Chapter II, Section 20 of the Vermont Constitution says the Governor does — “correspond with other states, [and] transact business with officers of government, civil and military.”
While rank and filers amuse themselves with impromptu, bi-partisan games outdoors in good weather, indoors the many conference committees will try to resolve House and Senate differences over the merely big and the truly huge bills. Adjournment won’t happen until conference committees can connect on the tax (H933), budget (H951) and homestead property tax (H949).
It’s been a busy week in the State House, yet as for Education Reform, Taxes, and the Budget… nothing.
Senator Steven Heffernan asked Senator Tanya Vyhovsky on the Senate Floor Friday whether persons that identify as animals would be exempt from Vermont’s bestiality laws.
A first-term legislator is seeking solutions to a long-ignored consent problem inside ANR’s wastewater permitting. Party leadership told him to back down. He’s not backing down.
After reading the language and reviewing the testimony, I do not believe this amendment is written correctly nor do I believe it delivers on the promise of equal rights for all. That is important because this is not just some law that can be undone. There is a four-year process to make a constitutional amendment. It should be difficult and should be done correctly.
On Thursday this week in an uncommon move, the Vermont Senate reversed one of their previous votes and struck down an amendment to a bill that the same Senators had approved by high margins the day prior.
Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill that would require schools to adopt immigration protocols restricting when school officials may cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and when law enforcement officers may access nonpublic areas of school buildings.
One ‘No’ vote says Vermont needs to follow the Bible
A bill moving through the final days of the legislative session targets the carrier. The national truckers’ association says that rarely holds. And the driver gets five points on their CDL.
An effort led by Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell) to force a floor debate on a stalled current-use land bill failed Tuesday after a lengthy House debate over legislative process and committee authority.
Abenaki celebration on State House lawn today; Shout out to VDC from…. John Walters?
It’s good to be the king
“That the people are guaranteed equal protection under the law. The State shall not deny equal treatment under the law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin. Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted or applied to prevent the adoption or implementation of measures intended to provide equality of treatment and opportunity for members of groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.”
Specifically designed to allow legal, constitutional discrimination against “white, ‘cis’ men.”
House Republicans gear up for Act 59 challenge/ Homeschoolers fear H.930 amendment will give schools, DCF undue influence/ Diaper Drive for military families
“It’s certainly a new feeling. In all of my 18 years, I can’t remember that happening,” Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell) told VDC this morning.
The House bill calls for a seven percent property tax increase.
The House is voting today, Wednesday May 6, to repeal the Road Rule and other rural property restrictions in Act 181. You might ask, what’s the next environmental injustice we need to correct? The answer is Act 59.
On Thursday, May 7 the Vermont Senate will take up legislation that will place into effect a statewide prohibition on machine guns and create a statewide ban for bringing firearms into establishments licensed for alcohol, sponsor and Senate Pro Tem Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden Central) told VDC today.
It’s time for Vermont to step back and develop a clear, transparent, long-term strategy that looks at the full picture and puts Vermonters back at the center of these decisions.
Don’t look now but repeal of Act 181, the 2024 Act 250 expansion bill enacted over Gov. Phil Scott’s veto in 2024, isn’t the only ongoing citizen rebellion.
H.326 was supposed to regulate the state’s usage of pellet poison
Climate change is indeed very real; however, initiatives proposed in the GWSA were never going to have any measurable effect on the problem of carbon emissions.
Vermont’s legislative week of reckoning
Everyone agrees on the need for consumer data privacy. How far should it go? Also, details on the Legislature’s loosening grip on the local option tax (LOT).
The tax-and-health care nexus, housing production, and education reform.
Two bills could change the way electronics are used in schools
The Senate advanced H.9 voted down a floor amendment to H.933 that would have attached a high-income earner and investments tax proposal.
As the era of abundant pandemic-era federal funding ends, the state is grappling with a $9.3 billion budget and shrinking revenues, as federal cuts and an aging tax base create immense mounting pressure.
Beverage redemption, voting by phone, as well as youth flying and youth fishing.
Critics say bill makes Vermont less competitive
The repeal of the “Road Rule” and Tier 3 was the easier decision, once the political math moved. What the Legislature builds in their place, and how it builds it, is the harder one. That work has just begun.
The recent dispute involving the Secretary of State, the Ethics Commission, and the Chair of the VT-GOP erupted over how candidate financial disclosure forms are handled and when and where they would be available to candidates.
Scott allows anti-ICE lawsuit bill to become law
It did seem that the Act 181 Road Rule and Tier 3 that threatened so many rural Vermonters was an unshakable mountain that could not be moved. But, by the small faith of many, working together, hearts and minds were changed, and that mountain is being moved.
Climbing expenses and fewer taxpayers requires tax increases, Legislature thinks – but for whom?
Opt-in to the federal school contribution tax credit, opt-out of smart meters talk of the Legislature today.
It’s a multi-front war on multiple issues.
Two bills reported on by Vermont Daily Chronicle earlier this year are on their way to the Governor after being passed on Tuesday, one from each chamber of the legislature. One makes clarifications to Vermont’s land posting laws and the other criminalizes blackmail for extortion using explicit images
Brown declined to answer a legislator’s question: ‘What is a woman?’
If you were having trouble putting your finger on that one thing that bugs you about the Whiz Kids on the Winooski (aka the Vermont legislature) you only have to read the recent apologia of House Speaker Jill Krowinski concerning the ill-considered Act 181.
Act 181 revealed a fundamental inequity in policy from Montpelier—wealthy, urban communities get a choice. Rural or poor communities don’t. Montpelier must fix it.
“We are far from repealed. We haven’t seen any updated legislation,” North told VDC in the State House cafeteria this AM. “I asked that question and did not get a definite answer. Which is concerning.”
They have not really changed their minds, only their tactics.
Paraquat, one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S., would be phased out over five years
Fixing our education system is hard, but we must do the hard thing, because it is the right thing to do.
Lawmakers emphasized that the bill does not mandate school district consolidation. Any mergers would remain voluntary and subject to local voter approval.
If House Democrats were hoping the governor would appoint a young, progressive Burlingtonian to fill the North End Burlington seat long held by Rep. Bob Hooper, they are likely disappointed.
While Vermont’s visible challenges with drug trafficking maybe happening on streets and in parks, what’s happening inside residential apartment buildings is also putting citizens and their neighbors at risk, largely out of sight. These illegal enterprises are surprisingly often operating under tacit protections from State law and the resulting risks are exacerbated by a lengthy court process that takes months to resolve. And this is putting vulnerable Vermonters in harm’s way.
Two separate bills that together ban the state lottery and impose criminal penalties on offering sports betting were presented to lawmakers on Tuesday.
Guy, the House is set to vote on the next phase of Vermont’s education reform effort today. The bill they are putting forward is a grab bag of policies that House members managed to agree on.
S.329, “criminal procedures involving firearms,” was introduced today, Wednesday April 15.
“Following extensive feedback from communities across Vermont, it is clear that the ‘Road Rule’ and ‘Tier 3’ need to be repealed,” Krowinski said.
The fuel dealers registry bill and the Miles Based User Fee are both moving through the Vermont Senate. Also: Anti-ICE bill passes Senate.
“I’m looking at repealing the Road Rule and Tier Three,” Rep. Amy Sheldon, Chair of House Environment, said this afternoon.
Referencing a sharp increase in property taxes, the song opens: “Property taxes jumped forty-one percent in five years flat / While we’re bustin’ our backs just to keep the lights on, that’s a fact.”
An effort to repeal the Act 181 Road Rule will be attempted in committee this week, Republican House members say.
Legislators are debating how to reformat a law that would exempt farmers from municipal regulation
H.537 passed the House on March 20 and is now in the Senate Committee on Economic Development.
When the people rise up in unity over an issue and are not driven by deep-pocketed activist organizations, but by their own recognition that their rights are being trampled, the legislature had best take notice. We’re in such a time.
“Repeal the road rule and repeal Tier 3 this session. Trust has been broken,” Neil Ryan says.
H.541 would create new penalties as clerks report disruptions during elections
That pattern raises a simple question: when does the real policymaking actually happen—and who is involved before anyone else sees it?
Supporters of the bill are hoping that H.432 will help eliminate the barriers many amputees face
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 20 or more unexcused days of school within the last school year, or 175 school days
The Senate version of act 181 reform, now under House Environment Committee review, kicks the can down the road: four years for the Road Rule, two years for Tier 3.
Also, security checks on visitors every day through the rest of the session, and mental health agencies seek Medicaid increase.
Vermont lawmakers are advancing a major restructuring of how primary care is paid for, but the proposal is raising fundamental questions about cost, access, and how much of the system it can realistically change.
When mapped to its statutory language and agency behavior, Vermont’s Act 181 emerges as far more than a conservation law. It is a comprehensive land allocation system that integrates biodiversity protection, housing distribution, agricultural land preservation, and redistributionist and reparation (aka equity) considerations into a unified framework.
A policy change that would modify the Burlington City charter to ban firearms in bars has been revived in the Senate Judiciary Committee—but this time, the policy extends statewide.
Vermont lawmakers have advanced S.193, a bill that would establish a secure forensic facility for individuals caught at the intersection of the criminal justice and mental health systems—a population that has increasingly strained courts, hospitals, and correctional facilities.
In an exchange with Vermont Public reporter Peter Hirchfeld at last Wednesday’s press conference in the Vermont State House, Scott responded with laughter and testy answers to accusations that he, and not the Democrat majority, are responsible for the state’s increasing financial, housing, and affordability problems.
Here’s the thing, if the thought and spirit of an organization doesn’t align with the body and letter, there is a fundamental and incompatible legal conflict between the purpose of the corporation and their governing actions.
Elijah Compagna was found not competent and deemed dangerous, yet was placed in a community-based group home in 2025. While there, he was able to lure a young woman into the home and stab her to death — in a setting not designed or staffed to manage that level of risk – just one example of a pattern of inadequate state care for the dangerously mentally ill, Carroll said.
House Republicans sharply criticized the measure, arguing it falls short of addressing Vermont’s rising education costs and fails to deliver meaningful structural reform.
S.233 could provide more resources for students with disabilities and their families
Prompted by a mother of a Bennington murder victim, the Vermont Senate Wednesday approved S.193 by a 29-1 roll call vote.
Also, a mother and son coerced into taking shots to stay employed or at school respectively.
Rep. Chris Taylor (R-Milton) has resigned from the Legislature due to work conflicts.
Concerns for aspects of Act 181 and its recent Rally at the State House has awaken rural Vermonters and landowners to the real possibilities of additional severe restrictions on their property rights.
The bill, H.727, introduced by Rep. Laura Sibilia (D-Windham 2), seeks to regulate data centers requiring 20 or more megawatts by mandating annual reporting and requiring operators to enter into large load service equity contracts. These contracts would hold data centers accountable for paying their fair share of grid and infrastructure costs while ensuring that Vermonters aren’t subsidizing their electricity use.
Childcare licensing bill is a real head scratcher.
The wealthiest people in Vermont’s real estate market own places like ski chalets in Stowe and lakefront estates in Quechee. They pay their income taxes in New York and Massachusetts.
Spearheaded by the Vermont Public Service Department, the program would give energy navigator services to Vermont residents. Energy navigators are trained professionals or volunteers who inform residents how to make their homes more energy efficient, such as with weatherization projects or installing heat pumps. Under the bill, they would also inform clients about rebates and incentives.
The Vermont House gave preliminary approval Thursday to H.949, the education finance Yield Bill and its proposed 7% property tax increase, but not before three Republican amendments to cut taxes failed.
House Human Services advances pre-K framework while deferring cost decisions
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Eric Maguire (R-Rutland 5), aims to reduce case backlog by creating structure for an existing court model that integrates mental health and other services into the courtroom setting and could move from county to county.
Yesterday, many excuses were used by Republicans as to why we are in the position we are today, but there was no mention of the ten years of a Republican administration’s failure to solve the problems we’re still facing today.
Pay attention to THIS, House Dems say. No, pay attention to THAT, GOP says.
It’s Legal Consumption week in the Vermont Senate.
House to consider $9.3 billion state budget, 7% property tax hike.
Get tough on youthful offenders, ban paraquat, address truancy and recidivism
Some worry that an overemphasis on environmental protection will violate existing property owners’ rights and force everyone into dense, restricted living situations—sometimes described as “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFO), a term usually reserved for large agricultural facilities.
Some senators want to repeal the road rule. Others seek to delay implementation until 2030.
Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee have moved to block participation in a new federal tax credit program that could direct private donations toward student scholarships.
VNRC isn’t listening to Vermont. They’re doubling down.
The constitutional rights of faith-based organizations operating in Vermont may be under attack with the passage of a bill on Thursday.
Act 181 reform goes to floor next week/ School reform now ‘Act 46 2.0’?/ Local highway $$ redirected to statewide reappraisal
In Vermont, a person could be convicted of ten separate offenses in a year, receive short sentences or probation on each one, and none of it would register as recidivism in the state’s data.
