Property tax sticker shock, safe injection sites, and control over private schools are among the issues expected to engage lawmakers when the second half of the biennium opens tomorrow.

A bill aimed at reducing intergenerational poverty would invest $3,200 in long-term bonds for every Vermont baby born on Medicaid.

Support from migrant rights activists is competing with concerns about the legality of the proposed policy change and, from law enforcement, wariness about restrictions on their jobs.  

Repealing legal penalties for selling up to 149 milligrams of crack cocaine – almost twice the lethal amount of a single dose – is part of a drug abuse ‘harm reduction’ bill cited as a high priority at Saturday’s pre-session caucus of Democratic legislators. 

“Restorative justice isn’t restorative if it’s mandatory — if it’s being forced,” said Dolan. If one of the parties declines to participate, a community justice center can send a referred case back to the criminal system.

Lawmakers have a busy day planned at the State House this Thursday.

Lawmakers say photo-generative software can be used to blackmail victims by threatening to leak nude or sexual images of them. 

The Vermont House voted overwhelmingly to override Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes of five bills. See how your representatives votes.

The Vermont Legislature won’t override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a controversial pay and benefit hike for all lawmakers.

Gov. Scott’s vetoes seek to restrain record spending and tinkering with municipal voter eligibility. Will the House override?

S.39 would give the next and every future Legislature a steep raise, plus adjournment pay, plus State of Vermont employee-level health care benefits, plus several other benefits; all told, about $50,000 per legislator. 

Despite objections from the Vermont press, the Vermont Legislature impeachment investigation committee will meet this week behind closed doors.

“This year, the General Assembly passed several pieces of legislation that will significantly increase costs for Vermonters through new and higher taxes, fees, and penalties. In my opinion, it does not seem fair for legislators to insulate themselves from the very costs they are imposing on their constituents by doubling their own future pay,” Scott said.

How did YOUR legislator vote on the big bills in Montpelier this year?

Gender identity would be a protected constitutional right under an amendment proposed on the last day of the 2023 legislative session.

In the 11th hour, the House agreed to the Senate’s funding structure, with a payroll tax of 0.44%, with at least 75% of the tax required to be paid by employers.

A bill intended to be union-friendly “exemplifies how trying to regulate speech is a double-edged sword that creates unintended consequences,” an advocacy group says.

Vermont lawmakers are seeking to give workers increased protections when it comes to collective bargaining and union organizing through a bill that has passed in the Senate with a number of changes since it was introduced. 

The House overrode Gov. Scott’s veto of S.5, despite warnings of unfairly penalizing rural Vermonters and supporting the natural gas industry.

Six Democrats and every Republican voted against S.39. Roll call provided.

A poll conducted last week shows Vermonters oppose S.5 – especially if it increases home heating fuel prices.

S.5 clears its highest hurdle – the veto override vote in the Vermont Senate.

The S.5 veto override will come before the House later this week.

Spending thousands of dollars on a new heat pump or paying more for heating fuel “doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me,” Scott said.

It’s not the most discussed feature of this year’s housing bill, but the ban on town restrictions of homeless housing may have highly visible consequences.

Gov. Scott has vetoed S.5, the carbon emissions reduction bill he says punishes rather than helps Vermonters, and has a confusing and contradictory check-back provision.

As a result of Pres. Donald Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman said. “We are seeing the traditional institutional norms and balance and respect for the system being completely upended by a tyrannical minority.”

If Gov. Phil Scott vetoes S.5, what happens then is a toss-up and will decide whether S.5 becomes law or just the latest in a string of failed forced carbon emissions reduction bills. 

There is a high likelihood that whatever the PUC creates and brings back to the legislature, they will likely say is too well calibrated and complicated to adjust for whatever the legislature doesn’t like.

H.66 includes up to 12 weeks of paid safe leave for sexual and domestic violence survivors.

The average, rank and file lawmaker would receive an ESTIMATED pay and benefits package worth about $52,000 if S.39 becomes law.

Act 250 has its roots in Vermonters’ backlash to the civil rights movements of the 1960’s, and in practice has stopped would-be landowners of color from developing generational wealth, a Starksboro Democrat said.

In addition to a big base pay hike, S.39 would give lawmakers $200/week adjournment pay, child care support, $69 in daily food money, and much more.

It makes both fiscal and environmental sense to budget now for the small state share in multi-year federally-funded water quality and roads programs, Sen. Randy Brock says – but House Dems won’t do it.