Bills, Bills, Bills
The energy in the legislature this year is incredible with so many new faces. It’s exciting to have more parents, more young people, and more diversity here in the body. Last week, the Governor signed the first bill of the session, H. 42, which provides communities the same options they had in 2021 and 2022 to safely hold their town meetings and extends the authorization for Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District Board of Supervisors to vote to adopt the District’s annual budget. Twice a year, our state and legislative economists jointly forecast our revenues for the new year. With federal policies to slow the economy now counterbalancing unprecedented federal spending following the pandemic, we’re anticipating a drop in revenue in FY2024 but projections show a rebase to higher than pre-pandemic levels.
My Bills
My focus is bringing our rural perspective to the priority issues this session. Already, 164 bills have been introduced in the house. Here’s a bit more about some of the bills I’ve been working on:
Rural Administrative Capacity Bill (H.124)
Along with the co-chairs of the Rural Caucus, I’ve introduced a bill to address the inequities faced by smaller, low-income towns without the administrative capacity of their larger counterparts. This bill proposes to:
Provide $3M in technical assistance to rural communities seeking ARPA-funded opportunities
Prioritize underserved communities for remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act and the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
Require that funds be distributed to regional planning commissions based on the number of municipalities in the RPC service area
Require that state-funded grant programs target funds to underserved communities, and
Create a Rural Recovery Coordination Council to identify strategies that strengthen coordination among stakeholders involved in rural development and to build municipal and regional capacity in support of rural economic development.
Workforce Housing Bill (H.111)
With feedback from local developers, town planning commissions, regional planning commissions, realtors, statewide organizations and agencies, I’ve pulled together a bill along with 50 co-sponsors that proposes to 1) provide strategic investments to create more middle-income housing, 2) incentivize smart growth in our village centers by reducing costs and regulatory burdens, and 3) add capacity at the local and regional level for planning and zoning.
Disaster Mitigation & Community Resilience Infrastructure Fund Bill (H.105)
Despite increasingly frequent and severe weather events, there is no long-term, consistent source of funding to help municipalities invest in disaster mitigation and climate resilient infrastructure. Increasingly vulnerable communities will file increasingly more insurance claims–this bill establishes an upstream solution in the form of a long-term grant program funded through a fee assessed on insurance companies to support local communities in developing resilient infrastructure.
Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment Bill (H.81)
Manufacturers have been limiting access to any kind of repair to equipment they sell by proclaiming that it violates their "proprietary" rights to the software. This leaves our farmers stuck paying high costs or waiting long periods to fix their tractors, balers and other equipment critical to their businesses. This bill reforms existing laws to require original manufacturers of agricultural equipment to provide consumers and independent repair businesses equal access to repair documentation, diagnostics, tools, service parts and firmware as their direct or authorized repair providers.
Solid Waste Management Bill (H.48)
The only disposal facility operating in Vermont–the Coventry Landfill–is expected to reach capacity in twenty-two years. The state has no long-term plan for where waste will go when Coventry’s landfill is full. Rep. Woody Page and I put together a bill to develop long-term solutions to Vermont’s solid waste management challenges, limit out-of-state importation of waste, and establish a fund to close existing landfills, plan for new landfills, and remediate contamination caused by landfills in the State.
→ To see a list of all bills I've co-sponsored so far this session, check out my page on the General Assembly website.
→ if any of these are of particular interest and you’d like to testify on the bill, please reach out!
Other Highlights
The benefits of paid leave are well established and the U.S. is the only wealthy country without a national paid leave program. I joined 103 other legislators in sponsoring H.66, Family Medical Leave Insurance Bill, which provides wage replacement for Vermonters that need to take off from work for family and medical reasons such as illness, the birth of a child, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
FY23 Budget Adjustment
During the mid-year true-up of the current budget, the House is considering H.145 the budget adjustment bill that would shift $324 million in state spending towards broadband, healthcare staffing, PFAS remediation, and IT investments. The proposal includes $50 million for housing, $9.2 million for emergency relief to certified organic dairy farmers, and $3 million for a new Rural Infrastructure Assistance Program, which would help small towns “identify priority projects, submit applications, and then actively manage projects and corresponding reporting, should funding be awarded.”
FY24 Budget
Governor Scott's FY24 budget proposal totals $8.4 billion and uses state surpluses and revenue growth to make investments in housing, education, economic development, community infrastructure including:
$150M side aside to leverage future federal funding that requires state matching funds to fund projects like roads and bridges to clean water, wastewater, pollution control and broadband
$78.2M for the Vermont State Colleges
$45 million in housing development and rehabilitation, and another $30 million in emergency housing
$17M tax relief package that eliminates the tax on military pensions, expands the social security tax exemption for seniors, and the Earned Income Tax Credit
$10M to strengthen agriculture by increasing processing capacity
$5M for a Clean Heat Homes initiative, which combines the work to weatherize homes, install clean heat systems, and make electrical upgrades
$4M to help refugees, immigrants and new Americans settle into our communities
$3M to put the final touches on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail
$3M increase to Working Lands Enterprise Fund
$2.3 million of state and federal funds for the first mental health crisis center in the Northeast Kingdom.
I appreciate many of the proposal's in the Governor's budget but I also have some concerns. While the Governor recommended an additional $56 million – for a total of nearly $120 million a year – for childcare, it falls significantly short of the $179M to $279M called for in the recently released RAND Early Care & Education Financing Report to expand access to, and affordability of, childcare for all Vermont families. The budget proposal continues to invest in the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) with $21.5 million for housing, but I was disappointed to see that the Governor’s proposal falls to allocate the total funding required by statutory requirement for VHCB, our regional planning commissions, regional development corporations, and the Municipal Planning grant program.
Next up, the House and Senate will review the budget and make recommendations. As we move forward, I will be looking for investments that prioritize the regions and people who have been historically underserved or negatively impacted by inequitable policies.
You can listen to Gov. Scott’s budget address here.
Stay Connected
I value transparency. I want you to know what I'm working on, how I'm voting and why. For those who like to keep of track of things in real time, you can:
Watch the House of Representatives live (or recorded) daily deliberations
Watch the Ways & Means Committee. Our weekly agendas, list of folks who testified and other resources here.
Check out my Legislative Page for bills I’ve co-sponsored and roll call votes
If you need assistance or want to discuss your priorities or needs, please reach out anytime. I look forward to connecting with you.
Sincerely,
Rep. Katherine Sims
Orleans-4
Serving Albany, Craftsbury, Glover, Greensboro