H.887 reached the House Floor on Tuesday afternoon. Representative Kornheiser introduced the bill on behalf of the Ways & Means Committee. She shared that they have “struggled mightily to navigate through this issue.” She highlighted that “this work cannot be done overnight or even in a couple months during the legislative session.” The $250M in new spending was described as the primary driver of property taxes, increasing property taxes by roughly $0.25. Other factors identified were weaker performance of non-property tax revenue sources and loss of federal funds. Other measures in the bill have been reported on previously.

On Tuesday morning, the House Ways and Means Committee heard from Morgan Daybell, who was representing all the administrative groups in the education system. He noted that they felt that the funding and policy discussions should not be separated, and the same Commission should be responsible for both. They approve of the cloud tax and the short-term rental surcharge and “anything else” that would increase the statewide yield amount.

Representative Marcotte presented a high-level overview of H.707 for the Senate Economic Development Committee. He introduced himself and noted that he was Chair of both House Commerce and Economic Development as well as the SOCWED, a special committee designed to review how best to approach workforce development in Vermont.

Christina Sivret (Executive Director, Vermont State Ethics Commission) thanked Senate Government Operations Committee for their comments on bill. She continued on to propose changes to the current language, which addresses many issues of concern in numerous areas to include the sections on disclosure, voluntary compliance, assets from individual stockholdings, loans, conflicts known to applicant. Chairwoman Hardy was pleased that many of the changes are addressing concerns based on previous testimony. 

Senator Bray announced on Friday morning that the Senate Natural Resources Committee was resuming its work on H.289, which increases the targets of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES).

Thursday afternoon the House Environment Energy Committee took up S.259 and the Committee's amendment to the bill. The bill creates a Climate Change Cost Recovery Program which allows the state to sue fossil fuel companies for damages using an “emissions factor” for greenhouse gas emissions the company’s products produced. Investments by municipalities to make sure communities are resilient to the impacts of climate change would be eligible for funds from this super fund.

Chairwoman Ram Hinsdale opened testimony in the Senate Economic Development Committee on Wednesday afternoon saying that she wanted context on the “current unmet housing need.”

Chairman Campion brought the Senate Education Committee together on Wednesday afternoon, asking legislative counsel to give them a high-level overview and see what if any testimony or experts we want to call. He also highlighted Senator Weeks’ questions yesterday about whether the supervisory unions (SUs) could do some of this work.

It was noted that each of the seven possible regional Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) have to vote to both form and SUs have to vote to join. Campion added he may want to change the name of these organizations.

Senator Bray opened up the Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting on Wednesday morning by stating that they are “evaluating elements” of S.311 to be integrated into H.687. Indicating that the plan was to vote the bill out today while they wait for “Counsel makes any changes… for things that we can resolve, non-showstopper issues… the plan is to set aside a basket of those, and we will have about a week during which Senate Economic Development will evaluate.”  See draft 3.1.

Tom Golonka (Chair, Vermont Pension Investment Commission (VPIC)) thanked the House Government Operations Committee on Tuesday for listening to VPIC and the pension boards.  He noted that what they do is a tremendous obligation, and they take it very seriously, including the climate change problem. There is a 5-point plan that VPIC did which is on their website which he encouraged the Committee to read.

Golonka cautioned that the decisions of the Legislature do have an impact on the underfunding of the pension funds.  As an example, in 1970 the Legislature underfunded the pensions by $1M which today would be valued at $150M.  He reiterated that seemingly little changes matter and impact the funding status of the pension plans.