By Guy Page
Call it the Battle of the Press Releases.
Yesterday, Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski and VT GOP Chair Paul Dame issued press releases highlighting the highlights (Krowinski) and a single, major lowlight (Dame) of the House bills passed thus far.
Dame, first. He noted that H.949, the yield bill that would raise property taxes seven percent, barely passed with 78 votes. If all 150 members vote, a minimum of 76 is needed to secure passage.
On Wednesday the Vermont House passed a new yield bill in a vote of 78-61. VTGOP Chairman Paul Dame had the following response.
“It’s clear that the Democrats in the majority did not get the message voters tried to send in the last election. Governor Scott put forward a reasonable plan to provide immediate property tax relief to Vermonters and Democrats once again rejected that plan.
“The fact that that the yield bill passed with only 78 votes indicates it is the most unpopular yield bill in a decade. It was just three votes over the bare minimum of a majority in the House. Last year when Democrats followed Governor Scott’s lead to reduce rates, there was overwhelming support from Republicans.
“While on the floor Democrats reiterated that they are required to pass a yield bill – they are not required to pass THIS yield bill. The current version forces Vermonters to pay higher property taxes this year than they did last year. Today House Democrats should consider sending the yield bill back to committee for further work so they can give taxpayers the relief that Governor Scott proposed in his budget. And taxpayers should call the State House and demand that their representatives vote NO on third reading, so we can pass a better bill.
“House Democrats have shown that they refuse to listen to reason, Republicans, most taxpayers or America’s Most Popular Governor, and will likely continue to maintain the status quo. But Republicans are optimistic that this narrow passage sends a strong message to the Senate that there is support for greater tax relief if the other chamber is willing to provide it.”
Vermont Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) provided her own overview of the House bills that have made the legislative crossover deadline:
“I am proud of the legislation we were able to pass by our legislative crossover deadline and the thoughtful, bi-partisan work that went into many of the bills,” said Speaker Krowinski. “We were able to address pressing issues around health care access and affordability, justice reform and public safety, community resiliency, infrastructure needs, education challenges facing students, data and consumer protection, and so much more. The federal government has passed legislation that is gravely impacting Vermonters, but members of the Vermont House of Representatives really stepped up to support our communities.”
Health Care Access and Affordability
- H.577: The bill establishes a Prescription Drug Discount Card Program, administered by the State Treasurer, that pools purchasing power with other states and organizations to negotiate lower drug costs for all Vermont residents.
- H.583: The bill prohibits private equity groups and hedge funds from interfering with clinical decision-making at health care facilities and requires them to disclose their ownership interests to the Green Mountain Care Board.
- H.814: This is a wide-ranging bill regulating AI in health care and establishing new “neurological rights” for Vermonters, effective July 1, 2026. It creates privacy protections for neural data collected via brain-computer interfaces, bans the use of such devices to bypass a person’s conscious decision-making without specific written consent, and requires health care providers to clearly disclose when AI is being used in patient communications. It also regulates mental health chatbots by prohibiting them from selling user data or targeting users with ads based on their conversations, and bars health insurers from using AI to make medical necessity determinations — requiring those decisions to be made by a licensed human health care provider.
- H.816: The bill defines when clinicians can and cannot use artificial intelligence when providing mental health care and prohibits any advertising that serves as therapeutic, which are not directly delivered by a licensed clinician.
- H.817: The bill aims to strengthen protective factors through peer-to-peer support initiatives for youth, and mental health literacy training for school staff.
Consumer Protections
- H.211: The bill is an update to Vermont’s first in the nation data broker law which limits data brokers ability to sell Vermonter’s data. A data broker is a company or organization that collects, analyzes, and sells data about people to other entities – usually for marketing purposes. Imagine a teenager, whose digital footprint is already being monetized before they’re old enough to vote, or a veteran, whose contact information has been packaged and sold to scammers. This legislation allows Vermonters to delete certain data from data broker records, and asks the Secretary of State to research how to create a simple system for Vermonters to be able to delete their data that is used by data brokers.
- H.512: This is a proposed law targeting the secondary event ticket market, set to take effect July 1, 2026. Its centerpiece is a price cap limiting resellers from selling tickets for more than 110% of the original ticket price, with an exception if the reseller has a written contract with the ticket issuer allowing higher prices. The bill also bans the sale of “speculative tickets” (tickets the reseller doesn’t actually possess at the time of listing), prohibits deceptive URLs and false claims of affiliation with venues or artists, and requires secondary ticket exchanges to clearly disclose whether a customer is buying from a reseller.
- H.733: The bill would establish new legal protections for franchisees against franchisors, effective July 1, 2026. Franchisors would need “good cause” and at least 60 days’ notice to terminate a franchise, 180 days’ notice to non-renew, and would have to buy back a franchisee’s inventory and equipment at market value upon ending the relationship. The bill also bans a long list of franchisor practices, including non-compete clauses, mandatory arbitration, undisclosed kickbacks, and control over day-to-day operations, and gives franchisees the right to sue for damages and attorney’s fees if a franchisor breaks the rules.
- H.385: The bill gives individuals that have been coerced into taking on debt a new pathway to have that debt removed from their accounts. It gives creditors the ability to go after the perpetrator in certain circumstances, and allows banks to hold large transactions for a certain period of time that customers would like to withdraw from accounts where they believe there is fraud or coercion.
Supporting Transportation Infrastructure
- H.944: The bill adopts the State’s fiscal year 2027 Transportation Program and makes a wide range of miscellaneous changes to transportation law, including new bridge inspection and posting requirements, updates to the Transportation Alternatives Grant Program, and an extension of the public-private partnership authority. Most notably, the bill introduces a mileage-based user fee of $0.014 per mile for battery electric vehicles starting in 2027, replacing the flat EV registration fee.
Justice Reform
- H.294: The bill provides all individuals leaving our correctional facilities with a free Vermont non-drivers I.D. It’s an important step in helping support individuals leaving incarceration get back on their feet and successfully reintegrate.
- H.550: The bill abolishes a monthly supervisory fee that people on parole, furlough or probation were assessed and leaves more money in their pockets.
- H.642: The bill strengthens opportunities to hold youthful offenders accountable within the family court system, with the goal of seeing more participants be successful in the program.
Bending the Tax Curve
- H.949: This bill sets the homestead and nonhomestead education property tax rates and yields for fiscal year 2027 and reserves $104.9 million in the Education Fund to help offset property tax rate increases over the next two years. The bill also makes a technical correction to the property tax credit system, refunds the City of Barre $150,576 for education property tax overpayments from fiscal years 2021–2024, and adjusts the special education census grant formula to be inflation-indexed going forward.
- H.933: This is a wide-ranging tax omnibus bill that makes numerous administrative and policy changes to Vermont’s tax laws, including updating the property transfer tax rate on non-primary residences, shifting the grand list assessment date from April 1 to January 1, raising the estate tax filing threshold from $2.75 million to $5 million, and increasing the Vermont research and development tax credit for businesses. The bill also updates Vermont’s conformity with federal income tax law, adjusts the share of meals, rooms, and purchase-and-use tax revenues deposited into the Education Fund, explicitly blocks Vermont’s participation in the new federal scholarship tax credit program, and commissions a decennial study of Vermont’s overall tax system.
Environmental Resiliency
- H.723: The bill makes it easier for Vermonters to post their land, by no longer requiring dates on postings and ensuring that minor issues with postings will not result in land being open.
- H.778:The bill addresses dam safety by directing the Division of Emergency Management, in coordination with the Department of Environmental Conservation, to conduct a pilot project developing emergency operations plans (EOPs) for two high-hazard State-owned dams, covering evacuation routes, early warning systems, and vulnerable population needs. It also clarifies that the Governor and Emergency Management Director may order evacuations near failing dams without waiting for municipal approval.
- H.915: The bill overhauls the State’s bottle bill by requiring all beverage container manufacturers and distributors to join a nonprofit producer responsibility organization that will manage the collection, redemption, and recycling of containers statewide. The organization must submit a stewardship plan by April 2028 ensuring convenient redemption access across all regions, fair compensation for redemption centers, and consumer education efforts. The bill sets redemption rate goals of 75% by 2029 and 80% by 2032 and directs unclaimed deposit funds to the Clean Water Fund.
- H.928: The bill makes technical corrections to fish and wildlife statutes, adjustments to the points system for violations, allows the Commissioner to have discretion on when annual hunting licenses expire and the ability to assess a fee for additional tags or permits.
21st Century Agriculture and Food Safety
- H.932: The bill narrows Act 250 jurisdiction over forestry by limiting permit oversight to only the developed portions of forestry parcels, exempting low-elevation logging and log/pulp concentration yards from regulation.
- H.536: The bill would require manufacturers of baby food to regularly test their products for lead and other heavy metals and make the test results readily available to consumers by including those results on the packaging. The bill allows Vermonters to report a violation to the Department of Health and the Vermont Attorney General to investigate any report as a violation of the Consumer Protection Act.
- H.739: The bill phases out the sale and use of the herbicide paraquat, citing its links to serious health risks including Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and childhood leukemia. The Agricultural Innovation Board is also directed to study and recommend alternatives to paraquat for farmers, with a report due by January 2027.
- H.537: The bill establishes a “right to grow” vegetable gardens for Vermonters living in common interest communities (like condos or HOAs) and rental properties. It voids any HOA rules or deed restrictions that outright ban or unreasonably restrict residents from growing vegetable gardens in their private outdoor spaces, while still allowing associations and landlords to set reasonable rules around maintenance and aesthetics. Renters are guaranteed the right to grow in portable containers, and landlords may permit in-ground gardens as well, with unit owners and tenants responsible for their own associated costs.
Energy Modernization, Affordability and Safety
- H.718: The bill addresses the patchwork enforcement of Vermont’s building energy codes while better training the trades workforce to understand them. It creates a Residential Contractor Registry Task Force to fix the state’s underperforming contractor registry and develop voluntary certifications, and directs the Director of Fire Safety to assess whether Vermont should adopt a formal residential building code, something it currently lacks for one- and two-unit homes. It also requires architects, engineers, electricians, plumbers, boiler inspectors, and heating technicians to complete a short energy education module at initial licensure and renewal, explicitly allowing municipalities to enforce building energy standards locally.
- H.727: The bill addresses the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the infrastructure – data centers – that are being developed across the country. H.727 ensures that a data center’s impact on power and water needs are assessed as well as the broader environmental and electrical rate impacts on Vermonters.
- H.753: The bill would strengthen protections for residential utility customers against having their gas, electric, or water service shut off. It would require utilities to halt disconnections if a doctor certifies that a household member’s health would be seriously endangered and would ban disconnections entirely during periods of extreme heat. It would also require each utility to develop a concrete plan to reduce involuntary residential disconnections to the lowest feasible number and submit that plan to the Public Utility Commission for approval.
- H.940: The bill streamlines energy and telecommunications policy by expanding how efficiency utilities can spend thermal funds, updating energy planning processes, and abolishing the Telecommunications and Connectivity Advisory Board.
Education Reform and Student Support
- H.650: The bill sets up a system where businesses that provide education technology register each ed tech product with the Secretary of State’s office. It then asks the Agency of Education to put together a report on how to ensure that education technology products are safely and smartly used in Vermont schools. It’s important legislation to ensure that we know how educational technology products are or are not using student data.
- H.930. The bill formally defines chronic absenteeism and truancy and requires the Agency of Education to develop a model policy to prevent and respond to chronic absenteeism and help keep Vermont students in school.
- H.931: The bill makes several updates to Vermont education law, including exempting therapeutic independent schools undergoing ownership changes from the moratorium on new school approvals, having Vermont join the Interstate Compact for Education, renaming Boards of Cooperative Education Services also known as BOCCES to Cooperative Educational Service Areas or CISA’s, temporarily pauses penalties for schools that fail to meet class size minimums, and requires criminal background checks for Agency of Education employees who may have unsupervised contact with students.
Increasing Public Safety
- H.171: The bill creates a working group to consider steps to outline the procedure more clearly and efficiently for the investigations into a law enforcement officer’s use of a firearm.
- H.410: The bill updates how Vermont calculates recidivism to make the metric more meaningful and accurate. It also establishes a system for regular, standardized criminal justice data reporting to improve transparency and inform policy decisions.
- H.606: The bill further supports public safety efforts related to firearms by increasing penalties for the theft of a firearm and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. Additionally, it updates state law to be better aligned with federal law.
- H.937: The bill is the annual miscellaneous judiciary bill making a wide range of technical updates to civil and criminal procedure statutes. Key changes include consolidating the “profits from crime” framework, lowering the restitution fund payment threshold from $10,000 to $5,000, expanding licensed Vermont attorneys’ online access to court records, updating stalking and harassment definitions, and repealing outdated spendthrift guardianship provisions. The bill also makes various housekeeping updates to property, family, and criminal law, including modernizing gendered language throughout.
Vermonter Housing, Health, and Safety Initiatives
- H.657: The bill addresses a number of topics including the creation of a certification status to enable 16- & 17-year-olds who are homeless and not in a parent’s custody to consent for themselves to receive essential services. The bill also updates DCF custody protections.
- H.660: The bill appropriates roughly $6.4 million from the Opioid Abatement Special Fund for fiscal year 2027 to support a wide range of substance use disorder services including outreach staff, recovery residences, syringe services, peer recovery coaches in corrections, youth programming, and EMS buprenorphine training. The bill also requires the Department of Health to review all past Fund appropriations by December 2026 and recommend which programs could be transitioned to other funding sources.
- H.772: The bill makes sweeping changes to residential rental law, including updating termination notice requirements, streamlining eviction procedures, banning rental application fees, capping security deposits at two months’ rent, and making eviction records confidential unless a landlord wins a judgment for nonpayment or breach. The bill also creates a two-year pilot program administered by the State Treasurer to report positive rental payment history to credit bureaus, aimed at helping underserved renters build credit.
- H.861: The bill creates a permanent position in the Agency of Administration, which shall coordinate disability education and compliance with federal and state disability law across state government.
- H.938: The bill is this year’s attempt to modernize our emergency housing program for Vermonters. The bill creates a system for a continuum of services to prevent and address homelessness, improve responses, and reduce the use of hotels and motels.
Good Government
- H.67: The bill creates a bipartisan Joint Government Oversight and Accountability Committee to examine issues of significant public concern, evaluate State agency rulemaking, and issue annual reports on government performance. The bill also shifts the default deadline for agency reports to the legislature from January to November 15 and directs the Auditor of Accounts to conduct a pilot program auditing up to five State agency programs every two years.
- H.567: The bill makes a broad set of changes to unclaimed property administration, State retirement systems, and capital debt reporting. Most significantly, it creates a Pension and Benefits Funding Task Force to review funding methodologies for the State Employees’ and Teachers’ Retirement Systems, and transitions fiduciary responsibility for postemployment benefits to the Vermont Pension Investment Commission.
- H.935: The bill continues the ongoing effort to strengthen Vermont’s Emergency Management System. After the back-to-back years of devastating floods, the legislature has been hard at work updating our emergency preparedness. This legislation creates the Ready Response Grant Program to help Vermonters and communities after a disaster readily access food and water. The bill also continues to build on Vermont’s urban search and rescue capacity through improved technical and communications capabilities. Finally, this bill improves forest fire response coordination.
Fair Labor Standards
- H.887: The bill aligns definitions in safe leave in the Parental and Family Leave Act, so that it matches the Fair Employment Practices Act.
- H.519: The bill that allows the town of Randolph to offer the option to switch to retirement plan Group C instead of F to their municipal police officers. Group C has a shorter timeframe and greater contribution level to reach retirement and does not impose new costs to the system.
- H.556: The bill updates the state minimum wage/overtime laws for elected and appointed municipal employees, aligning it with federal FLSA and existing practice.
Second Reading Roll Call on H.949, the Yield Bill:
Goldman of Rockingham Yea*
Graning of Jericho Yea*
Mrowicki of Putney Yea*
Stone of Burlington Yea*
Waszazak of Barre City Yea*
Arsenault of Williston Yea
Austin of Colchester Yea
Bartholomew of Hartland Yea
Berbeco of Winooski Yea
Birong of Vergennes Yea
Bishop of Colchester Yea
Black of Essex Yea
Bluemle of Burlington Yea
Bos-Lun of Westminster Yea
Brady of Williston Yea
Brown of Richmond Yea
Burke of Brattleboro Yea
Burkhardt of South Burlington Yea
Campbell of St. Johnsbury Yea
Carris Duncan of Whitingham Yea
Casey of Montpelier Yea
Cina of Burlington Yea
Cole of Hartford Yea
Conlon of Cornwall Yea
Cooper of Pownal Yea
Corcoran of Bennington Yea
Critchlow of Colchester Yea
Dodge of Essex Yea
Dolan of Essex Junction Yea
Duke of Burlington Yea
Durfee of Shaftsbury Yea
Emmons of Springfield Yea
Garofano of Essex Yea
Goodnow of Brattleboro Yea
Greer of Bennington Yea
Harple of Glover Yea
Headrick of Burlington Yea
Houghton of Essex Junction Yea
Hoyt of Hartford Yea
Hunter of Manchester Yea
James of Manchester Yea
Kimbell of Woodstock Yea
Kleppner of Burlington Yea
Kornheiser of Brattleboro Yea
Krasnow of South Burlington Yea
Lalley of Shelburne Yea
LaLonde of South Burlington Yea
Logan of Burlington Yea
Long of Newfane Yea
Lueders of Lincoln Yea
Masland of Thetford Yea
McCann of Montpelier Yea
McGill of Bridport Yea
Mihaly of Calais Yea
Minier of South Burlington Yea
Morris of Springfield Yea
Morrow of Weston Yea
Nigro of Bennington Yea
Nugent of South Burlington Yea
Ode of Burlington Yea
Olson of Starksboro Yea
Pezzo of Colchester Yea
Pouech of Hinesburg Yea
Rachelson of Burlington Yea
Satcowitz of Randolph Yea
Scheu of Middlebury Yea
Sheldon of Middlebury Yea
Sibilia of Dover Yea
Squirrell of Underhill Yea
Stevens of Waterbury Yea
Sweeney of Shelburne Yea
Tomlinson of Winooski Yea
Torre of Moretown Yea
Waters Evans of Charlotte Yea
White of Bethel Yea
White of Waitsfield Yea
Wood of Waterbury Yea
Yacovone of Morristown Yea
Krowinski of Burlington Not Voting
Demar of Enosburgh Nay*
Gregoire of Fairfield Nay*
Harvey of Castleton Nay*
Holcombe of Norwich Nay*
McCoy of Poultney Nay*
Priestley of Bradford Nay*
Bartley of Fairfax Nay
Bosch of Clarendon Nay
Boutin of Barre City Nay
Boyden of Cambridge Nay
Branagan of Georgia Nay
Brigham of St. Albans Town Nay
Burditt of West Rutland Nay
Burrows of West Windsor Nay
Burtt of Cabot Nay
Canfield of Fair Haven Nay
Casey of Hubbardton Nay
Charlton of Chester Nay
Coffin of Cavendish Nay
Dickinson of St. Albans Town Nay
Dobrovich of Williamstown Nay
Dolgin of St. Johnsbury Nay
Donahue of Northfield Nay
Feltus of Lyndon Nay
Galfetti of Barre Town Nay
Goslant of Northfield Nay
Hango of Berkshire Nay
Higley of Lowell Nay
Hooper of Randolph Nay
Howard of Rutland City Nay
Howland of Rutland Town Nay
Kascenska of Burke Nay
Labor of Morgan Nay
LaMont of Morristown Nay
Laroche of Franklin Nay
Lipsky of Stowe Nay
Luneau of St. Albans City Nay
Maguire of Rutland City Nay
Malay of Pittsford Nay
Marcotte of Coventry Nay
Morgan of Milton Nay
Morgan of Milton Nay
Morrissey of Bennington Nay
Nelson of Derby Nay
Nielsen of Brandon Nay
North of Ferrisburgh Nay
Noyes of Wolcott Nay
O’Brien of Tunbridge Nay
Oliver of Sheldon Nay
Page of Newport City Nay
Parsons of Newbury Nay
Pinsonault of Dorset Nay
Powers of Waterford Nay
Pritchard of Pawlet Nay
Quimby of Lyndon Nay
Southworth of Walden Nay
Tagliavia of Corinth Nay
Taylor of Mendon Nay
Taylor of Milton Nay
Walker of Swanton Nay
Winter of Ludlow Nay
Bailey of Hyde Park Absent
Chapin of East Montpelier Absent
Christie of Hartford Absent
Eastes of Guilford Absent
Keyser of Rutland City Absent
McFaun of Barre Town Absent
Micklus of Milton Absent
Steady of Milton Absent
Wells of Brownington Absent