By Guy Page

Plenty happening in the Vermont Legislature this coming week….

Health care insurance and benefits – who pays, who receives? Ben Kinsley of Campaign for Vermont breaks down the packages and proposals on the table in the Vermont Legislature this week. 

Data privacy debate – how far should Vermont go to protect your digital data? S.71, the data privacy bill, looks a lot different after some massaging by House Commerce. Committee discussion will continue all this coming week.

Whose vision gets implemented – the Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s or business groups like the Vermont Chamber of Commerce? At stake is Vermont’s already tenuous position as a competitive business environment. Read an analysis by state house advocates Maggie Lenz and Gwynn Zakov in today’s Vermont Daily Chronicle here. 

School budget voters face 17% tax hike – Lawmakers debating education finance reform legislation will be paying attention to the outcome of another school budget vote held tonight  in Orange County.

As reported in today’ s Journal-Opinion, voters in Corinth and Topsham will gather at the local school tonight at 6:30 p.m. for the school district’s annual meeting.

The proposed 2026-2027 budget of $10,065,244 has increased 9.10%, or $840,108 over the current year’s budget of $9,225,136. 

Nevertheless, projections show the local education tax rate will rise over 17% and 16% in Corinth and Topsham, respectively. For a property valued at $150,000 in Corinth, the tax increase is estimated to be $340.74; in Topsham, a property similarly valued will have a tax bill that is $337.33 higher.

The tax hikes come even as the board said it eliminated three staff positions under the proposed budget. However, costs for health care, insurance and special education are a constant challenge.

State oversees government AI use – Vermont has created a public inventory of artificial intelligence tools used by state agencies, placing it among a small group of states shaping how governments deploy AI, according to a new national assessment by Code for America.

However, the state’s AI overseers admit their grasp of state-used AI tools is limited.

The January, 2025 report to the Legislature by the Vermont Council on Artificial Intelligence states: “The state’s AI inventory currently includes about 35 tools, covering internal developments and tools flagged via procurement. Members acknowledged the list is incomplete due to unknown or undeclared uses within agencies.”

Examples of AI oversight include restrictions on, and disclosure of, AI tools in the state’s procurement policy and practice, the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council (AIAC) reported April 4.