The House's 2025 Housing Bill (H.479) - Overview & Analysis
H.479 is the House's 2025 comprehensive housing bill aimed at addressing Vermont’s housing shortage through various programs, incentives, and regulatory changes. The legislation amends existing statutes and introduces new initiatives to improve rental housing, support manufactured home communities, enhance infrastructure, protect tenants, and streamline development processes.
Read moreHealth Care Payment and Delivery System Reform (S.126 / Act 68) - Overview & Analysis
S.126 is a comprehensive legislative proposal introduced to transform Vermont's health care system. The bill aims to improve health outcomes, enhance care quality, control costs, and ensure equitable access to health care services. It proposes structural changes through payment reforms, hospital budget oversight, data integration, and strategic planning.
Read moreThe Senate's 2025 Housing Bill (S.127 / Act 69) - Overview & Analysis
The Senate's 2025 housing bill (S.127) is a comprehensive legislative proposal aimed at addressing housing shortages and improving housing accessibility, affordability, and infrastructure in Vermont. The bill amends existing statutes and introduces new programs to incentivize rental housing rehabilitation, manufactured home improvements, infrastructure development, and protections for vulnerable populations. It establishes study committees, funding mechanisms, and regulatory reforms to support housing development, with a focus on low- to moderate-income households, individuals with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
Read moreDelaying Ethics Oversight (H.1/Act 44) - Overview & Analysis
The Senate version of H.1 (Act 44) delays the implementation of investigatory authority and other miscellaneous powers of the State Ethics Commission until September 1, 2027.
Read moreRecruiting Military Retirees for Workforce Development (H.34) - Overview & Analysis
The bill aims to address Vermont’s workforce shortages in construction, health care, and manufacturing by leveraging the skills of military retirees and their spouses. The bill also builds on the 2024 establishment of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development to enhance workforce coordination.
Read moreMiscellaneous Education Changes (H.480 / Act 72) - Overview & Analysis
The bill, H.480, aims to adjust miscellaneous laws related to education including topics such as school safety, virtual learning, Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) grants, Secretary of Education vacancies, education on military related opportunities, cell phone free schools, independent school moratorium, cardiac emergency response plans, reading proficiency aid, tuition benefits for National Guard members, expanded access to Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, and school library policies.
Read moreMaking Health Care Facilities Easier to Build (H.96 / Act 15) - Overview & Analysis
The bill proposes amendments to the Certificate of Need (CON) requirements for health care facilities in Vermont, specifically increasing the monetary thresholds that trigger the need for a CON. This bill aims to streamline the process for health care facilities while ensuring that significant projects still undergo necessary oversight while allowing smaller projects to proceed without intervention and added cost.
Read moreThe Legislature's Education Transformation Plan (H.454 / Act 73) - Overview
The Legislature's grand education transformation initiative offers a mixed bag of results but does manage to move forward historic changes to the way we raise funds to pay for schools that should introduce better transparency and accountability for taxpayers while also putting downward pressure on spending. Unfortunately the combined effect of governance and finance changes that create a very top-down educational model.
Read moreElection Law Changes (H.474 / Act 70) - Overview
The reforms brought forward by H.474 relate to revising the candidate nomination process for major parties and making changes to campaign finance rules.
Read moreBongartz's Proposal for Education Reform
Seth Bongartz, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, drew a new map for education governance reform in response to Governor Scott's plan. The significantly reduces the number of governance bodies in the education system but also preserves inter-state and tuitioning school districts in most instances.
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