Thank you to this week’s sponsor of our Advocacy Update:
February 28, 2025
The Legislature will adjourn today for a week-long Town Meeting Day recess, with many legislators going home frustrated and feeling empty-handed.
Heard around the building frequently has been, “at Town Meeting Day, constituents will ask…” or “what will we tell constituents at Town Meeting Day…”
Catch up quick: We’ve covered in last week’s intro how a late start, a drafting backlog, and new political dynamics have meant that we’ve had a slow start to the session, however, the regularly scheduled dates remain.
Get Involved! Local government impacts our daily lives, yet many overlook it or pass up opportunities for participation. Make your voice heard by participating in municipal democracy next week.
- Visit the Vermont Secretary of State’s website for details on Vermont Town Meeting Day
- Check your municipality’s website to learn what you can weigh in on locally.
- Town Meeting Day also represents an opportunity for you to engage with your legislators who will be back from Montpelier in their home districts. If you don’t know them, find them here.
In this week’s update:
- Education overhaul – what’s happening? what’s possible?
- Senate Committee contemplates convention center and access to capital
- Senate Committee continues work on extreme labor bills
- The Laundry List
We strive to make these concise and easy to read. Feedback is not just welcomed, it’s encouraged – [email protected]
Education Overhaul: What’s Happening?
4-5 minute read
As lawmakers head into the town meeting week recess, they’ve finally received the Governor’s 176-page education transformation proposal. However, major gaps remain—particularly in Career Technical Education and pre-K.
Team Effort: The debate spans multiple committees and touches on major structural changes, including property tax adjustments, tax base definitions, property appraisals, and a shift toward a foundation formula for school funding.
A common theme is regionalization and consolidation, affecting not just schools and districts but also grand list management and property assessments.
Breathing Easier—For Now: With property tax rates held steady this year, legislators feel they have bought time to pursue broader reforms. There’s growing agreement that, given time constraints, education reform will unfold over multiple years rather than in a single legislative session.
What’s Off the Table?
- Expanding school choice – While the Governor’s team proposed expanding school choice, strong Democratic opposition and committee dynamics make this a non-starter.
- Universal school meals – Despite concerns over the lack of a dedicated funding source, broad legislative support ensures the program remains intact.
Immediate Legislative Priorities (2024-25)
- The Yield Bill: This annual bill, which sets property tax rates, will take shape after Town Meeting Day votes. Budgets are coming in just under 6%, aligning with December forecasts as many districts work to control costs.
- Short-Term Reforms – The Legislature is prioritizing:
- Statewide graduation requirements
- A unified school data management system
- A standardized school calendar
- Potential statewide teacher contracts
Long-Term Reforms on the Horizon
These are items that any legislation passed this year will set up for future legislatures to review and revise.
How Schools Are Funded: A Shift to a Foundation Formula
The Legislature appears committed to transitioning to a foundation formula, which sets a per-student base grant, adjusted for student needs.
- The Governor’s proposal suggests a base grant of $13,200 per student, with adjustments based on weighted factors.
- While there is broad support for moving in this direction, many details remain unresolved, and implementation is unlikely before 2028.
How Districts Are Organized: Fewer, But How Many?
There is consensus that Vermont should have fewer school districts, but how many?
- The Governor’s five-district plan is seen as too extreme.
- Legislators seem to favor more districts; somewhere between 12 and 20 districts.
- Some proposals use the 12 organizational districts modeled by school business officials.
- Senate Education Chair Sen. Bongartz has floated a nine-region model with six supervisory districts, three supervisory unions, and two existing interstate districts. See his map for more details.
- Big Picture: Consolidating districts is complex, but lawmakers agree it must happen. The debate now is about how to draw the lines and what to consider when drawing them.
Property Tax Reform: Who Pays and How?
The state’s property tax system, particularly income sensitivity, is widely seen as problematic—but there’s little agreement on the fix.
- The Governor’s proposal would introduce tiered income-based tax rates while exempting a portion of a taxpayer’s home value.
- Some advocates have pushed for a fully income-based system, which isn’t advancing.
- The Ways and Means Committee is reviewing ways to minimize the number of “losers” in any reform.
Reappraisal & Grand List Reform
The House Ways and Means Committee is advancing a bill to shift grand list management from local control to regional assessment districts overseen by the State Tax Department.
- These districts would handle both education and municipal grand lists.
- Property value appeals would move from local boards to county-level assessors.
Why It Matters: Vermont’s school funding system relies on a statewide grand list, but disparities in property appraisals complicate tax equity. Standardizing assessments could help.
School Construction & Deferred Maintenance
Vermont faces a major backlog of school facility needs, but large-scale school construction reform is unlikely until district consolidation is settled.
- Lawmakers generally agree on a “newer and fewer” approach, but it’s difficult to plan without knowing the final number of districts and students.
- Expect school construction reform to be tied to broader education restructuring.
Bottom Line
Education reform is shaping up to be a multi-year effort, with foundational decisions happening now but major changes unfolding over time. Expect ongoing debates over district consolidation, funding formulas, and tax structure well into 2026 and beyond.
Senate Economic Development Bill Contemplates Access to Capital and Convention Center
1-minute read
The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs met this week to review a draft of the committee’s Economic Development Bill with some task forces to address long-standing needs for the Vermont economy.
Access to Capital Task Force
The group would be tasked with examining ways to improve funding opportunities for small businesses. The scope of the task force was debated, with members considering the inclusion of outside capital experts and representatives from startup accelerators.
- The Lake Champlain Chamber, which houses the LaunchVT startup accelerator, offered that the scope should be broadened to include not just access to capital, but also the state’s treatment of capital.
Convention Center and Performing Arts Venue Taskforce
The Committee has heard repeatedly about the positive impact a Vermont Conference Center and Performance venue could have on our state’s communities and economy. The Committee is contemplating the make-up and scope of the taskforce.
- The Lake Champlain Chamber’s division, Hello Burlington, which has been involved in the initial stages of a convention center, suggested that the scope be focused primarily on infrastructure and capital to make a venue feasible and potentially also include operations and management of the venue.
Senate Committee Hears More on Extreme Labor Bills
2-minute read
Thursday morning, the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs discussed two proposed labor bills. These bills contain proposals with numerous unintended consequences and would make Vermont an outlier in the employment landscape. The Committee heard pushback from both the Vermont and Lake Champlain Chambers.
Overtime salary threshold: the proposed bill would require overtime pay for employees earning below a salary equal to $1,128 per week (roughly $58,000).
- The business community raised concerns about how this could limit flexibility for both employers and employees and the potential ramifications of converting salaried employees to hourly status.
Vacation leave payout: The bill would require employers to pay out unused accrued vacation leave upon an employee’s separation from employment.
- The business community raised concerns that this proposal isn’t necessarily reflective of how leave works in many businesses, as many have combined time off, some have unlimited time off, and there are countless other arrangements in the economy.
- The concern was also brought that this could likely incentivize employees not taking leave, which would have a detrimental impact on employees and build a large financial liability on the books for employers that they would need to pay out when an employee leaves unexpectedly.
Workers’ Compensation: The bill would include health insurance benefits in the definition of wages for the purposes of workers’ compensation, as well as requiring carriers to pay for translation services, allowing claimants to request medical case management services, and increasing penalties for late payments.
- The Committee heard concerns from the business community about the potentially enormous cost of the proposals presented as well as questions around the necessity.
Eliminate at-will employment: The bill would make Vermont the second state in the country with a “good cause” termination policy.
- The Committee heard business community concerns around this making the state an extreme outlier while potentially restricting opportunities for employees.
Ban Non-Competes: the bill aims to ban noncompete agreements in the state of Vermont, except in two narrow instances.
- The Committee heard business community concerns that these agreements have essential uses in ethical commerce, securing intellectual property, and more. It was suggested that the committee delay action to get a broader perspective on the existing case law, and if they still feel the need to address the topic, be more judicious and regulate the elements of the agreements they see need for.
Create a “Right to Sit:” This proposal envisions an employee having the ability to assert a right to sit in their workplace if standing is not required for the performance of the job.
- The Committee heard business community concern that this legislation, while well intentioned, could be duplicative at best and at worst create a potential point of friction between employers and employees over its interpretation.
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.
- Read previous updates: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7
- On Monday, March 3rd at 12:00-1:00 p.m. Let’s Build Homes will report the latest organizational updates, give you a chance to ask questions and provide input, and suggest pro-housing messages to share with your neighbors and representatives this Town Meeting Day. Use this link at that time to participate.
- On Thursday, March 6 at 11:30 AM, there will be a Virtual Policy Forum on Medical Debt Relief hosted by the Treasurer Mike Pieciak, who has a plan to forgive some Vermonters’ medical debt.
- The House is poised to approve extending the sunset on alcohol to-go via H.339. The opportunity for restaurants was first created during the pandemic, and the sunset on it has since been extended one other time.
- The House Committee on Health Care approved H.96, an act relating to increasing the monetary thresholds for certificates of need on a vote of 10-0-1 this afternoon. The bill increases the threshold cost of new projects for health care facilities that are required to receive a certificate of need from the Green Mountain Care Board.
- In Congress, House Republicans passed the first step toward restructuring federal spending on Tuesday with their budget resolution. The resolution allows $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, partially offset by spending cuts. They now need to turn that topline number into line item cuts, which is where things get more difficult and the impacts on Vermonters are more apparent.
Hey! You read the whole update. You probably have some thoughts on the content or how we delivered it. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].