Bills in the shop

2023-04-30

Dear friend,

I was hoping to get into the vegetable garden this weekend, but the rain has other ideas. What are you getting up to?

With two weeks left in the 2023 legislative session, here are some bills your Legislature has been trying to get planted.

--VT Saves. S.135 came over from the Senate with the goal of establishing a savings program for Vermonters by way of a Roth IRA.

While there are many reasons to save for retirement, many Vermonters are not able to save money at the rates needed. This automatic, voluntary program will take employers about 15 minutes to implement with an employee, and will make it easier for people to save by removing the hurdles presented by a lack of knowledge on the subject or inability to set up an IRA account on their own.

The money put into an account will always be available for savers; there is no tax penalty for withdrawing it. This means the VT Saves program will help with both emergency savings as well as retirement savings.

If VT Saves passes, I'll have more info on it in the future.

--Stormwater from farms: Several municipalities are charging farms stormwater fees. Do they have the right to do this? The Agency of Agriculture says they don't, because State agencies regulate stormwater issues for agriculture and the Agency of Natural Resources supports that position.

On the other side, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT) and several municipalities assert that the fees towns are charging are for the common good and do not constitute regulation.

The House Agriculture committee is working on S.115, which addresses this. We'll see how they come down this week. S.115 also adds a new condition for when farmers are required to quarantine livestock.

In addition to current rules relating to infectious diseases, farmers would be required to quarantine when animals are suspected of having been exposed to biological or chemical agents that may cause the animal’s milk, processed dairy product, or other product to be adulterated or otherwise unsafe for human consumption or use.

--H.81, for the right-to-repair agricultural and forestry equipment is still in the shop.

The House Commerce committee is hearing testimony on licensed dealers' objections around original equipment manufacturers being able to sell components directly to consumers, thus denying them profits. Consumer advocates contend that the bill does not preclude OEM's from making parts available via retailers, as is already practice. Other elements being discussed focus on types, availability, and tiers of diagnostic and control software as well as emissions protocols.

--Housing. The House is working S.100, a big housing bill. I am advocating for provisions that would help small towns like Halifax, Whitingham, and Wilmington, build more housing in denser village areas with less red tape. We'll see how it goes, and I'll report back on this later.

In the meantime, the Housing committee is working to incorporate one small but important provision into S.100. Small landlords that do their own maintenance work are a critical part of our housing ecosystem. S.100 will hopefully include key provisions of H.184, which would exempt owners of most rental housing units from the insurance provisions of the renovation, repair, painting, and maintenance (RRPM) licensing requirements. Those owners can't get competitive insurance rates for this specific coverage, and their work is already regulated in other ways.

--Deaths in Corrections. The Dept. of Corrections is responsible for soup-to-nuts care of 1,721 persons as of today​'s population count. That includes housing, food, security, medical care, prescriptions, mental health, and much more. Corrections does this 365/24/7.

I get a notification from the Department of Corrections every time an inmate dies in one of our facilities. There have been a lot of these notices lately. The State has reported and investigated 12 deaths at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield since January 2022. (In addition to a recent escape attempt, and a misconduct allegation.)

For context, Vermont is the only state not to have had an incarcerated person or a correctional officer die from COVID. Despite that, our incarcerated population is not healthy, and Southern State includes an infirmary and a housing unit for elderly and chronically ill people.

Serving on House Corrections & Institutions, your Windham-6 Rep helps provide accountability and oversight for the department, which will continue in the coming week.

I've learned a lot about Corrections since January, and I'd love to share.

Do you have any questions about Corrections in Vermont? No question too small, too big, or too "dumb." Try coming up with one and shoot me an email. I'll answer all questions here.

To make it fun, if you can stump your Windham-6 Rep on a Corrections question, I'll bake a cake for you -- hacksaw optional.