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Advocacy Update – Week 2 – 2025

Lake Champlain Chamber News and Press Advocacy Update Legislative Updates Advocacy Update – Week 2 – 2025

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January 17, 2025

The Legislature is off to a slow start for a multitude of reasons, which we’ll cover in the first section of this update, however, the important context here, as in everything, is that there has been a veto-proof majority for the last six years, and everywhere you look there are priorities of that veto-proof majority that are being scrutinized. 

In this week’s update: 

We strive to make these concise and easy to read. Feedback is not just welcomed, it’s encouraged – [email protected] 

Space is Filling Up – Register Today for the LCC Legislative Breakfast Series 

Every year, we bring legislators, policymakers, and LCC members together to celebrate business ownership and entrepreneurship and advocate for economic opportunity in our region. Last year, we had a fantastic series highlighting our region’s outsized impacts on the global semiconductor and computing industries; this year, we’re turning our eyes to the skies to exhibit our aviation sector. 

  • Monday, January 27th, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. at BETA Technologies
  • Monday, March 24th, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. Patrick Leahy International Airport – Gate 9 
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Session Starts Slow Due to Political (and Other) Dynamics 

3-4 minute read 

On your mark, get set, slow… as we might have mentioned last week, we had the latest possible starting date for a legislative session due to where the first Wednesday of the month landed. 

  • As we said at the top, the important context: there has been a veto-proof majority for the last six years, so we’re all readjusting, and it will take time 
  • The start of a new biennium is usually slow, with introductions, 101 learning, and training; however, this year has its own factors – there are new leaders, new dynamics, and many new members.

Waiting for the omni-bus: The Governor’s office is planning to release omnibus bills on housing, education, public safety, and affordability, and with the newly eroded super-majorities, Democratic leaders seem more than willing to sit back and respond to what he is going to put forward. 

The Big Reveal: The Governor’s Budget address will be on January 28th, possibly the latest in the year it’s ever been, and he’ll roll out these omnibus proposals in more detail then.  

Waiting on Bills: Aside from the Governor’s proposals, turnover and an inability to hire Legislative Counsel has meant that new bills have been slower to be released. Additionally, there seem to be new rules on how many bills members can sign on to, of similar subject areas. The drafting deadline is the end of the month. 

Waiting on the Numbers: The State’s Emergency Board (E-Board), which officially adopts revenue forecasts for certain major funds in January and July of each year, meets this week, and we’ll get a better perspective on state revenues. 

Waiting on the Full Education Fund Picture: We got a first glance at the work ahead of legislators in the December 1st letter last month, which showed that with the current school budgets, we could expect a 5.9% property tax increase if all budgets as drafted at that time were passed on Town Meeting Day.

    • But hold up, don’t take that to the bank – those were just initial budgets, and there is still room for change, and the fear of many was seeing that smaller increase than experienced last year might result in schools adding a little more spending back.
  • Sending the wrong message? Imagine you’re a school board that has begrudgingly cut many positions, and you hear that the Governor is willing to buy down the tax rate to 0%, might you be tempted to add a few things back in?
  • It looks like that might have happened… though we won’t know for some time. 

Tougher Penalties, Tough Debate: Governor Previews Proposed Tougher Measures on Crime and Recidivism

4-minute read

This week, the Governor used his weekly press conference to preview his omnibus bill on public safety. 

Zoom Out: The Democrats used their supermajority over the previous six years to pass numerous changes to the criminal justice system, which are now under scrutiny as communities struggle with issues of public safety and quality of life in shared public spaces. 

Submit to you as evidence, Exhibit A: If you are unsure if there is an issue, take a look at Burlington which has been in the news this week due to a dust-up between the Mayor and the Police Chief about how to talk about a notorious repeat offender who has almost 2,000 interactions with police and dozens of crimes they are charged with, yet continues to be released back into the community to threaten residents.

The Governor wants to do three things in an omnibus bill: 

1. Revisit How the State Deals with Youthful Offenders 

  • Catch Up Quick: In 2018, Vermont passed a “Raise the Age” bill which sought to, over time, increase the age at which criminal offenders would be treated as juveniles in family court, which limits accountability.
  • The Governor wants to repeal “Raise the Age” for 19-year-old offenders and Strengthen measures to ensure accountability for offenders under this designation. 

2. Address Repeat Offenders

  • Revise Bail Revocation Laws: Encourage courts and prosecutors to use this tool more effectively.
  • Amend Expungement Laws: Ensure past offenses remain sealed so they are not publicly viewable yet are accessible for justice purposes.
  • Restrict Sentence Suspension: Limit courts’ ability to suspend sentences for repeat offenses.
  • Waiver of Extradition: Streamline the extradition process.
  • Redefine Recidivism: Update its definition for better alignment with justice goals.
  • Pretrial Supervision Program: The pilot program in Orleans County awaits data to determine potential expansion.

3. Combat Illicit Drug Use

  • Repeal Prohibition on Corrections Facility Transportation: Eliminate restriction on transporting disorderly persons to corrections facilities.
  • Drug Treatment Strategy: Develop and implement strategies to reduce drug use.
  • Pretrial Care Implementation: Establish care levels at the pretrial stage to address addiction early.

Crux of Disagreement: The Democrats leading the Judiciary Committees take issue with the Governor’s assertion that tougher penalties deter crimes. 

  • Instead, they point to the speed and certainty of prosecution as what is needed to deter crime and will likely counter with steps to remove cases from the long-held court backlog. 

 

Clean Heat Standard is Running Out of Gas… Yet We Still Have Legal Obligations 

~4-minute read 

Catch Up Quick: Act 18 established the Clean Heat Standard, requiring fossil fuel importers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont’s thermal sector by retiring “clean heat credits.” These tradeable credits represent emissions reductions achieved through clean heat measures like technologies, fuels, or weatherization projects. 

  • The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was tasked with studying the prescribed program and reporting back to the Legislature on the modeling and draft rules.

Rewind: The Governor and his Secretary of Natural Resources both opposed the measure and estimated (on the back of a napkin) that the cost of the program would amount to $0.70 a gallon of fossil fuel, a claim that was dismissed by the Leadership of the Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate. 

Fast Forward: This week, 18 months and over a million and a half dollars in expenses later, the Public Utilities Commission dropped their required report and identified the cost to be $0.58 cents per gallon, just a 12-cent difference from the estimate the ANR Secretary made on the back of a napkin. 

  • Where did they diverge? The PUC assumed more use of biofuels in Vermont than the Secretary of ANR. This is a tricky assumption in a state where many climate activist are strict anticombustionists who don’t think we should burn anything…

The Flop: The PUC concluded that the CHS is “theoretically workable” with some changes but “does not believe that this program is well suited to Vermont.”

Now What? $0.58 per gallon is not politically palatable, especially after an election cycle in which some Democrats might have lost their seats due to this particular legislation. 

  • Additionally, an attempt at implementing the CHS would be met with a veto that could not be overridden. 

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire: The Clean Heat Standard was one way for Vermont to potentially achieve its legal obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as specified under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020 (“GWSA”).  

Zoom Out: The Vermont Climate Council is preparing to release its second Climate Action Plan by July 1, containing recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that might include joining a regional cap-and-invest program for transportation.  

  • In addition to the concerns around affordability and public support, the timing means lawmakers cannot consider most proposals until the 2026 legislative session, delaying potential policy impacts and jeopardizing the 2030 emissions reduction deadline. 

One climate policy has momentum:  Rulemaking on the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule, which will take effect for manufacturers in the model year 2026, similar to the Advanced Clean Car Regulation. It is not just for 18-wheelers; It includes class 2b trucks (like the Chevy Silverado 2500, Ram 2500, or Ford- F-250). 

Have a new year’s resolution? 

A new year means the start of a new session and many ways to engage with our advocacy team. 

With this many opportunities, why not make engaging in policy the easiest resolution possible?

Housing Abundance is What Vermont Needs 

~4-minute read 

There’s a new coalition in town that launched this week called Let’s Build Homes, which the Lake Champlain Chamber is a member of, and you can learn more about at letsbuildhomes.org. We want to hone in on the underlying concept: that housing abundance is the solution to all of our problems.  

Rewind: Our State Treasurer, Mike Pieciak, used his platform a year and a half ago to hold a webinar on a book, “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” which advanced the position that the drivers of homelessness are high rent caused by a lack of housing supply, while debunking several common misconceptions about homelessness:

  • Despite popular opinion, it’s not primarily caused by drug use, mental illness, or poverty itself. While these factors can exacerbate individual situations, the data shows weak or no correlation at a city-wide level.

Fast Forward: Vermont now ranks the fourth highest in the country for homelessness, and while efforts have been made to address housing supply, our vacancy rates are still unhealthy. 

The Big Picture: Vermont has an unhealthy vacancy rate, and Vermonters at every socio-economic level are struggling to find homes. Building more housing, at any price point, helps affordability through a “filtering” or “filtering down” effect. 

  • Research has shown that new market-rate units free up older, more affordable units, with 100 new market-rate units having a similar effect of opening up the equivalent of 70 units in neighborhoods earning below the area’s median income and in the poorest communities, it opens up the equivalent of 40 units. 
  • Due to the interconnectedness of the housing market, when people move into new buildings, their old units become available, creating a chain reaction that ultimately benefits lower-income individuals.  
  • This means new market-rate housing creates more affordable units than those created under your typical inclusionary zoning mandate without the negative effect of inclusionary zoning. 
  • When you allow a market to work, the expensive housing of yesterday becomes the affordable housing of today. Conversely, if supply continues to stay flat or contract, the affordable housing from the past will become expensive.

Zoom out: We often hear several objections to this “supply-side” approach:

  • Objection 1: “We’ve built a ton of housing and prices still go up.” 
    • This is a misinterpretation of cause and effect. Rising rents attract developers, not the other way around. Also, even with new construction, rents would be even higher without it.
  • Objection 2: “This is just trickle-down economics.” 
    • Building housing is fundamentally different from tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s about increasing the supply of a basic need.
  • Objection 3: “Investment banks are buying up all the housing.” We have seen nationally, investors target areas with constrained housing supply, however, this argument neglects the fact that those investors acknowledge that more building would decrease their profits, and that is why they are targeting areas with high barriers to housing development. 
  • Objection 4: “We already have enough vacant homes.” The Vermont Housing Finance Agency concluded in a 2022 blog post, that while yes, Vermont has many seasonal homes, we do not have a vacant home problem. 

The Bottom Line: Housing built at any price helps supply, and supply will create lower prices. When a government sees that development isn’t happening to increase supply, that indicates that the problem is regulation. 

The Laundry List

Hundreds of hours of committee discussion each week culminate into our advocacy update, so not everything makes it into the overall update; however, we often cover what is left on the cutting-room floor here for our most dedicated readers. 

  • Happy Legislative Report Week to All Who Celebrate: Tradition and maybe a lack of imagination generally mean that legislative reports are due on January 15th, so that day was met with a dump. There are dozens of reports ranging from livable wage, regional greenhouse gas emissions, to a fee report. Take a look here.
  • A report required under Act 181 outlines actionable recommendations to expand the housing supply. These include updates to Act 250, increased funding for housing programs, infrastructure, and the modernization of local bylaws, improving the appeals process, exploring tax policy changes, and others. You can view the complete report and recommendations here.
  • The U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded nearly $24 million to Vermont’s Tech Hub, a partnership between the University of Vermont, GlobalFoundries, and the state, to enhance local semiconductor manufacturing. Read more here. 

 

Hey! You read the whole update. You probably have some thoughts on the content or how we delivered it. Feel free to reach out with those at [email protected]. 

Category: Advocacy Update