On Friday afternoon, Chairwoman Cummings started out the Senate Finance Committee’s review of H.850 by stating that further action would be necessary because “the cost per pupil that is going up in a lot of cases, not your actual spending.” Legislators are looking at school budget spending caps but there are different ways of containing costs.

Joyce Manchester (Senior Economist, Joint Fiscal Office) presented a wealth tax proposal to the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. The bill is also referred to as the "Fair Share for Vermont" proposal. The proposal is to increase taxes on the wealthiest Vermont residents to "build a better Vermont." The proposal will increase taxes on the top 2% of Vermont taxpayers, and raise nearly $100M each year in state revenue. According to Manchester, a wealth tax is usually defined as an annual tax levied on the net worth, or total assets net of all debts, of an individual or household above an exemption threshold.

The Senate Finance Committee had the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) review S.160 on Friday afternoon to review a fiscal note on the bill. The bill would reimburse municipalities for education property tax payments to property owners who had their properties damaged during this past year’s flooding events.

The Senate Finance Committee reconvened on Wednesday to review their changes to H.492, which sets the annual property tax rate calculation. The draft changes would decrease the income yield to $17,537 and the property value yield to $15,443. It’s worth noting that decreasing the yield will increase local tax rates. The non-homestead property tax rate would be increased from $1.388 to $1.391.

The Senate Finance Committee had been kicking around the property tax bill, H.492, for a couple weeks and circled back again on Friday. They also had a fresh Education Fund Outlook to look at. The Senate’s version did not include cannabis retail taxes and had a slightly higher average property tax bill. It also had a slightly lower carry-over from the previous year based on the latest projections.

The Senate Finance Committee met on Wednesday to discuss the impact of rapidly increasing housing costs. Chairwoman Cummings teed up the conversation by stating that some towns, like Stowe (as example) are seeing the number of people who qualify for income sensitivity drop, by no fault of their own. In some cases, homes have increased from $400K to $600K two years later (there is a $400k cap on house site value for income sensitivity). She mentioned the legislative goal of 80% of taxpayers being “income sensitized” (meaning they qualify for the property tax credit) and the state is now down to 64%. She was seeking solutions for how to address this long term.

On Tuesday, the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) gave the Senate Finance Committee an overview of the IT Modernization Fund, which has historically been supported by an internal service charge (a fee charged to each agency of department based on their overall budget). The Governor’s budget this year recommended that it be its own line item in the budgets for each fund (General Fund, Education Fund, Transportation Fund, etc.) in order to be more transparent.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee took up H.492, which sets the property tax yield amounts that determine local property tax rates. Representative Kornheiser and Representative Beck from House Ways & Means joined the Committee to explain the bill.

Legislative Counsel walked through H.492 on Thursday with the Senate Finance Committee, noting the modest (3.84%) increase in expected tax bills on Vermonters. There was a debate about what the purpose the December letter from the Tax Commissioner was (this is a letter that estimates the state yield amount that is sent to the legislature and school districts at the end of each year). Chairwoman Cummings clarified that it was meant to be a tool for school boards and voters to understand the tax rate impacts of their school budgets. A new thing this year is that $22M was set aside in a reserve fund in case a property tax buy-down is needed next year.

On Friday, Doug Hoffer (State Auditor) shared a presentation with the Senate Finance Committee regarding universal broadband in Vermont. He wanted to examine some “risks” at this stage, after nearly twenty years of talking about this. Even with a “river of money” from the Federal government, he anticipates the Communication Union Districts (CUDs) are going to be asking for “a couple of hundred million dollars more.”