We have reached week 16 of the typical 18-week legislative session. Given the expected standoff between the Legislature and Governor Scott on education reform, though, it’s hard to say when we will adjourn. Key bills are getting tweaked over in the Senate, including the Transportation Bill (H.944) and the Yield Bill (H.949, which sets property tax rates). If the House and Senate remain at odds on a bill, a Committee of Conference consisting of several appointed Representatives and Senators will take up negotiations. In addition to wrangling, now is the time when content from one bill gets added to another one that’s on the move. You may be following the progress of a certain bill, say S.220, only to find its content was added elsewhere, like to the Yield Bill, which happened last week in the Senate. If you’re confused about the status of a bill or issue that’s important to you, please reach out (
Last week, we passed H.955, an education bill, which proposes changes to Act 73, last year’s sprawling roadmap to education transformation. In particular, H.955 proposes a new process for achieving greater scale at the district level, revisits the new nonhomestead tax classification for second homes and updates various timelines in Act 73. The vote was largely on party lines with most of the contention around school mergers—whether they should be forced as in Act 73 or voluntary as proposed in H.955. Moving the implementation date for a new statewide funding mechanism, the foundation formula, to 2030 from 2028 is also an area of partisan disagreement. I’ve learned that although most states use a foundation formula, they do so to discourage inadequate school spending. In Vermont’s case, we need to arrive at a formula that raises adequate funding across the state, and taking enough time to get it right is important. H.955 creates seven Cooperative Education Service Areas (CESAs) that would provide regional special education resources, business and administrative services and transportation services. As the CESAs evolve, additional areas of resource sharing may be added. So far, the one CESA we have in southern Vermont has already achieved cost savings in its first year. H.955 keeps the goal of consolidating into fewer, larger districts to achieve scale and efficiency and promote more consistent educational opportunities and cost control over the long-term but envisions a more collaborative way to get there. Instead of mandating mergers, it creates study committees within the CESAs that would receive funding and technical assistance to explore mergers. To dig into the bill’s details, I have a link to the bill, its fiscal note and a timeline on my website (daratorrevt.com, under Priority Issues) or put H.955 in the search bar on legislature.vermont.gov.
Now that Waitsfield voters have approved a local option tax (LOT), I’ve been reading up on how the state uses its portion (30%) of the revenues raised from towns with LOTs. The state’s proceeds have traditionally been used to fund payments to towns for any state-owned property in those towns. Since state-owned property doesn’t pay local property taxes, Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, payments are made to towns based on a formula. For years, the state lacked enough PILOT resources to fully meet these obligations. Now the fund balance is higher, and the governor has proposed using some of the funds to cover the costs of rolling out Regional Assessment Districts, the new statewide approach to property valuation created in Act 73. In addition, the Transportation Bill seeks to use some funding from PILOT to help fill its budget gap and keep support going to towns for local roads. The use of PILOT in this way is an area of disagreement, and the Vermont League of Cities of Towns is raising an alarm. VLCT is hosting Municipal Advocacy Day in the State House this week, and I hope to see some our local municipal officials to discuss this and other issues.
In my committee (Energy & Digital Infrastructure), we’ve been focusing on access to government services online. We took testimony from all three branches of government regarding their progress to date in meeting updated federal Universal Digital Accessibility guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, Level AA). As a result of recent updates, our state, legislative and judicial websites are better meeting the needs of all users having made multiple changes, including the use of spacing, contrast color, language translation, header consistency, plain language and text descriptions for images. This work will be ongoing and input from the public is key. The footer on each state website contains contact information for members of the public to report any accessibility issues they are encountering. Municipal websites will also need to meet the new federal guidelines (by April 2028).
Coffee hours:
Saturday, April 25, 10-11:00am, Three Mountain Cafe (with Rep. Candice White)
Monday, April 27, 9-10am, Moretown General Store
Tuesday, April 28, 8:30-9:30am, Twisted Halo
