Chairman McCarthy opened the House Government Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday morning by saying he was particularly busy visiting with the House Appropriations Committee regarding the grants bill, H.140. He shared with the Committee that he would like to offer an amendment to H.702 to insert the working Group concept from the previous bill into this one.

H.873 reached the House floor on Tuesday, with Representative Conlon of Cornwall speaking on behalf of the Committee on Education. The bill addresses funding challenges for the state’s program for the remediation of the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in schools. This has been a major cost-driver for many districts.

Chair Conlon and members of the House Education Committee,

The education finance crisis before you today is the gravest in decades and eerily similar to the crisis we faced a decade ago. You have difficult choices ahead of you around overhauling the entire education finance system or making targeted reforms to inject more transparency and accountability into the incentive structure.

The annual housekeeping bill for the Ways and Means Committee, H.546, reached the House floor on Friday. Chairwoman Kornheiser presented the bill to the House. She described the bill as “revenue neutral.”

Representative Boyden presented H.702 on the House floor on Friday. She told members of the House that, as policy makers, they need to routinely evaluate how well our system is working and ensure that Vermonters are receiving the results they expect and deserve. H.702 is the first step in strengthening this type of government accountability.

Treasurer Mike Pieciak spoke to the Senate Economic Development Committee on Thursday morning about “10% for Vermont,” a local investment program.

The program authorizes the Treasurer to invest up to 10% of the State’s average daily cash balance for economic development in Vermont.  As noted in an announcement from the Office of the State Treasurer “the State’s average daily cash balance has grown substantially in recent years due to increased state revenues allowing the program’s lending capacity to expand from $39M to $100M and then expanded to $115M.  In total, when combined with funds that were not committed from the original program, there is now $85M available to support local economic development. 

The House Education Committee attempted to get a “big picture” of the education financing challenges on Thursday morning. Julia Richter (Senior Fiscal Analyst, Joint Fiscal Office) noted that the material she was presenting would seem familiar because it is meant to be. Chairman Conlon wanted a refresher as they began to review the current situation. Richter stated these are the same slides she presented about a month ago with some updates based on recent data and budgets. Her presentation showed the various commitments of Education Fund dollars and the ways in which school districts receive them.

Ben Edgerly Walsh (Climate & Energy Program Director, VPIRG) testified on S.259 in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday afternoon.

He shared in his presentation that VPIRG supports this bill because the cost of the climate crisis is “staggering”, and Vermonters should not be responsible for “shouldering the burden.” They see this legislation as a medium to long-term strategy. The legal process will take years, as will the rule-making process.

Representatives Walker and Harrison joined the House Energy and Environment Committee on Thursday to propose an amendment to H.289. The amendment would attempt to target new generation facilities in areas that already have additional distribution capacity. In areas where additional distribution capacity is necessary, the amendment would protect ratepayers from bearing the cost of these upgrades.