External Link: http://legislature.vermont.gov/
The floor started to see much more action this week with five bills being passed over to the Senate, one bill being passed to the Governor, and one being sent to a Conference of Committee. The five that were passed were: H.563, An act relating to attempted auto theft; H.649, An act relating to the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission; H.850, An act relating to transitioning education financing to the new system for pupil weighting; H.247, An act relating to Vermont's adoption of the Occupational Therapy Licensure Compact, and H.801, An act relating to approval of the adoption of the charter of the Town of Waterbury. The bill that passed to the Governor was S.154, An act relating to the Vermont State Plane Coordinate System. Lastly, the bill referred to a Conference of Committee was H.839, the Budget Adjustment Act.
(You can read the full text of any bill by going to the Vermont General Assembly website at http://legislature.vermont.gov and entering the bill number in the search bar.
H.839 – The Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) came back from the Senate with some changes that the members of the House did not agree with, and it will now go to what is called a "Conference of Committee." This is a smaller group of legislators consisting of three appointed members from each chamber (House and Senate) that will work towards compromises and hopefully produce a budget adjustment that all can accept.
H.850 – (an act relating to transitioning education financing to the new system for pupil weighting). Because of the time constraints and importance of this bill, it was voted to suspend rules on the floor to move this bill through all necessary steps needed in the House and get it to the Senate in one session. This is the bill I have written about in my last couple of updates, and it proposes a change to Act 127 and the transition mechanism (5% tax rate cap) that was created to ease school districts through the pupil weighting changes. As explained before, this bill eliminates the 5% cap altogether and instead targets only the districts adversely affected by providing a decrease to their property tax rate equal to $0.01 for every relative percent decrease to their long term weighted average daily membership. (Both Milton and Georgia school districts qualify for this new transition mechanism.) In order to help school districts deal with this change so late in the process, this bill also allows the districts to postpone their budget votes for a short time to reevaluate and possibly make changes if they desire and provides funding to help cover the cost of the voting delay. (new ballots and additional mailing, etc.) If there are no changes in the Senate, this bill should be on the Governor's desk for signature this coming week.
In the Education Committee, we continue to take testimony and are in the midst of crafting language for bills relating to school construction and boards of cooperative educational services. More importantly, driven by the impact of this year's school budgets, we have started the conversation and work towards identifying changes in Vermont's education system that will lead to efficiencies and decreased pressure on the education fund. In my opinion, besides academic proficiency ratings, these systematic changes are the most important work in front of us and should take precedence over any other bills currently on our wall.
On Thursday, we held a Joint Assembly with the Senate and re-elected Major General Gregory Knight to continue as the Vermont Adjutant General. Major General Knight has served as Vermont's Adjutant General since 2019, and with over 40 years of uniformed service, he has proven his dedication to our state and our country. I have had the pleasure to interact with Major General Knight on several occasions and have always felt his knowledge, demeanor, and desire to listen to be inherent and sincere. I congratulate him on his reelection and wish him the best in his continued service.
Thank you, and if you ever have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at 802.233.7579 or chris.taylor@leg.state.vt.us.
