Chairman Conlon introduced an amendment from the Appropriations on Thursday morning. Representative Mihaly was there to present it and began by explaining some of the technical provisions of the amendment, including the new 60/40 split between the General and Education Funds for adult education.

Chairwoman Kornheiser kicked off a joint hearing of the House Education and Ways & Means Committees on Thursday. She explained the format is to have a “free flowing” discussion of ideas without the need for formal legislation proposal; she asserted these ideas are from many around the (virtual) table. “The diversity and scale and complexity of some of the issues that we are facing in education and education finance this year necessitate more open dialogue,” she stated.

Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board) was first to testify In the Senate Natural Resources on Wednesday Morning on S.311 after Chairman Bray gave some housekeeping remarks. The bill aims to overhaul the Act 250 land use system and install a tiered mapping system that makes it clear which land is available for development and which is not.

The House Ways & Means Committee reviewed H.829 on Wednesday. This bill as originally proposed by Representative Stevens to restore,  enhance, and supplement elements of Vermont’s pandemic-era housing policy  that ceased with the termination of federal pandemic aid by implementing  permanent upstream eviction protections and other rental housing policies to  preserve housing stability for both tenants and property owners, including by  creating a rental registry; allocating resources for eviction diversion;  modernizing policies on just cause evictions, rent increases, and security deposits; and creating programs for property owners to access funding to remediate damages created during recent tenancies.

The House Government Operations Committee heard from Representative Brennan on Tuesday who, on behalf of the Town of Colchester, proposed an amendment to H.875 (the municipal ethics bill) which would require towns who have established policies and procedures on Ethics to be exempt from the entirety of the Bill upon submitting a letter from the legislative body to the State Ethics Commission by December 31^st of each year certifying that the municipality has adopted an ethics policy and  framework that does not conflict with the state standards.

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 Cummings explained on Tuesday afternoon that they are expecting several tax bills from the House but, as of yet, none of them address the big question of “the biggest problem we’ve got which is the massive increase in property taxes, which really is coming close to making Vermont unaffordable to most people.”

H.630 reached the House floor on Tuesday. Representative Beck of St. Johnsbury offered an amendment on behalf of the Committee on Ways and Means. They recommended passing the bill along with an amendment that appropriated $70k for the Agency of Education to administer a grant program to support the formation of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES).

The Senate Education Committee held a presentation on Tuesday afternoon on the Flexible Pathways Initiative, created by Act 77 of 2013, which encourages and supports the creativity of school districts as they develop and expand high-quality educational experiences that are an integral part of secondary education in the evolving 21^st century classroom.