The Senate Committee on Natural Resources took up S.100 on Wednesday, with written testimony from Dr. David J. Weissgold.

The Senate Economic Development Committee continued to do mark up of the Omnibus Housing Bill on Tuesday with two members of the Committee absent. Chairwoman Ram Hinsdale stated that she presumed that the absent Committee Members were aligned with moving in the direction that the Committee was going with mark-up of the bill. This, however, contradicts Senator Brock’s statement of last week where he went on record as to not being comfortable with this Bill.

This week the Senate Economic Development Committee reached the mark-up stage of their Omnibus Housing Bill. There was discussion in the Committee that many local governments in Vermont were unhappy with the duplex by right governing authority that is being taken away in this bill. Barre Town was particularly not pleased. The Chair tried to justify that it was not taking authority from local government but was more dealing with the homeowner. Even so, the Committee believed this was a huge change and expressed concerns.

The Senate Economic Development Committee heard from more experts on Friday regarding their Omnibus Housing Bill.

Key Takeaways:

• Permitting takes too long and is duplicative.
• The housing market is changing.
• Vermonters support expanding population and housing.

Matt Dunne testified in front of the Senate Economic Development Committee Friday morning.

Key takeaways:

• Flexibility is needed
• Every community is different
• There have been significant shifts in winners/losers over the past 40 years

The Senate Economic Development Committee heard from Maura Collins on Wednesday about Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) funds.

Key Takeaways:

• VHFA is proposing a revolving loan fund as a less-complex alternative to LIHTC.
• Employers from all industries are getting squeezed by the housing crisis.
• Construction costs have doubled since 2016.

This week Campaign for Vermont introduced an extensive list of workforce development recommendations to the legislature covering a number of bills in motion, including H.703, H.159, S.226, and S.234. As a state we must recognize the issues before us and view them with clarity. Economic vitality is critically linked to workforce participation, recruitment, and housing. Our businesses are starving for workers and those that can move elsewhere will if the problems become worse – hampering the long-term prospects of our state. We cannot practically solve the housing crisis quickly enough to correct some of these issues, however, moves we make now will have profound impacts on that outcome and the equity of our housing system and even the broader economy in years to come.

The public pension reform bill is headed to the House Floor next week after the state treasurer poo-pooed a defined contribution plan for new hires. The current solution being offered only addresses less than half of the pension deficit and disproportionately impacts taxpayers. The legislature will need to come back for more in future years. At the same time, the legislature is considering pension divestment of fossil fuels, benefits for interim educators, new pension groups, and other measures that could actually have a negative impact on the deficit.

Two education initiatives - Student Weighting Factors and Universal School Meals - also passed key committee votes this week and are anticipated to hit the House Floor in short order.

The following is a letter sent to the Senate Economic Development and House Commerce Committees on Friday April 22nd, 2022.

Wow, it has been a year, hasn't it?

Between major federal costly government initiatives, the delta wave, workforce shortages, historic inflation, and supply chain nightmares I think it is safe to say we are all exhausted. And that was just the last six months. It almost seems like 2020 never ended, it just continued right on through 2021 and will end... who knows?

At the state level we are not immune to the national headwinds, we feel all of those developments here as well. In fact, we have a few of our own to add to the list: our waterways continue to degrade while our attempts to eliminate point-source pollution fail to find meaningful success, we have spent another year debating pension reform after the deficit in our pension obligations grew by $1B in 2020, affordable housing is impossible to find, emergency measures to connect rural Vermonters to broadband internet have ended long ago but the need is still painfully apparent, and our state college system is still in financial crisis and needs transformation into a vibrant educational ecosystem.