The second half of the 2025-26 legislative biennium got underway last week. Several retirements brought in some new legislators and changes to committee makeup. New for me this year will be having an intern for the first time. UVM political science major Charlotte Mays of Waitsfield will be a welcome help as our challenging work proceeds to improve the affordability, quality and availability of healthcare and education in our state. This will be a contentious process that requires staying informed and open to some of the tradeoffs needed to achieve our long-term goals and contain costs. Representative White and I will hold community discussions and share frequent updates throughout the session to inform this work. Please be in touch with any preferences for convenient venues and timing.
Our primary deliverable is to pass a lean state budget that funds priority needs like housing, climate resilience, transportation, public safety, and public health protections. We'll be doing our very best to lower property taxes and backfill for essential services like SNAP benefits that are facing reduced federal support. The House Appropriations Committee has requested detailed, return-on-investment information from state agencies and larger nonprofits when making budget requests to help us make strategic, cost-effective decisions. This week, we’ll receive an updated revenue forecast that will shed more light on available budgets to fund government services in FY27 (7/1/26-6/30/27). The governor’s budget address on January 20 at 1 p.m. will kick off the budget bill (“Big Bill”) development process. The Legislature must pass the budget bill in order for the session to adjourn.
A bright spot on the budget front is the Rural Health Transformation funding the state recently received. Although it won’t cover the loss in funding expected from changes to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the almost $1B coming our way over the next five years will advance the critical health care transformation work already underway in the state. Stabilizing our health care system, lowering costs, and ensuring primary care access throughout the state is the top priority to improve the health and finances of Vermonters.
In the Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, we’ll be reviewing the top priorities in the recently updated Climate Action Plan. I’ll provide regular updates on this work.
Follow the action this session:
Find bills, committee activity, voting records and floor debate online at the legislative website – https://legislature.vermont.gov/. Farmer’s Night events are free and occur every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. during the session (except for Town Meeting week). The first event is next week, January. 21.
January coffee hours:
1/19, 8-9 a.m. at Moretown General Store; 1/24, 10-11 a.m. at Three Mountain Cafe; 1/26, 10-11 a.m. at Black Cap Bakery & Cafe in Waterbury. Please join me or reach out to schedule another time. I now have a new, shorter email address (
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