By Michael Bielawski

The 35 bills introduced this week into the Vermont Senate include more social justice-themed material in public schools, fetal homicide, and changes to the penalties for prostitution.

Among the 39 bills introduced into the House this week: a proposal for a massive climate Superfund to be paid for by a retroactive carbon tax, and equity training for public professionals dealing with drug abuse and mental health patients.

35 bills introduced in Senate this week

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, collectively 35 bills were introduced. The full list can be found here. They include:

More equity in schools

Some highlights include S. 282 which will create an “Education Equity Team Pilot Project,” which also means the creation of the “Equity Team Commission.”

The bill would “choose pilot project participants and oversee and support the work of Equity Teams created at the supervisory union or school district level. Equity teams will focus on antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion by reviewing equity-related policies and curriculum and each [team] will receive a stipend of $10,000 to support their work.”

In all $50,000 in public funds would be distributed to five schools to pay both staff and students for their time, food, travel, etc. while working on these social justice-themed activist causes.

Fetal homicide bill

Another highlight is S.276, “An act relating to crimes against an unborn child,” sponsored by Sen. Terry Williams (R-Rutland) and Robert Starr (D-Orleans). It would “establish that a fetus be treated as a victim under State homicide law and for purposes of DUI with death resulting and grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle with death resulting.” This effort could be related to a past instance when a drunk driver caused the deaths of a couple and their unborn child in 2021. WFAA.com covered the story. A companion bill has been introduced into the House. 

Changes in penalties concerning prostitution

S. 277 deals with prostitution. It would take away penalties concerning where the prostitution took place, but other penalties for the action would remain.

It states that it is “to eliminate offenses related to the location of prostitution while retaining the offenses of aiding or abetting, engaging in, or procuring or soliciting prostitution.”

Curbing retail theft

S. 297 deals with allowing state prosecuters to aggregate the value of stolen goods among multiple shoplifting incidents to curb the trend of repeat offenders. The House is already considering a similar bill.  Its stated purpose is to “permit the aggregate value of stolen property to be used to satisfy the $900.00 threshold that determines whether a crime is (1) grand larceny or petit larceny; and (2) felony retail theft or misdemeanor retail theft.”

Home EV chargers

Another bill is S. 271 which deals with electric vehicle charging. Its purpose is to “This bill proposes to establish right-to-charge laws to permit property owners and tenants to install electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).” The subject of charging EVs at homes could prove challenging for electric grid operators. One X user made a video explaining the high wattage required for just one EV charger.

“This is a 350-kilowatt station,” he says in the video. “I’m consuming roughly 137 kilowatts. It’ll fluctuate. Sometimes I can go up to the full 350. But to put this into perspective, an average home consumes 1.25 kilowatts per hour. 135 kilowatts per hour. It’s like the equivalent of 106 homes on the grid, just this one station.”

Climate and equity-themed bills introduced in House

House bill H. 809, would require payments for carbon emissions by companies for the years 2000 through 2019. This “Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program” would operate at the Agency of Natural Resources.

H. 815 would require special equity training requirements for healthcare workers and correctional facility workers dealing with mental health and substance abuse disorders. A section of the bill states, “the Health Equity Advisory Commission notes that ‘there are many opportunities to improve cultural competency, cultural humility, and anti-racism practices for all healthcare workers in the healthcare delivery process,’ including training law enforcement officers ‘on how to address a physical or mental health crisis from a public health perspective instead of a criminalizing perspective.’”

Safe injection sites passed in House

The Senate hasn’t passed any bills yet but the House has passed some already. So far one of the most significant bills to pass occurred last week which is H.72. Among other initiatives, this bill aims to establish at least two “safe injection sites” which may allow even children to use dangerous hard drugs such as heroin.

The bills that passed this week mostly deal with technical changes to existing policies. 

H. 516 passed on Tuesday deals with modifying the City of Essex Junction charter. It modifies the policies that deal with choosing a moderator for an informational meeting. Another that passed this week was H.560 , “An act relating to making technical corrections to workers’ compensation rulemaking requirements,” according to the bill. Another that just passed in S.141, “An act relating to approval of the charter of Fairfax Fire District No. 1.”

The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle