Four Washington County legislators are being taken to task on the Rural Vermont Rising Facebook group for what a poster says is their negative characterization of the grassroots organization’s successful efforts this year to repeal Act 181 and promote legislation protecting property rights.
Bills that will impact Vermonters are difficult by nature, and part of the serious business of a legislature. But votes shouldn’t be difficult because we don’t know how they will impact Vermonters or whether they will at all. None of these three bills should have made it to the Governor’s desk.
The funding, approved in the annual budget by the Vermont Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott, will help the organization continue providing statewide housing navigation, case management, service coordination, technical assistance, appeals assistance and permanent housing support for individuals with disabilities and complex needs, Siegel said.
The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation is inviting the public to review the latest round of updates to the state’s wetland maps, a process that could carry real consequences for property owners whose land is newly mapped, remapped, or placed closer to regulated wetland areas.
Vermonters have every reason to be frustrated with the state’s healthcare system. Costs continue to climb, insurance premiums consume a growing share of household budgets, and access to care remains uncertain for many families. That frustration helped fuel support for S.190. But good intentions do not always produce good policy. Breaking down the problem with S.190 will help Vermonters understand the Governor’s veto and why this legislation was not a real solution.
Scott vetoed his third bill this week Thursday, denying the Vermont State Employees’ Union exclusive access to solicit corrections officers’ membership in prison parking lots. He also signed into law the state transportation spending bill, the ‘yield’ bill setting a seven percent statewide property tax hike, and the education reform bill encouraging but not requiring school district mergers.
After his veto of a hospital cost control bill, the Vermont NEA went all scorched earth on the Affordability Governor.
Governor Phil Scott on June 16 signed a slew of bills into law but vetoed a bill meant to impose price controls on hospitals.
Gov. Phil Scott this week signed into law bills continuing state-only authority for renewable power projects, postponing required testing for PCBs in public schools, and giving unaccompanied teens more access to state services.
H.727- Data Center Bill veto analysis
Legislative wrap-up on parental rights
If S.208 had become law, Vermont anti-ICE demonstrators and the government officials in active or tacit support of them would have another weapon at their disposal – as seen in New Jersey.
The House will certainly be a very different body next year — a perfect opportunity to bring more balance to Vermont.
Highlights include a foundation funding formula that targets reducing the cost per student by about half the current price. One thing this bill does not do is force the consolidation of school districts. If the bill becomes law, it would take two years to begin implementation.
The 2026 Vermont legislative session ran past its expected close, and the reason wasn’t a mystery. The three biggest issues, education reform, the statewide property tax rate and the FY27 budget all needed to be untangled.
Both the Speaker of the House (Jill Krowinski) and the Senate Pro Tem (Phil Baruth), both of Burlington, have announced they are not seeking re-election. Less known were likely changes at the committee chair level.
…After a session of spending, regulation, and last-minute policy movement
While the Governor acknowledged concerns raised by many Vermonters about the strain large-scale data centers can place on energy systems and infrastructure, Scott argued the bill’s implications would extend beyond the technology sector.
The housing expansions in the package — a new village-center exemption and a longer timeline for the exemptions already in law — were deleted before the bill reached the Governor
The bill pushes back the deadline to complete testing, creates a fund to assist with testing and remediation, and adds a new PCB testing requirement tied to future school construction aid.
In case you missed it: $1.5 million of YOUR tax dollars have been allocated to disperse funds to state-sanctioned historically marginalized groups. And S.278 cannabis bill, 2026, had originally intended to appropriate much more.
During his tenure, Harvey became a leading Republican voice on public safety issues and a frequent defender of law enforcement during Judiciary Committee debates.
Lt. Gov. John Rodgers is not a fan of S.325, the Act 181 reform bill, as it emerged from the conference committee. That could spell trouble for the bill if the Senate is deadlocked on the bill today.
The Senate version of H.955 reflects a large shift from earlier proposals tied to last year’s Act 73 reforms in the wake of the 2024 property tax revolt. While earlier versions had included mandatory consolidation of school districts, Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic leaders have indicated that forced mergers were politically unviable. Instead, the bill encourages voluntary consolidation.
The law that required Governor Scott’s signature is narrower than the one then-Rep. Jim Harrison and 11 co-sponsors introduced — and it expires on July 1, 2028.
The long-awaited school reform bill emerged from a House and Senate conference and goes to the Senate floor today.
True Vermont discourse isn’t found in carefully managed press releases or media sound bites that paint everyday citizens as extremists. It happens when elected officials open their inboxes, answer their constituents, and listen to the people who actually have to live with the laws they pass.
Other important bills will hopefully benefit from balanced and open-minded negotiations as we wrap up the session this coming week
Vermonters are asking what they are getting in return for an extension that multiple reports estimate is costing taxpayers $300,000 each week.
“The gambit is: let’s repeal the CHS and put it into something the governor doesn’t like,” Cota said. “I think most Vermonters can see through that.”
With the help of dozens of Republicans and with the grudging acceptance of progressive Democrats, S.208. the House Thursday removed ICE from the mandatory police masking bill.
On Thursday, the Vermont Senate approved legislation to extend the state’s streamlined telecommunications permitting law for another three years. The reporter of the bill argued that the extension is necessary to comply with federal deadlines, avoid litigation, and avoid delays in expanding wireless service. This will be the seventh time that the sunset has been extended.
The bill passed out of the committee 3-2 with the Democratic committee chair siding with the committee’s two Republicans against members of her own party. The bill now moves to the floor for a vote of the full Senate.
S.325 in second day of conference committee talks
Gov. Phil Scott has said the Legislature cannot approve a state budget and go home until it first passes a school organization and funding bill.
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.”
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
