By Guy Page
More than a week after the Office of the Sergeant at Arms’ shutdown of Vermont Family Alliance and SPEAK VT’s DeTransition Awareness Day event, under the approval of Vermont House and Senate Democrats, the Vermont House Committee on Health Care has invited Youth Advocates from Outright Vermont to testify to the Committee on Thursday, March 20, at 10 AM.
The topic is “Gender affirming care and essential care for youth.”
Outright Vermont, in collaboration with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, developed the “Full Spectrum Educator’s Guide to Implementing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Sex Ed,” which is currently being implemented widely in Vermont public schools through the Vermont Agency of Education.
Planned Parenthood is one of the state’s largest providers of ‘gender affirming care,’ Planned Parenthood of Vermont Executive VP Jessica Barquist told VDC this week.
Representatives Mari Cordes and Jubilee McGill encouraged disruption of VFA and SPEAK VT’s First Amendment rights on Facebook. Cordes serves on the House Committee on Health Care. According to her bio, Cordes “led a coalition that improved VT law by eliminating loopholes that had allowed health insurance companies to continue to discriminate based on gender identity.”
Data privacy protection or lawsuit fishing pond? When H.342, ‘protecting the personal information of certain public servants,’ comes to the House floor this afternoon, Rep. Zachary Harvey (R-Castleton) will be asking some pointed questions about the legislation billed as protecting public servants (mostly people in the criminal justice system) from online or personal attacks by withholding their home addresses and contact information. He’s concerned it will create a ‘cottage industry’ for big law firms to sue online information providers (including deep-pocketed Big Tech) for providing information that’s never been deemed private before.
So, if a certain online news outlet publishes that one of these folks lives on Drury Lane, could it be sued? Asking for a friend….
Housing bill advances – Rep. Ashley Bartley (R-Fairfax) reports the Vermont House Committee on General and Housing has introduced legislation (DR 25-0838, Draft 9.1 now H.479) aimed at addressing housing challenges across the state. The bill includes key initiatives such as:
- Rental Housing Improvement: Expands grants and forgivable loan programs for landlords to rehabilitate rental units, with incentives for accessibility and affordability.
- Manufactured Home Improvements: Establishes a fund to aid manufactured homeowners and park owners in improving infrastructure and habitability.
- Infrastructure Development: Creates the Vermont Infrastructure Sustainability Fund to support municipal water, sewer, and public infrastructure expansion to facilitate housing growth.
- Tax Credits: Provides incentives for first-generation homebuyers and down payment assistance programs.
- Municipal Taxation on Short-Term Rentals: Authorizes municipalities to levy a 1% tax on short-term rentals to support local housing efforts.
- Housing Appeals Reform: Streamlines the appeals process for housing-related municipal land use decisions to expedite development.
- Universal Design Study: Forms a committee to explore statewide accessibility standards for residential construction.
- Brownfield Cleanup Enhancements: Prioritizes housing redevelopment on contaminated properties and recommends process improvements.
- Significant Funding Allocations: Includes over $70 million in appropriations for affordable housing, infrastructure, workforce development, and recovery housing programs.
‘This legislation is a comprehensive step toward expanding housing access, supporting landlords, tenants and homeowners, and strengthening community infrastructure in Vermont. I am extremely proud of the bipartisan collaboration my committee put into this bill,” Bartley said of the bill, which passed 10-1.
Sales Tax for Building Material bill not taken up – Rep. Bartley said a bill (H.308) that would exempt all building materials from sales tax for 3 years was not taken up. The language was in the original version of the committee housing bill, but was dropped after Joint Fiscal Office was unable to provide a fiscal impact note in a timely manner.