By Emma Shouldice
Vermont’s democratic legislators are busy playing “chicken” with the Governor regarding the budget adjustment bill, setting the property tax, and education funding. It has made for a fiery first half of the session and shows it could run longer than the normal budgeted eighteen weeks.
To add a little spice to all things legislative, Sarah Clark, Secretary of Administration released a letter which lambasted the Chair and committee members of House Appropriations last week. The words on the page were a bit cringeworthy and a direct punch to the gut if you were the one being called out for your actions.
“While we have appreciated the face-to-face negotiations over the last several days, it appears you prefer to start putting these negotiations in writing, and making them public, so we will follow suit. It is unfortunate that I was uninvited to testify in your Committee this morning to present our feedback on the budget adjustment and provide clarity on our compromise proposals.
Given some of the misinformation we have seen in the last 24 hours, I think it’s important to level-set where this discussion stands, from the Administration’s perspective.”
Potential areas under consideration are modernizing the property tax structure, property tax categories, foundation formula, and the homestead exemption. This is effectively re-arranging the money, but it is uncertain how that will lower property taxes or costs for Vermonters. In short, with costs increasing, any measure that is passed is unlikely to reduce property taxes but may hold it steady from the 2025 increase. Will that be enough for Vermonters? That question is one that nobody currently has the answer to.
It is the time of year when committees try to fill their day while they wait for the budget bills to be finalized in preparation for long floor debating these bills. The House Agriculture Committee is looking at many different agriculture related bills to determine if there are any that have enough interest from members to work on for the remainder of the biennium. Protecting farms is of utmost importance to VDPA and we look forward to supporting legislation that helps farmers continue to live and work in Vermont. The agriculture committees are very busy working on the right to farm, CAFO permits, and expanding provisions for selling goods produced from the farm at a farmstand.
Importantly, the Right to Farm bill is making its way through the legislative process and we look forward to strengthening the law, as Vermont has one of the weakest right to farm laws in the country. Meaningful testimony has been taken in the House and Senate to support farmers from nuisance suits when they are following the required agricultural practices.
The legislative session is theoretically at the halfway point and there has been no discussion regarding the ban on neonicotinoids, but we are hopeful that the education of new committee members will begin, and we can gear up for thorough discussions to come.