Announces veto at 1:16 AM, one working day before Monday’s veto session

By Guy Page

Two days after House Speaker Jill Krowinski said she wouldn’t accept any of Gov. Phil Scott’s proposed tax-reducing changes to school funding bill H.887, Gov. Phil Scott at 1:16 AM Friday morning June 14 vetoed the headliner bill of the 2024 Legislature: H.687, the ‘community resilience and biodiversity protection bill’ to reform Act 250.

The bill was sent to the governor last Friday but the veto was made public just one working day before Monday’s scheduled veto session. In the same statement, Scott also announced he has vetoed H.121, the internet data privacy bill, titled enhancing consumer privacy and the age-appropriate design code, because it  “creates an unnecessary and avoidable level of risk,” he said in a letter to the Legislature. 

But it’s Scott’s long-waited-for decision on H.687 – billed as the Legislature’s response to the housing shortage crisis – that earned most of the ink in the early morning statement. 

“Despite almost universal consensus, I don’t believe we’ve done nearly enough to address Vermont’s housing affordability crisis,” Scott said. “H.687 is heavily focused on conservation and actually expands Act 250 regulation. And it does so at a pace that will slow down current housing efforts. Vermonters need us to focus on building and restoring the homes communities desperately need to revitalize working class neighborhoods, reverse our negative demographic trends, and support economic investment in the future.”

Scott provided what he called ‘a path forward’ to a version of H.687 he would find acceptable. It includes:

• Reducing restrictions of creation of roads.
• Allowing more ease of short-term development while the H.687 regulations are being written and adopted
• Limiting the appeal process for urban core housing development
• Applying interim exemptions to areas serviced by municipal water and wastewater to give smaller, more rural communities the same opportunity for housing.

Scott’s letter on H.121, the data privacy bill, outlines what he considers the risk of regulating business access to and use of customer internet data. 

“One area of risk comes from the bill’s ‘private right of action,’ which would make Vermont a national outlier, and more hostile than any other state to many businesses and non-profits – a reputation we already hold in a number of other areas,” Scott said. 

The bill’s attempted protection of children resembles similar legislation in California that has already been stopped by the courts for likely First Amendment violations, Scott said.

“Vermonters will already be on the hook for expensive litigation when the Attorney General takes on “Big Oil,” and should not have to pay for additional significant litigation already being fought by California, Scott said. 

Big picture – Legislature has added one burden after another

The data bill creates “big and expensive new burdens and competitive disadvantages for the small and mid-sized businesses Vermont communities rely on. These businesses are already poised to absorb an onslaught of new pressures passed by the Legislature over the last two years, including a payroll tax, a Clean Heat Standard, a possible Renewable Energy Standard (if my veto is overridden), not to mention significant property tax increases,” Scott said. 

The bottom line is, we have simply accumulated too much risk. However, if the underlying goals are consumer data privacy and child protection, there is a path forward. Vermont should adopt Connecticut’s data privacy law, which New Hampshire has largely done with its new law. Such regional consistency is good for both consumers and the economy.”

A pro-veto rally sponsored by Vermonters for Vermont will be held on the State House law at 1 PM Saturday, two days before the veto session of the Vermont Legislature 10 AM Monday, June 17. The veto session has called to consider Gov. Scott’s vetos of the two bills above, and the following:

S.18, banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids

H.706, banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides

H.289, Renewable Energy Standard 

 H.72, harm-reduction criminal justice response to drug use (AKA ‘safe injection sites’)

H.645, approaches to restorative justice

H.887, An act relating to homestead property tax yields, nonhomestead rates, and policy changes to education finance and taxation

 Gov. Scott also signed into law two bills:

• H.10, An act relating to amending the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive Program
• H.279, An act relating to the Uniform Trust Decanting Act

To view a complete list of action on bills passed during the 2024 legislative session, click here.