Campaign for Vermont fought hard to get ethics legislation passed in 2017 (Act 79). Not even a decade later it is feeling like the legislature is dismantling the ethics and transparency framework in the state... and it's coming from all sides.

In 2024, the legislature passed Act 171, which was intended to build on Act 79 by giving the Ethics Commission more oversight and (finally) enforcement powers. Unfortunately, Act 44 last year paused the enforcement powers (the House version of that bill would have scrapped them completely if we hadn't stepped in on the Senate side). More importantly, the Commission, overwhelmed with requests from the public, stressed the need for additional staff. State budget-writers denied that request last year — leaving the Commission under-resourced.

This week the Legislature grappled with the fundamental tension between ambition and fiscal reality. House Ways & Means moved deeper into the mechanics of its income tax overhaul. Meanwhile, the Senate quietly narrowed its flagship housing production bill after the Administration conceded it lacked the capacity to run a key pilot program, and a technical drafting flaw nearly undermined Vermont's municipal financing toolkit. Also, the Senate now finds themselves at the center of the session-defining debate over education reform.

The week's hearings make clear the Legislature is racing against the clock, trying to assemble complex policy packages (and making consequential tradeoffs in the process) before time runs out.

Off to the races.

Act 126 (formerly S.298) creates a new Vermont voter protections framework aimed at protecting access to voting and election administration, while also updating rules on voter checklist use, candidate disclosures, campaign-related security expenses, election intimidation, voting rights enforcement, and candidate compliance procedures.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4/27/2026
Contact: Ben Kinsley
[email protected] | (802) 210-1271 

Fix Ethics System Capacity, Don’t Scapegoat Staff

Montpelier, VT – Campaign for Vermont Prosperity today responded to partisan calls for the Executive Director of the Vermont State Ethics Commission to step down over confusion around candidate financial disclosure forms.

After initially looking like it would be a tame week in the Legislature, it certainly didn't turn out that way... A real lamb to lion situation.

This week the Legislature turned its attention to two questions that will shape Vermont's fiscal future for years to come: who pays, and how much? House Ways & Means spent the better part of three days dissecting proposals to restructure Vermont's income tax brackets and create a new investment income surtax, while simultaneously wrestling with what to do with the revenue: cut middle-class taxes or stand up a state-run health care premium assistance program to replace expired federal subsidies. Meanwhile, a sobering demographic briefing from the Joint Fiscal Office reminded the Committee that the population trends underlying all of these revenue assumptions are heading in the wrong direction.

Also this week... a key House Committee endorsed repealing significant sections of Act 181, the Senate put forward a significantly different approach to this year's property tax bill, and the Ethics Commission's budget request gets gutted right as they are being asked to do more.

Let's dig in.

The bill, S.328, adjusts several state programs and local planning requirements to better support housing development, align services and housing for Vermonters with developmental disabilities, and refine how communities plan for growth and infrastructure, with key topics including municipal planning and zoning, housing finance and credit facilities, common interest communities, service-supported housing, downtown and village center designations, and targeted housing needs assessments.

This week the Legislature turned its attention to the nuts and bolts... the practical, on-the-ground realities of implementing the big-ticket reforms that have been debated all session. Senate Education heard directly from superintendents who have actually led district mergers about what it takes (and what it costs) to make consolidation work. Senate Health & Welfare moved a prescription drug discount card closer to reality. And Senate Government Operations wrestled with how to modernize lobbying transparency without chilling free speech.

Of course the big happening this week was the passage of the House's education reform package, which the Governor promptly promised to veto. Why? Not because it doesn't save money (which it may or may not do) but because it doesn't force school district consolidation and the removal of local school boards.

Buckle up, here we go...

The House is set to vote on the next phase of Vermont's education reform effort today. The bill they are putting forward is a grab bag of policies that House members managed to agree on.

The bill, H.585, makes a set of health insurance reforms intended to strengthen oversight of nonprofit health insurers, increase transparency in parts of the health coverage market, and change certain payment and coverage rules, affecting insurer governance, executive compensation, association health plans, claims review, site-neutral reimbursement, prescription drug cost-sharing design, and health care sharing plan reporting.