From the State House - Legislators begin sprint to crossover
Last week brought a strong Mad River Valley presence to the State House for Outdoor Recreation Day, and it was exciting to start this week celebrating the Olympic wins of Vermonters in the House Chamber, including Waitsfield resident Paula Moltzan’s. Legislators are now starting an Olympic sprint to crossover. Bills that are going to move this session must make it out of committees in time to be taken up in the Senate. Committee bills like those highlighted below must be voted out of committee by March 13. After Town Meeting break, legislators will have a week left to finish up testimony in their committees and vote their bills out. Major money bills like the FY27 budget, Transportation Bill and Capital Construction bill get an extra week, facing a deadline of March 20.
Housing – Several housing bills have particular relevance to expanding affordable housing in our district. H.775 would support rural housing development by streamlining permitting, encouraging manufactured homes and expanding financing and credit through a new Rural Housing Finance Pilot Program. The proposed program would authorize tax stabilization for up to 300 housing units in communities like ours (with fewer than 5,000 residents). It allows the treasurer to increase his allowable reinvestment of revolving cash from 10% to 12.5%, yielding $30M for housing development loans. It also enables the treasurer to use state funds as security to bulk-order modular, pre-manufactured homes for distribution statewide. Bulk ordering is expected to lower costs and speed up building timelines by allowing towns to pre-qualify the homes for local zoning, avoiding long permitting and appeals processes. H.757 also focuses on manufactured homes as a source of permanent affordable housing, replacing the term ‘mobile home’ with ‘manufactured home’. Limited equity cooperatives (LECs) are a cooperative model that has proven effective in Vermont for manufactured home communities. The bill focuses on removing some legal and financial barriers these communities face, clarifying the homes as real property.
H.730 would extend by the deadlines for creation of rules related to the new Act 250 land use review categories created in Act 181 of 2024, given concerns that the land use mapping process required in the Act is taking longer than envisioned. Act 181 created several tiers of Act 250 review – downtowns, village centers and planned growth centers (tier 1) can be exempt from Act 250 review, while some development outside centers (tier 2) and development in ecologically sensitive areas (tier 3) would trigger Act 250 review. Land use maps are being drawn up now by regional planning commissions with input from towns, to be approved by the Land Use Review Board, the entity that oversees Act 250 district commissions. Striking the right balance between conservation and development is important and ensuring the maps reflect existing settlement and housing goals is key.
The House Human Services Committee continues work to reduce homelessness in the state. Despite last year’s veto of H.91, some ideas from that bill have been implemented, including funding for local emergency cold-weather shelters and service coordination through the Vermont Network (a statewide domestic violence organization) to support specialized homeless populations. A new bill, H.594, was introduced this session to continue reform efforts but work will now proceed via Committee bill 26-0766, which sets out a full continuum of support, from homelessness prevention through to permanent housing strategies. The Office of Economic Opportunity would become the central point of coordination with resources appropriated to each type of support.
In my committee, House Energy & Digital Infrastructure, we voted out H.527 on cell tower siting this week and it should be on the House floor for a full vote later this week or next. The latest draft of the bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to convene public workshops with a goal of making the siting permit process more accessible to municipalities and community members. It would also extend the three-year sunset by one year to enable this work. We are taking testimony on a bill I sponsored, H.753, that seeks to add protections from electric utility disconnections and encourage best practices for keeping the lights on for financially vulnerable Vermonters.
FY2027 state budget public hearings – The Vermont House and Senate Committees on Appropriations will hold two joint public hearings on the FY2027 budget: Thursday, February 12 from 1:45-3:15 p.m. and Thursday, February 19 from 5-6:30 p.m. Hearings will occur in room 11 in the State House and online via YouTube. More information and access to YouTube link here – https://legislature.vermont.gov/home/noteworthy/announcements/
February coffee hours - Tuesday February 17, 8-9 a.m. at Twisted Halo; Friday, February 20, 4-5 p.m. at MRV Arts in Village Square (with Rep. Candice White); Monday. February 23, noon-1 p.m. online (see daratorrevt.com for link). Please be in touch:
