By Michael Bielawski

The Crossover deadline for bills to be voted out of committees is fast approaching on March 15 (March 22 for ‘money’ committee bills). House bills under committee review this week include curbing rising property taxes, lessening felony penalties for shoplifting, Act 250 reform, and more. Agendas published weekly on the Legislature’s website are subject to change.

Restorative Justice – H. 645 (Tuesday, House Committee on Appropriations) Sponsored by Rep. Karen Dolan, D-Essex Junction, and others.

Legislative Counsel Benjamin Novogroski will give a walkthrough. This bill deals with restorative justice, which is the practice of expanding opportunities to incorporate those convicted of crimes back into society with help from volunteers and to avoid incarceration. It states, “The Attorney General shall develop and administer a juvenile court diversion project program, for both pre-charge and post-charge referrals, for the purpose of assisting juveniles charged with delinquent acts.” It would also create post-sentencing reparations for juveniles, including some 18 and over. 

Act 250 ‘reform’ – H. 687 (Wednesday, House Committee on Environment and Energy) Sponsored by Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, and others.

This deals with “community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use,” including Act 250 reform. It further states that a newly created “Environmental Review Board” would take on “hearing appeals, reviewing applications for the planned growth area designation, review the future land use maps of regional plans, and review the maps that establish the rural and working lands areas.”

This comes as a Vermont law introduced by Sheldon and passed last year (in line with U.N. policy) requires that Vermont by 2050 must conserve 50% of total land area.

The bill is seen as a ‘low development’ response to H.719, supported by Gov. Scott and introduced by a tri-partisan coalition of lawmakers, to reduce Act 250 jurisdiction in many parts of the state, in an effort to promote new housing development. A companion Senate bill to H.719 is now stalled in the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. 

Vote on young adults to be on children’s health insurance? H. 721 (Wednesday, House Committee on Health Care) Sponsored by Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, and others.

Lawmakers will possibly vote on expanding access to Medicaid and Dr. Dynasaur including allowing 26-year-olds to join the latter which was originally created for young children and teens. Director and Chief Counsel Jennifer Carbee will do a walkthrough and then a discussion and vote is scheduled.

According to a report on VermontBiz, expanding Dr. Dynasaur is supported by both liberals and conservatives, sponsored by “more than 80 members of the House of Representatives, including Democrats, Progressives, Republicans, and Independents.”

Lesser threshold, penalty for retail thefts? H. 534 (Wednesday, House Committee on Judiciary) Sponsored by Rep. Martin Lalonde, D-South Burlington, and others.

This is dealing with retail theft. It allows for the “aggregate value of stolen property to be used to determine the criminal penalty for retail theft.” Police would be allowed to arrest retail theft suspects on felony charges if the aggregate value of multiple retail thefts reaches $900. Current law allows felony retail theft charges only for $900 per theft. 

Not everything in this bill would make lives harder from retail thieves. The penalty for a conviction would drop. It would also “decrease the felony penalty for retail theft when the value of the stolen property exceeds $900.00.”

On the national scene, County Sheriff Chad Bianco in California is garnering attention for his comments that “the driving force in our crisis [of rising crime] is a radical Progressive agenda fraudulently called Criminal Justice Reform.”

More education spending discussion (Tuesday, House Committee on Ways and Means)

Julia Richter who is Senior Fiscal Analyst for the Joint Fiscal Office and Nicole Lee, who is Director of Education Finance for the Agency of Education will speak to the committee. Lawmakers continue to be under pressure since the JFO estimated a 20% increase in property taxes for Vermonters in 2024. H.850, passed last week, is intended to reduce the statewide property tax below 20%.

On Thursday three more speakers from the Vermont School Boards Association will speak on this along with another from JFO.

Transportation spending 

Joining with their Senate Transportation counterparts, they will listen to The Eastern Transportation Coalition’s Executive Director Patricia Hendren, Ph.D., and the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Associate Director of Environment Energy, Doug Shinkle. Transportation policy in Vermont currently prefers electric vehicles over gas-powered vehicles, thanks to the Global Warming Solutions Act and its associated green energy mandates.

The breakdown of the current transportation budget signed last June by the governor includes $140 million (state match for federal funds) for paving, $18.2 million for bicycle, pedestrian, and transportation alternatives, $48.8 million for public transit, $43 million in rail projects, and $27.9 million to reduce carbon emissions and expand EV charging.

Wiping criminal records clean? H. 655 (Friday, House Committee on Judiciary) Sponsored by Rep. Karen Dolan, D-Essex Junction, and others.

This bill deals with “qualifying offenses for sealing criminal history records and access to sealed criminal history records.” It would “ expand the list of offenses that may qualify for sealing upon petition, shift offenses that are currently expungeable to sealable, and make amendments to who may access sealed criminal history records and under what circumstances.”

Gov. Scott has said he supports sealing records over expungement, with sealed records accessible by law enforcement when necessary. 

Vermont Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan (Tuesday, House Committee on Health Care)

Christopher Allen who is Director of Suicide Prevention for the Department of Mental Health will speak. According to the state’s Suicide Data-Linkage Project, “Approximately 120 Vermonters die by suicide each year, and Vermont’s suicide rate has been increasing over the past 18 years.”

More jobs, licensing for immigrants H. 606 – (Wednesday, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs) Sponsored by Rep. Esme Cole, D-Hartford, and others.

This is “An act relating to professional licensure and immigration status.” It proposes to “This bill proposes to enable individuals who meet the requirements for professional licenses to be granted those licenses regardless of their immigration status or lack thereof.”

It further specifies that this is not intended to allow illegal immigrants access to other public benefits. It states, “Nothing in this act shall be construed to grant eligibility for any public benefits, as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1621(c), other than obtaining a professional license.”

Study of School Funding in Rural Regions (Wednesday, House Committee on Education)

Noah Ampe, Legislative Intern for the University of Vermont will present a study on school funding in rural regions. With a 20% increase in property taxes anticipated for this year, legislators are eager to hear any opportunities there may be to reverse that trend.

According to a report at EdWeek.org, “In Vermont, where rural schools receive 51% of funding and account for 71 percent of all schools, rural districts receive $15.30 from the state for every dollar the local government spends on schools.”

According to the report, Vermont’s 51.2% is the highest percentage of education spending on rural schools for any state in the nation.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle