Legislative Update, May 5, 2025
Rep. Anne Donahue
It seems odd to not be reporting final,
major legislation heading into the second week of May. We’d typically be in the
final days of the session. However, it’s been predicted for a while that we
will run late this year because of the complex task of laying out the planning
for major restructuring of our education system.
The Senate has not yet finalized its
proposed revision to the House bill, and only after that will negotiations
begin on the differences. The conference committee on the annual budget has
begun this week, so that is much closer to the regular schedule. There have
been several other significant bills making their way through the process.
***
Veteran’s
Pension Exemption
The bill exempting some specific income
taxes will be on the House floor this week, and with its unanimous vote out of
committee, it will likely pass without significant opposition. The Senate will
then have to review it.
It includes a compromise version – but
with significant progress – on the veteran’s retirement pension exemption. This
has primarily always been a critical workforce issue. These veterans, in peak
wage-earning years, often fill critical positions that help increase our income
tax base. Other states are way ahead of us in exempting such pensions, creating
a disincentive for moving here. It’s been a big issue for Norwich in
recruitment over the years.
The House proposal will exempt all
military retirement pay for residents with incomes less than $125,000 and then
scale it up to $175k. There was a $250 credit added for all veterans with
incomes under $25k.
The bill also includes an increase in the
threshold for partial exemption of Social Security income (another area where
we fall well behind other states), an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit
and in eligibility for the Child Tax Credit, and a new tax credit of up to
$1,000 for persons providing uncompensated care for a disabled family member.
The total cost of these measures in lost
revenue is $13.5m.
***
Right
To Form Unions
We also moved a constitutional amendment
forward that would guarantee the right to organize unions. It has now finished
its two-session legislative requirements and will go to a statewide ballot. These
rights are firmly established in current Vermont law, but there has been
backsliding in other states so it was felt to be important to place it in our
constitution to prevent future change.
I did support it, but with some reticence.
It includes the right to negotiate a requirement that employees must belong to
the union as a condition of being employed there. I get the importance of this.
If folks can have a free ride of the benefits without paying dues, it could
undermine the ability to unionize.
But I philosophically disagree with
forcing union membership in order to get a job at a given place, and this will
lock it into our constitution. I do support union organizing, so I voted in
favor and leave that balancing to the decision of voters.
***
More
on Clean Heat
Several efforts have failed in getting a bill
through to repeal the Clean Heat standard. As with many of our climate
initiatives, it was well-intended but not economically feasible, and the plan
to implement it this year no longer has any support and will not be moving
forward.
It was controversial enough that repealing
the underlying law would make sense for now – we can always come back to a
revised effort – but the legislative majority want to keep it in place. It is a
reminder that the Democratic majority still controls, despite no longer having
a “super-majority” capable of overriding any veto single-handedly.
Controversial new legislation can be blocked by a veto with enough votes to
sustain it if there is no compromise, but nothing new can be pushed through without
Democrats behind it.
***
Health
Care
Still a bit below the radar is a
regulatory overhaul of the health care system to attempt to slow down
skyrocketing cost increases. Maintaining the kind of access to services that we
currently have may become impossible without (or even with) some major changes,
and this bill shapes some of that planning. The House Health Care Committee is
working to finish its review of the Senate bill before sending it back.
***
Education
Proposals
To touch on a few of the current Senate
proposed changes to the Education bill:
The Senate draft replaces a work group
with an eight-member School District Boundary Task Force (four House, four
Senate members) to develop the new, larger districts. The Senate would require
the task force to propose at least one school district/supervisory union map
and to consider continuing access to independent schools in tuitioning towns.
It must also recommend an alternative process if new boundaries are not enacted
by Jan. 31, 2026. This is a faster process than the House proposal and could
move full implementation from four to three years.
Removed from the House version are the
immediate setting of class size minimums, the intent language on school size,
the goal of a 4,000-student minimum per district, and the school closure
designation provisions. Independent school tuition differences would broaden
access compared to the House version.
***
Rare
Disease Advisory Committee
A special congratulations is in order for
Mary Nadon Scott for her public advocacy for the creation of a state advisory
committee on rare diseases. My committee passed out the bill to establish it
last week, and it will be ready to go for Senate action next January. No new
appropriations are needed to support the activities of the committee.
Diseases that affect large numbers of
people have organizations to provide guidance and recommendations on public
education and to the legislature, and support for individuals. The new committee
would facilitate those with rare diseases in combining to gather experts and identify
common interests and needs in those same areas.
***
Thank
you for the honor of representing you. Please reach out any time with feedback
or questions to me at adonahue@leg.state.vt.us
or Rep. Ken Goslant at kgoslant@leg.state.vt.us.
