The Governor, Education Funding, and Taxes (again and still)

The $8.6 billion budget proposal has no increase in taxes and fees, yet supports a 3.5% increase in the General Fund. Although that is good news for tax payers, it puts an additional squeeze on State agencies. For those interested in pie charts, graphs, and tables of numbers, here's the summary document.

When the Governor say "No increase in taxes and fees." that does not include public education where there is a projected 17.3% (updated from 18.6%) increase in the state-wide average homestead education property tax bill. You have to read that last sentence carefully:

1. average - means your bill may be higher or lower than the 17.3%

2. state-wide - means that's the average for the whole state

3. homestead - means it's on your residence, not on commercial property or second homes. Those too will see increases.

4. education - these are not your municipal taxes which are a whole other, less dramatic, issue

5. property tax bill - the actual amount you will be billed once a year with 3 or 4 required payments to the town clerk. So this is not the same as the increase in the tax rate, which determines how much that bill will be,

What next with the budget

After the Governor's budget address the House Appropriations committee (Approps) disappears into Room 11 of the Capitol and is not seen again until around Town Meeting day when the final touches of the House proposed budget is presented. Approps works over the governor's proposal, moving numbers around, hearing from other committees, and taking testimony. Eventually all the haggling is done and the "Big Bill" (the House budget proposal) is presented and voted upon in the House. It then goes to the Senate.

The Big Bill is inevitably changed by the Senate and returned to the House; back and forth a couple times until everyone gives up and a Committee of Conference (CoC) is created with three members from the House and Senate. 

The CoC meets several times, resolves the differences and produces a Report. That report goes back to the House and the Senate for one more vote in each. At that point nothing can be changed, no more amendments, it's an up-or-down vote. If the budget report is approved, we send it off to the Governor and end the 2025 legislative session. The Big Bill is usually one of the very last bills to leave the General Assembly.

All this means there's a long way to go.

As part of our continuing work on Education Financing was had a joint hearing with the House and Senate Education committees and the Senate Finance committee. Senate Finance is basically their version of House Way & Means (my committee).

During the hearing school superintendents and school boards from all over the State provided input. It confirmed our thoughts of how difficult all this has been. You can watch the full video here.

Colchester School District Superintendent Amy Minor Zoomed in to speak. You can see her testimony here.

Last week we also started considering two bills that will "tax the wealthy":

• H.827 An act relating to applying personal income tax to unrealized gains

• H.828 An act relating to the creation of a personal income tax surcharge

We are in the very early stages of considering these bills. They will be controversial and difficult.

First we need to understand just who is paying how much into the State's treasury. That was the subject of several presentations by the Joint Fiscal Office last week. 

Legislators get a lot of emails. They come from constituent, lobbyists, other legislators, leadership, the administration and the staff of the Capitol building. Every so often we get a flood of emails about a particular bill. That happened this week with S.18. That's a bill to ban some forms of nicotine products. I am still looking into the bill and will have more about it next week, but I wanted to say something about lobbying and emails as it may help people who really want to push a policy or make sure they are heard.

My general rule is, the more work you do to make your position known to me, the more I will listen. Also, if you represent many others, you are more likely to be heard.

Lobbyists are not bad people. They perform valuable services. They know a lot about the people they represent and the issues involved. We depend on them for information and perspective.

But lobbying firms can hire companies or use software that makes it very easy for you to send an email to every member of the House and Senate without having to do anything. I imagine that if I were a company that is hired to lobby against S.18, I would have a post card available on the checkout counter where flavored tobacco is sold. The post card would describe how Vermont is going to ban the product you just bought and if you provide an email address they will send emails when the bill is being considered telling legislators how that is a bad idea. You won't have to do anything else and your thoughts will be conveyed repeatedly to your legislator.

In the past this has resulted in me receiving sporadic emails about S.18. The sender is usually something like team@speak4.co. Often they have a name, address, phone number, and email of the sender, so I could  (I suppose) get in touch with the person and find out why they oppose the bill. But unless it's a Colchester address, I don't pay much attention to the name and address. 

In most cases the text of the many emails is exactly the same, so I know the sender is not writing out a message to me. Instead. someone clicks a button and 180 emails go out for each person that filled out the card. And we receive them all.

Artificial Intelligence is creeping into the process. Last week I began receiving emails that were slightly different from each other. The paragraphs were arrange differently. The wording was slightly different, but the formatting, font, and general appearance was the same for them all.

Also last week during a break in our work someone came into the committee room and reported the House Human Services committee had voted out S.18 and that the bill would be coming to us sometime next week. About five minutes later we each received upwards of 40 identical emails from people urging us to vote against it. 

There is some value in such lobbying. It tells me that the issue is controversial and that I should look into it. And the fact that the emails have names, addresses, and phone numbers might mean someone is willing to be identified.

But it is not nearly as effective of a personal email from a Colchester resident. And if five Colchester residents came down to Montpelier and asked to speak with me and tell me their views and stories behind them, I would make myself available to listen and discuss the issue. The more strongly you feel about a position, the more work you're willing to put into it and the more likely it will be heard and considered seriously.

In the end I gave to vote "yes" or "no" on a bill. Some are easy, but some are very difficult. I am still unsure about S.18 and from what I hear, the Human Services committee made some changes. 

More next week.