’s hearings about tweaking the implementation of the legislation.

The law generally redistributed taxing capacity from wealthy and urban districts to poor rural districts. Under the new distribution, two thirds of districts would benefit while one third would see an increase in their tax rate for the same level of spending. A hold harmless mechanism as added that would trigger if a school districts property tax rate increased by 5% or more in FY2025 over FY2024. If a districts tax rate is capped in FY2025, in subsequent years (up to FY2029) they would continue to be capped.

The Senate Economic Development Committee met on Friday to take additional testimony on the latest draft of the BE Home Bill.

Elizabeth Bridgewater (Executive Director, Windham and Windsor Housing Trust) thanked the Committee for prioritizing housing issues and seeking ways to make the development process itself faster and more efficient. Reforming the appeals process, she believes, is particularly needed as she “unfortunately has some experience” with this.

Chairman Bray kicked off the Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting on Thursday by acknowledging that Legislative Counsel has done great work producing a “very long bill,” S.308, based on the Natural Resource Board (NRB) recommendations. The core bill concepts were presented to the Committee, but they did not do a full walk-through because of the length of the legislation. The “advocates who are in this morning” were encouraged to respond to the draft with comments and concerns about the draft.

On Wednesday the House Ways & Means Committee dug into education finance with the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) with some hypothetical situations facing school districts. Chairwoman Kornheiser cast the topics for the day as surrounding property valuation and the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) and understanding what the impacts of those actually look like for taxpayers. This is meant to be a bit of a prelude for Thursday’s joint hearing on education finance.

The House Ways & Means Committee reviewed income tax analysis and the potential for a “wealth tax” on Tuesday with the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO). Chairwoman Kornheiser started the meeting by pointing out the Governor has not proffered a “revenue package” which, according to her, required by statute. When asked, she added that she has never seen one in his time in office.

On Wednesday the Senate Government Operations Committee did a walk-through of a new bill, S.224, that would increase legislative pay to 110% of the statewide median wage and add a benefits package.

The latest version of the bill would create a new Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare expenses that would mirror what is available to state employees.

The Committee returned to their draft BE Home bill on Friday morning to review the latest draft with Legislative Counsel. The bill is 86 pages long, but a helpful overview document was also provided.

Chairwoman Ram Hinsdale indicated that she to move toward a consensus vote for the inclusion of each of any stand-alone bills that should be included in their committee bill. February 9^th was the date given for when proposals needed to be submitted by.

Governor Scott presented his FY2025 budget to state legislators on Tuesday in the annual budget address. They will, of course, toss it out and write their own, but it’s still a purportedly important ritual.

Scott led with a more admonishing tone than normal, telling legislators that Vermonters “want to do their part, but they are being crushed by the burden of property taxes or the higher rents that come with it as well as by increased fees just to renew a license or register a vehicle, or the looming payroll tax, or the unknown in higher fuel and electricity costs, not to mention inflation.” He is of course referring to the 13% budget increase from last year that the legislature overrode his veto to pass. He continued on to tell them that “when we spend beyond our means, it catches up to us… When we fail to address the fundamentals of decades-old problems, they get worse.”

Legislative Counsel presented an overview of a new strikeout to H.707 to the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday. The bill overhauls the governance of the states workforce development system. The primary change in the system is that the Commissioner of Labor will no longer be the leader of workforce development. The newly created Executive Director of Workforce Expansion and Development will now be the leader of workforce education and training in the state.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee reviewed S.252 on Wednesday, which was sponsored by four of the five Senators on the Committee. The bill would give the Public Utility Commission (PUC) authority to oversee the permitting, construction, and operation of “thermal energy” networks.

Chairwoman Kornheiser started the conversation by asking the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) to walk through the policy options available to the Committee to mitigate the impacts of the project property tax increase.

Jeff Dooley (Taxpayer Advocate, Department of Taxes) began his time with the House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday with his “micro and macro level” roles on behalf of taxpayers and within the Tax Department. A statutory relief mechanism called “extraordinary relief” that can avail the Commissioner with requests for relief. These often deal with the property tax credit systems and affects lowest income persons.

The state's Emergency Board meet in the Governor’s Ceremonial office on Thursday to review the updated revenue forecast for FY2024 and updated projections for FY2025. The state economists noted that while inflation is high the state has not experienced a recession and the economy is still growing.

The House General & Housing Committee met on Tuesday with Kathleen Berk (Executive Director, Vermont State Housing Authority) who had sent a letter to the Committee the week before.

Two different Committees covered a new Housing Designations Report from the Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) this week. The report focuses on creating vibrant places for Vermonters to live and work.

In the House Environment & Energy Committee on Thursday, Chairwoman Sheldon asked about public engagement and Chris Cochran (Director of Community Planning & Revitalization, Department of Housing & Community Development) stressed the input was largely municipalities and staff at planning and regional agencies, the public also was engaged but they were asked to respond to questions like “what is working and what is not?”

Maura Collins (Executive Director, Vermont Housing Finance Agency) presented to the Senate Economic Development Committee on Tuesday, noting that this year the Vermont Housing and Finance Agency (VHFA) is celebrating 50 years.

The loans they provide end up going to 94% first time homebuyers. 70% are also offered down payment assistance etc. The median borrower income is $67,950. They also offer rental housing development along with the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board.