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.

Vermonters are already well-aware that our state is one of the highest spenders on education. Anyone who has shopped for real estate or an apartment recently knows how astronomical housing prices are. Families shopping on Vermont’s insurance marketplace have realized that our health care premiums are the most expensive in the world (no joke).

Household incomes have not kept up with these skyrocketing costs. While slightly above the national average, 18 other states generate higher household incomes than Vermont’s economy does.

Act 143 replaces Vermont’s former General Assistance hotel and motel emergency-housing approach with the Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum, administered by the Department for Children and Families’ Office of Economic Opportunity.

The act aims to make homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring by prioritizing prevention, diversion, shelters, supportive services, and permanent housing over prolonged reliance on hotel and motel placements. It recognizes that, as of December 2025, Vermont’s Homeless Management Information System counted 4,022 people experiencing homelessness, including 863 children.

Changes started happening rapidly this week as the bulk of the work moved out of committee and onto the House and Senate floors. Nearly every major policy thread of the 2026 session is now being actively reconciled between chambers, and the outcomes of those negotiations will determine whether this session produces durable reform or elegant placeholders. Those negotiations also include the Governor in some instances, such as education reform efforts which were unveiled last night.

Reference-based hospital pricing cleared critical procedural hurdles and is now positioned to become law this session. The property tax yield bill conference committee dug into the mechanics of excess spending exemptions and a one-year renter credit expansion (and the fiscal analysts started raising red flags). The Act 250 conference committee finalized guardrails for accessory on-farm businesses while preserving the road rule repeal. Career technical education reform advanced with unanimous support. And on the Senate floor, a sweeping portfolio of bills moved through final readings, including a permanent ban on crypto kiosks, manufactured housing modernization, and the formal repeal of the Clean Heat Standard's dormant statutory language.

Let's jump in.

Dear Chair Mihaly and Members of the House Committee on General and Housing,

I am writing on behalf of Campaign for Vermont Prosperity to respectfully urge this Committee to insist on the reinstatement of the Off-Site Construction Accelerator pilot program as the House considers the Senate's proposed amendments to H.775.

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.

Let’s pause for a second and look at 50 years of Act 250 from the perspective of a Vermont professional civil engineer, and Act 250 Land Use Consultant. I did my first land use project in 1973.

The first question, what went wrong in the first 50 years? My opinion, Act 250 killed housing and precluded most of Vermont from having a chance for a vibrant economy.

The bill, S.328, adjusts several state programs and local planning requirements to better support housing development, align services and housing for Vermonters with developmental disabilities, and refine how communities plan for growth and infrastructure, with key topics including municipal planning and zoning, housing finance and credit facilities, common interest communities, service-supported housing, downtown and village center designations, and targeted housing needs assessments.

Vermonters understand the value of balance. We want to protect our forests, fields, rivers, and wildlife. We also want our children and grandchildren to be able to afford a home, find a job, and build a life here. Good public policy should recognize both realities. That is why the debate over Act 181 matters.

The law was intended to strike a grand bargain: encourage more housing and development in designated growth areas while tightening protections for ecologically sensitive parts of the state (conservation more or less). On paper, that sounds reasonable. Direct growth where infrastructure exists. Reduce sprawl. Protect natural resources. Streamline permitting where Vermont wants development to happen.

But as often happens in government, what sounds straight forward in theory can become much messier in practice.