The 2026 legislative session reached its conclusion this week, and the slate of bills that emerged in its final days paints a complicated picture. After months of competing visions and the ever-present shadow of a gubernatorial veto, the final days produced a set of interlocking conference reports that together represent a consequential education policy, a modestly disciplined budget, targeted property tax relief, and a new chapter for transportation finance. But the week also delivered reminders that sometimes ambition reaches too far, as the Governor's veto of the data center bill was sustained on the House floor.

Let's bring this in for a landing.

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.

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.

This week the Legislature continued its race against the clock, but the action shifted noticeably from the high level policy debates of recent weeks toward implementation details, technical fixes, and the quieter but consequential decisions that determine whether ambitious legislation actually works on the ground. The Senate pumped the brakes on proposed changes to its new housing finance tool (CHIP), the House heard about a promising geothermal pilot program that could reshape how Vermont delivers clean and affordable energy, and Senate Education weighed in on whether to terminate or fund the state's school PCB testing program.

Meanwhile, the education reform debate continues to simmer in Senate Education as the clock ticks toward adjournment. What appears to be taking shape is a more coherent, democratic, and data-informed bill than what emerged from the House. If it doesn't fall apart at the 10-yard line...

Let's dig in.

Good Evening Chair Kornheiser and Members of the House Ways & Means Committee,

Thank you for your work in the yield bill (H.949) to try to get Vermont out of the cycle of using one-time funds to buy down property taxes.

As you know, the use of these funds creates funding cliffs in the following years that require further expenditure of one-time funds to fill and undermines the trust of taxpayers who see predictions of massive tax increases unless something is done… eventually there will be no one-time monies available and these predictions will come true. This is a cruel game of musical chairs.

This week the Legislature grappled with the fundamental tension between ambition and fiscal reality. House Ways & Means moved deeper into the mechanics of its income tax overhaul. Meanwhile, the Senate quietly narrowed its flagship housing production bill after the Administration conceded it lacked the capacity to run a key pilot program, and a technical drafting flaw nearly undermined Vermont's municipal financing toolkit. Also, the Senate now finds themselves at the center of the session-defining debate over education reform.

The week's hearings make clear the Legislature is racing against the clock, trying to assemble complex policy packages (and making consequential tradeoffs in the process) before time runs out.

Off to the races.

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.

This week the Legislature turned its attention to the nuts and bolts... the practical, on-the-ground realities of implementing the big-ticket reforms that have been debated all session. Senate Education heard directly from superintendents who have actually led district mergers about what it takes (and what it costs) to make consolidation work. Senate Health & Welfare moved a prescription drug discount card closer to reality. And Senate Government Operations wrestled with how to modernize lobbying transparency without chilling free speech.

Of course the big happening this week was the passage of the House's education reform package, which the Governor promptly promised to veto. Why? Not because it doesn't save money (which it may or may not do) but because it doesn't force school district consolidation and the removal of local school boards.

Buckle up, here we go...

This week the State Auditor's office delivered a sobering accountability check on Vermont's (former) flagship health care programs and the government accountability pilot moved to the Senate with fundamental questions about scope and institutional design still unresolved. Meanwhile, the climate policy infrastructure took a step forward with H.740's greenhouse gas registry advancing, though the familiar gap between policy ambition and funding commitment surfaced once again. The House's education reform bill also took another step closer to a floor vote.

Let's walk through it.

The House Education Committee finally advanced their education reform bill after months of discussion. Of course they couldn't resist drawing maps, even if they are "only advisory" in nature. While the bill does not force arranged marriages (school district consolidation), per se, it does require that you attend the dance (merger study committees) and it chooses who your dance partners will be (which other districts you have to discuss mergers with).

In theory you could choose to dance with someone else or not at all, but that will probably be frowned upon. Okay, enough with that analogy... let's talk about what happened this week...