The Big Ones

About 120 bills have been introduced in the 3-week old Vermont legislative session. Many are short, small changes to tweak legislation. Those may well get rolled into a single bill. Something like "The Miscellaneous Transportation Bill." There are also big important bills in the works. Referred to as "Caucus Priorities," they are known to be controversial and will take up a lot of our time as the biennium unfolds. 

Parental Family Medical Leave Insurance  (PFMLI) - 

There have been several versions of this initiative.  The basic idea is that the State would start a program, similar to Social Security, with the goal of providing wage replacement for employees who need time off from work to care for themselves or a member of their family. Vermont already has a Parental and Family Leave program. But that program does not provide wage replacement and some feel it does not provide enough coverage. The Governor recently started a similar program with some wage replacement. He has contracted with a private insurance company to run the program with benefits set to begin for state employees this July. The Governor's program is voluntary. The Legislature keeps trying to go in a different direction: mandatory and run by the State.  The program is proposed to be financed by a payroll tax with the employee and employer paying equal amounts. Two recent attempts at such legislation have been vetoed by Governor Scott.

•  In 2018 the General Assembly passed H.196. Summary. Veto Message

• In 2020 H.107 passed both the House and Senate, Summary. Veto Message

H.66 is a 48-page bill proposing the establishment of a universal parental and family leave insurance program available to a wide range of recipients and covering a wide range of incidents that may require time off from work. H.66 is just the beginning of what will be a long and difficult process. The bill will probably change a lot along the way and may well take more than this session to complete. Here's the details of H.66 and here's answers to the most frequently asked questions about it.

Early Childcare and Education (ECE)

There is not yet a bill for this initiative. It may well start with a Senate bill. The basic idea is to provide the opportunity for subsidized high-quality child care and early education to all Vermont children starting at birth.  Act 45 of 2021 included a requirement for an ECE financing study. The RAND corporation was contracted to produce the report and deliver it to the General Assembly in January of this year. The report describes a high-quality care and education system with childcare workers receiving the same wages and benefits as teachers. The subsidy is means tested, which means there are different levels of subsidy depending on the wages of the parent(s). The report acknowledges that this is a big change with a large cost. Here's a summary.

Universal School Meals (USM)

Currently Vermont public schools and qualified independent schools offer free breakfast and lunch to all students. Prior to covid, 77 Vermont schools offered meals with the cost being covered by a mix of federal, local and individual payments. During covid federal funding was available to provide those meals for free.  Act 151 of 2022 established a one-year state-funded free Universal School Meals program for the 2022-2023 school year. The State pays the non-federal portion of the reimbursement. Twenty-nine million dollars of state funds were appropriated for this program.

Act 67 of the last biennium required that a task force be set up to investigate and make recommendations to the legislature on how to achieve a goal of providing universal school lunch for all of Vermont's publics school students at no cost to the student or their families. The report explains the rather complicated method whereby federal, state and individual funds are combined to pay the costs of a meal. The report also makes suggestions as to future funding. 

An interesting twist to this issue is the need for families to report their income in order to qualify for free or reduced meals. The more people that report an income below the level required for federal assistance, the more funds the school district receives for the meals. 

There is not yet a bill for the implementation of free USMs.

Moving Education Funding from Property Tax to Income Tax

Two reports that discuss moving public education funding from the property tax to an income tax have been released. Though this is much discussed, it is unlikely that such a large shift in funding policy will be seriously considered this session and perhaps not this biennium. The report from the Income Based Education Tax Study Committee makes it seem possible. The report from the Vermont Department of Taxes points out some serious implementation challenges.

The Others

Aside from those large initiatives there is the usual need to develop and pass a balanced budget, allocate how capital dollars will be spent and determine property tax rates. And then there are plenty of smaller bills to make changes in current law to make them more efficient, effective and equitable.