Meeting the Deadline
While the Feds were working to keep the federal government operating, the Vermont State House and Senate were working to the same date to meet our “Crossover” deadline. This past Friday was the last day to get any bills voted out of Committee to be addressed this year. Exceptions to this rule are money-related bills and the Education bill from the Governor.
A total of 53 bills were approved by their respective committees by the crossover date and will get their chance to be voted on the Chamber floor before “crossing over” to the other chamber (House to Senate, or Senate to House). A couple bills of note in that category include:
S.65 - A Senate bill to change the work scope for Efficiency Vermont was approved as amended in committee to include the now famous repeal of the Clean Heat Standard, so that concept has life again!
H.479 - An omnibus housing bill containing many of the Governor’s housing proposals including changes to municipal zoning appeals, tax credits for first generation homebuyers, and more funding for affordable housing and infrastructure projects all aimed at chipping away at the high cost of housing.
The Education bill is still being hotly debated in committees in the House and Senate. It’s moving more slowly than many of us would like, but the reality is, we all agree there needs to be transformative change, and that will take a while to iron out. The House version came directly from the Governor’s proposal and can be found here: H.454. For a narrative of this bill, see my previous blog post about it HERE.
From my committee, House Environment, we passed one bill, H.238, on the floor of the House to add 3 product types to those that are banned from containing PFAS, namely: cleaners, containers of products that are banned from containing PFAS, and dental floss.
Before the crossover deadline we also voted out a bill dealing with the 3-acre rule as a major first step to relieve those impacted by that existing statute and pave the way to figuring out how to replace it with something much more efficient in achieving our desired and obligated goals of lake remediation. Read the full details about this bill in my blog post “Is There a 3-Acre Alternative?”
Unfortunately, among the bills that did NOT make it out of committee before the crossover deadline are the Governor’s Affordable Energy policy and his Public Safety initiatives. A measure was defeated along party lines on the House floor to permanently repeal “Raise the Age to 19”, but we did pass a 2 year extension of it to retain 18 as the maximum age at which criminal offenders will be charged as Minors. Vermont is currently one of only two states in which 18 year olds are treated as minors. We would be alone if we raised it to 19 and eventually to 21 as the existing law was set to do this April had we not approved this delay.
This is the last week before the special “money bills crossover date” this Friday, March 21. Thus, if you want to see the following key bills move, NOW IS THE TIME to contact the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Emilie Kornheiser, and the Speaker of the House, Representative Jill Krowinski, about these bills:
H.43 - Exempting military retirement benefits from VT income tax
H.74 - Exempting Social Security benefits from VT income tax
Interestingly, the ONLY bill that Representative Emilie Kornheiser has sponsored this year is H.154 “An act relating to designating November as the Vermont Month of the Veteran”. Wouldn’t it be great if Chair Kornheiser led her committee to support the H.43 bill exempting military retirement benefits from VT income tax. That would truly show her full support for Veterans in Vermont!
I remain honored to be your Representative,
Rob North
www.NorthForVTHouse.com
Addison, Ferrisburgh, New Haven, Panton, Vergennes, and Waltham.
