When I stepped into this role in June I shared with you that we would sharpen our focus in the months ahead. Last month, I laid out why that urgency behind that focus: 64% of Vermonters under 35 are planning to leave the state within five years, while close to 100,000 Vermonters are approaching retirement age. On top of that, we are shrinking faster than any state in the country.

A problem that size invites a dramatic response, throwing time and attention in every direction. We are not going to do that.

Every year, Campaign for Vermont sets an agenda for the work ahead and the issues where we believe nonpartisan advocacy can actually move the needle for everyday Vermonters.

This year we made a deliberate choice: fewer, bigger fights. We lead where we are uniquely positioned to lead, and we support other credible organizations where they are already doing the work. We are a tiny organization, but we can have a big impact if we focus our attention and invite others to do the same.

This week has that stretch of the session where the clock forces decisions. Senate Education and Senate Finance continued to wrestle with the most consequential education bill of the session, House Ways & Means dove deep into the mechanics of property tax yields and the excess spending adjustment that will shape education finance for years to come, and multiple committees advanced housing production tools while grappling with whether Vermont's housing targets are built on solid ground.

Meanwhile, the House quietly concurred on a chronic absenteeism bill that represents a genuine shift in how Vermont approaches school attendance policy, and S.325 (the Act 181 fix) is headed to a conference committee that will determine the future of Act 250 jurisdiction.

Let's dig in.

Dear Chairman Collamore and Members of the Senate Government Operations Committee,

I am writing today regarding S.298 and the ongoing discussion about candidate financial disclosure forms and the role of the Vermont State Ethics Commission. Our message is straightforward: Vermont's ethics framework can only succeed if it is given the resources to match its responsibilities.

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.

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.

A bottleneck of bills hit the floor in both chambers this week. The House and Senate floors were busy passing major legislation on homelessness, health care, housing, and the FY27 budget. Meanwhile, the Agency of Education delivered pointed critique's of both chambers' approaches to education reform (color me shocked) and Ways and Means began inventorying the enormous technical to-do list that sits between Act 73 and anything resembling a workable foundation formula.

Let's walk through it.

Friday's crossover deadline built momentum on a number of fronts and the House Education Committee spent this week doing something it has struggled to do all session... converging on a path forward. The answer, it appears, is shared service providers that are being called Cooperative Education Service Areas (CESAs).

Here's what happened this week...