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 Legislature worked late last night, finally concluding that an education reform deal was out of reach. They are coming back in a couple weeks to (hopefully) finish the job.

The most significant event in Montpelier this week is the one that almost didn't happen... Sensing that the education reform bill (H.454) was going to have some challenges on the Senate floor, we issued an action alert on Monday. Those concerns turned out to be well-founded when Senate leadership announced on Tuesday that they were pulling the bill back from the floor.

We are mixing up our format a little bit this week (let us know what you think!). But don't worry, we are still bringing you in-depth coverage on a wide range of topics.

The most important update (in our view) is that the bill dealing with the Ethics Commission's oversight authority passed a key vote in the Senate this week. The Senate's version would delay the implementation of the Ethics Commission's new powers for two years. While we are still disappointed in this outcome, it is better than the House Version which would have removed independent oversight of the Legislative and Judicial branches of state government permanently.

Major initiatives in areas such as education, housing, and health care are nearing the finish line this week as key committee votes take shape. Most notably, the Senate Education Committee advanced the education reform bill in a key vote on Friday. While there is much work left to do, the Senate version (so far) seems better than the House's and the vote keeps the effort on track to kick off the reform process this year.

The reforms brought forward by H.474 relate to revising the candidate nomination process for major parties and making changes to campaign finance rules.

A bill changing numerous education provisions, H.429, generated a great deal of interest this session. Numerous people testified in both the House and Senate. On May 9th, a strike-all amendment from the Senate Government Operations Committee was considered. It incorporated provisions from S.32, which would create a Ranked-Choice Voting system for presidential primary elections.

On Thursday, the House Government Operations Committee returned to work on S.32, which would establish a ranked-choice voting (RCV) system for presidential primary elections. Katherine Schad (Chief Administrative Officer, Burlington City) joined the Committee. Chairman McCarthy asks her to comment specifically about operating an RCV system with multiple precincts.