Default School Budgets - April 26, 2024
Chairwoman Kornheiser outlined a list of reasons that have led to the moment and need for a joint hearing of the House Education and Ways & Means Committees this week. School budgets have a “rough road to passage this year,” she argued, and even with the default budget that takes effect July 1st, districts will still eventually need to pass a budget. She is concerned that budgets may never pass. Additionally, the statute regarding tuitioning districts may have a little bit of conflict with itself.
She explained that after conversation with Chairman Conlon “and the field” (likely the interest groups representing school administrators) she sat down with the Joint Fiscal Office and Legislative Counsel to develop a set of scenarios as a starting point for discussions.
Read moreProperty Tax Abatements (H.629) - April 25, 2024
The House Ways & Means Committee walked through changes to H.629 with Legislative Counsel on Thursday morning. The bill would address a number of issues that arise from natural disasters impacting a property. For example, the rapid devaluation for tax purposes or the inability to pay property taxes or utilities because of repair costs.
Most of the Senate Changes were technical in nature and included updates to some of the definitions in the bill. The main sticking point for the Committee was around the interest rate charged for delinquent taxes and other bills. The House version charged 0.5% per month while the Senate Version charged 1%.
Read moreAmendments to Property Tax Bill (H.887) - April 23, 2024
The House Ways & Means Committee met first thing on Tuesday morning to begin reviewing proposed amendments to H.887, which sets the property tax rates for FY2025.
Read moreProperty Tax Yield Bill (H.887) - April 16-19, 2024
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.
Read moreProperty Tax Yield Bill - April 9-11, 2024
Chairwoman Kornheiser opened the House Ways and Means Committee meeting on Tuesday by saying, ”we have put a bunch of big ideas out into the world because that is the only way can get work done right? Someone has to put something on paper for people to react to… and it’s fairly intense…. It does not mean these are hills we want to die on. It’s a necessary part of the process.” She noted that the draft yield bill has “multiple decision points” that range through FY2027.
Read moreEducation Spending Joint Hearing - April, 4, 2024
Chairman Conlon introduced the topic of the day, which was to solicit ideas from legislators about how to address the education crisis.
Read moreIncome and Wealth Distribution Report - April 3, 2024
Chairwoman Kornheiser introduced Stephanie Yu (Executive Director, Public Assets Institute) on Wednesday, saying they usually hear from them earlier in the session. Her presentation included a lot of data about the economic distribution coming out of Covid and how the ARPA funds prevented a worse recession. These funds “prevented what could have been a deep, lasting recession and reduced child poverty nationally from 2020 to 2021 by 46 percent,’ the report concluded.
Read moreEducation Finance - March 28, 2024
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.
Read moreHousing Bill & Income Tax Surcharge (H.829) - March 27, 2024
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.
Read moreMiscellaneous Education Bill (H.874) - March 20, 2024
The House Ways and Means Committee reviewed H.874 on Wednesday.
The bill proposes several amendments to education law in Vermont. The amendments include repealing the High School Completion Program and making changes to the State's adult education and literacy program. The bill also aims to continue funding for the community schools program, require school districts to include military-related options in career development and postsecondary planning resources, and require the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) to include information on military-related options in planning resources.
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