By Michael Bielawski
A bill to jump-start school construction will be reviewed in the House Education Committee Tuesday at 1:15 PM. H.129 says “excessive reliance on fossil fuels” for energy could at least partly be grounds for a major construction investment.
“This bill proposes to establish a new State Aid for School Construction Program within the Agency of Education to provide State debt service subsidy to school districts undertaking eligible school construction projects, with varying amounts of State aid available based on bonus incentive criteria adopted by rule of the Agency,” it states.
Vermont has been without a school capital construction budget since 2007. Rebuilding and repairing substandard schools will cost about $300 million per year for 20 years, a state study estimates.
The bill’s sponsors are Rep. Erin Brady, D-Williston, Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, and Rep. Christopher Taylor, R-Milton.
Among its text concerning the prioritization of funds for various construction projects, it states that the “Secretary may approve a preliminary application” if there is “excessive energy use resulting from the design of a building or reliance on fossil fuels or electric space heat.” There are several more scenarios listed as justification for state aid such as educational and economic opportunities.
The program would have an eight-member board whose task would be to see that the money gets to the schools that need it most.
“There is hereby created the State Aid for School Construction Advisory Board, which shall advise the Agency on the implementation of the State Aid for School Construction Program in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, including the adoption of rules, setting of statewide priorities, criteria for project approval, and recommendations for project approval and prioritization,” it states.
This new board will include persons from or designated by the Commissioner of Buildings and General Services, the State Treasurer, the Executive Director of the Vermont Bond Bank, and the Chair of the State Board of Education.
The remaining four members should include two appointed by the Speaker of the House, “each of whom shall have expertise in education or construction, real estate, or finance and one of whom shall represent a supervisory union.” Two more members with similar backgrounds should be appointed by the Committee on Committees.
Other objectives include promoting budgets that rely less on borrowing from either state or federal sources. There would be focus on data collection regarding “all public school facilities in the State, including information on size, usage, enrollment, available facility space, and maintenance.”
Green construction mandates under scrutiny?
Political analyst Rob Roper from Behind the Lines recently highlighted some testimony from the housing construction sector indicating that state-mandated climate-themed construction standards often add $40-50 thousand to projects and in some cases, it turns potential development away.
“The housing crisis that we have, in some ways, we’ve created this crisis. And we’ve created it with policies that are generally well-intentioned, but the compounding impact of these policies creates hurdles, creates barriers, creates costs,” Erik Hoekstra, Managing Partner at Redstone, a commercial and multifamily housing project company, recently told lawmakers.
It’s not clear what the average added costs are that such green initiatives add to school construction.
Modern electric heating options are one example of a new green technology that might be ahead of its time in terms of viability. NPR recently published the story “U.S. electricity demand is set to explode. That will make it harder to cut climate pollution.”
Information on House Education Committee
See all bills assigned to this committee here. Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions and information at the following email addresses:
House Education
Peter Conlon, Cornwall, Chair, pconlon@leg.state.vt.us
Chris Taylor, Madison, Vice Chair, cataylor@leg.state.vt.us
Erin Brady, Chittenden District 2, Ranking Member, ebrady@leg.state.vt.us
Jana Brown, Richmond, Clerk, jbrown@leg.state.vt.us
Joshua Dobrovich, Orange-3, jdobrovich@leg.state.vt.us
Leanne Harple, Orleans 4, lharple@leg.state.vt.us
Robert Hunter, Bennington-4, rhunter@leg.state.vt.us
Emily Long, Burlington, elong@leg.state.vt.us
Kate McCann, Washington-4, kmccann@leg.state.vt.us
Beth Quimby, Caledonia-3, bquimby@leg.state.vt.us
Casey Toof, St. Albans City, ctoof@leg.state.vt.us
Senate Education
Seth Bongartz, Manchester, Chair, sbongartz@leg.state.vt.us
David Weeks, Proctor, Vice Chair, dweeks@leg.state.vt.us
Kesha Ram Hinsdale, Montpelier, kraminsdale@leg.state.vt.us
Nader Hashim, Windham, nhashim@leg.state.vt.us
Terry Williams, Rutland, Clerk, tkwilliams@leg.state.vt.us
Steven Heffernan, Addison, sheffernan@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at www.goldendomevt.com. Committee meeting video available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 8.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle