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Advocacy Update – Week 19 – 2026

Lake Champlain Chamber News and Press Advocacy Update Legislative Updates Advocacy Update – Week 19 – 2026

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May 22, 2026

In Overtime…

We’re wrapping up week 19 of what is typically an 18-week session. Legislators are tired, fried, and ready for adjournment, hopefully next week.

  • Fun factoid: it costs about $300,000 per week to operate the State House when in session. 

A moment of reflection: As we wrap up the session behind us, the election ahead raises many questions about the future of the General Assembly, as 32+ members will not return to their seats. This point of the session highlights the Sysphian effort of everyone who chooses to roll up their sleeves and get to work in the State House. 

  • So much of this session’s work centers around litigating past sessions’ work, which raises the question: Will anything done this year be permanent, or will the next legislature undo it?
  • The retirements highlight some of the strain a citizen legislature puts on the people who step up to serve. Is such a model sustainable in a modern world?  

An evergreen reminder: if you see elected officials out and about, or if you’re reaching out to them with your thoughts, serving the public requires sacrifice and frustration few experience, and if you agree or disagree, that service deserves respect. 

What are we waiting on? There are only two must-pass bills, the budget and the yield bill; this year, the Governor has vowed no budget without the education transformation package, creating what we’ve called the “fiscal three-body problem, as it’s impossible to map the trajectory of all three.  

Quick Glance at where things stand – many bills remain in the Committees of Conference. 

  • Budget: The Committee of Conference would likely be fully capable of completing the budget at this point; however, education is dictating the timeline. Open issues include the funding for the UVM multi-purpose facility. 
  • Yield: The Committee of Conference will need to arrive at a consensus on whether to use the $105 million in surplus to buy down property tax rates to ~3.5% this year (the position of the Governor and Senate) or ~7% this year and hold some in reserve for next year (the House position) 
  • Education: The Senate and the Administration are working on a compromise on the education transformation package, which they will bring to the Senate floor on Tuesday. 
  • Housing and land-use: The Committee of Conference of S.325 is mostly aligned on the legislation; however, they are struggling with what to do with amendments made to the bill on the floor related to on-farm businesses. 
  • Long tail of the Clean Heat Standard: While the PUC abandoned the Clean Heat Standard after a lack of legislative guidance, the legislature has spent the session discussing H.740, which would direct the Agency of Natural Resources to collect data from fuel dealers about the types of fuel they sell and where they sell it, much like that program would have. The Senate included language formally repealing the CHS in the bill this week; however, the House voted down the change, sending the bill to a Committee of Conference. 
  • Privacy bill: The House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development continues the slog through S.71 and the complexity of data privacy to find a version that the Senate and Governor will agree to. 

Important dates: 

  • May 28th, major party candidate filing deadline. 
  • May 29th, the projected adjournment day we’ve been saying for over a month.
  • June 22nd-24th, leadership asked legislators to hold those dates in the event of a veto session. 
  • July 1st marks the start of a new fiscal year and is when the state needs a signed budget bill. 
  • August 11th, the primary election, which in many reliably one-party districts effectively is the election.  
  • November 3rd, the general election, is much closer than you think….

There is a lot more in the laundry list. 

What to expect from us: we’ll send a status update at the time of adjournment, likely to be followed by a session summary within 24-48 hours. 

If you have any questions and want to go deeper on any of these issues, please reach out to us.

Large Wave of Retirements as Elections Loom Over the Legislature’s Final Weeks 

As of this writing, we have identified 33 members of the legislature who will not seek re-election to their current seats. Now, we think we’re in the know; however, we certainly do not know 100% of these announcements, so there are more out there. We can conservatively project from there 50. Here are some observations;  

  • High profiles: Among those are the Senate Pro Tem, five chairs, as well as members of various leadership apparatus. This could also lend to further loss of fidelity to customs and norms.  
  • Loss of experience: The Vermont legislature had faced a “great resignation” not long ago, wiping out many of the senior legislators in the building. This wave of retirements includes many of the remaining few legislators with double-digit years of service. 
  • Out with the youth: In a sad reflection of the state they serve, many younger legislators are noticeably leaving, with a common reason being the pursuit of career prospects outside the legislature, and some planning to move out of state…
  • Early departures: Let’s not forget that an unprecedented nine people have resigned during this biennium for various reasons. 
  • Structural conversation, incoming: The early departures and youth retirements will inevitably fuel conversations about fundamental structural issues in Vermont, with the part-time, low-pay nature of a citizen legislature. 
  • Primary Importance! In districts that are reliably one-party, the primary election on August 11th is the election, as no one from the other party will be competing in the General Election. Yet, hardly anyone participates in the primary election. 
    • In the 2024 general election, ~71.3% of registered voters participated, with many not realizing that ~15.3% had already voted in the August primary, effectively deciding the election for them. 
  • Determining Democratic Caucus: The impact of primaries observed above is most noticeable in the Democratic party, as in parts of Chittenden County, Brattleboro, and Montpelier, the open primaries will likely determine some of the political leanings of the incoming Democratic caucus. 
    • Notably, five of the 11 seats in Burlington will not have incumbents running, and so far, progressive party or fusion candidates have stepped forward. 

Shelf life: This also raises the question: What will be made of the work they are currently wrapping up? Even when the composition of the legislature hasn’t changed, we’ve seen that what is done in one session can be dramatically undone in the next session, as we highlighted in our introduction to week 17 about the “great correction.”

  • Act 73 has been dramatically re-litigated this year by the same people who voted for it just one year ago. 
  • Act 181, passed two years ago in the last biennium, has been stripped of its controversial components by legislators who joined the legislature promising exactly that. 
  • This week, the Senate voted to repeal the Clean Heat Standard, a landmark, controversial piece of legislation that took years and multiple attempts to pass.  

On that note: Join five employer organizations to hear directly from incumbent Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and challenger Franklin County State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld as they discuss their distinct visions for accountability and the future of justice in Chittenden County. 

  • As we outlined above, this is one of those elections where the primary winner will likely face no opponent in the November general election, making the August primary the only opportunity for Chittenden County voters to decide who will serve them as State’s Attorney for the next four years.
  • Register Here

The Laundry List: 

  • The Governor signed S.255, an act relating to establishing a pilot Law Enforcement Governance Council in Windham County, this week. 
  • Weekend Listen: Senator Tom Chittenden had an informative conversation on the Morning Drive. Quote of the interview, “If Chittenden County is the economic engine of the state, UVM is the headgasket.” 
  • The House concurred with the Senate version of S.230, despite issues with new language. The bill was the vehicle for long-disputed language that would have heavily limited noncompete agreements in Vermont, though that language was removed in the Senate, to the consternation of some House members. 
  • New South Burlington Deputy: Barre City Manager Nicholas Storellicastro announced he is stepping down to move north on 89 to a new role as Deputy City Manager in South Burlington. More via NBC5. 
  • Childcare licensure stuck on the wall: S.206 would have introduced a rigorous, tiered system for licensing individual childcare staff. The House felt there were too many questions remaining unanswered in the legislation sent to them by the Senate. 
  • Data Center Regulation: Both the House and Senate have passed H.727, a bill to establish a new regulatory framework for large data centers in Vermont.  

  • Wetlands Rule Sunk: As expected, yesterday the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules voted 5–3 to object to ANR’s proposed Vermont Wetland Rules (25-P040), which were part of the Scott Administration’s push to ease certain wetland restrictions to support housing development. The proposal would have reduced certain Class II wetland buffers from 50 feet to 25 feet and would have allowed certain housing projects to proceed as an “allowed use” in unmapped Class II wetlands located in designated growth areas, Tier 1A/1B areas, and locations eligible for the Act 250 interim housing exemptions. The vote is significant, but it does not kill the rule. ANR now has 14 days to respond, after which LCAR can revisit the objection. ANR could also ultimately move forward with the rule over LCAR’s objection.

  • New VT AI Taskforce: This week, the Governor established the Vermont Artificial Intelligence Economic Task Force, positioning the state to use its scale, institutional networks, and tradition of fast coordination to adapt to AI more quickly and deliberately. The Task Force, chaired by outgoing VGS CEO Neale Lunderville, will assess how artificial intelligence is reshaping Vermont’s economy sector by sector and deliver an agenda of workforce, investment, and policy actions, beginning with priority opportunities identified within 90 days. Read more here. 
Category: Advocacy Update