2008 Town Meeting Legislative Report
by Representatives Bill Frank and Gaye Symington
Dear Bolton, Jericho and Underhill neighbors,
Below is a list of reports, just click on a topic to go to a report. It is simply not possible to include all the work of this session in one report, if you do not see a report on a topic you are interested in, please e-mail us and we will get you the information. Click for a printer friendly version of this report (6 pages).
We hope we saw you at town meeting this year. Or, join us for coffee Monday morning, April 7th at The Village Cup from 7 - 9am or Tuesday evening, April 8th at the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library, 6:30-8:00 pm.
We look forward to hearing from you with questions, ideas or concerns. Thank you for the honor of serving you as your state representatives.
The legislature is committed to building a budget that does not put greater pressure on property taxes and does not shift costs to those who pay for health insurance, while also investing in the building blocks for healthy communities and good jobs. Meeting these goals will be difficult in this tough budget year given the softening economy and cost shifts from the federal government to the states.
Here are a few of the challenges facing the budget this year:
§ Governor Douglas proposed a budget that significantly under-funds hospitals, reduces payments to physicians, and increases premiums for many who receive their health care through state programs. These proposals all would result in shifting costs to Vermonters who have health insurance.
§ The proposed budget shift costs onto the property tax, for example by reducing town bridge funds by $4 million. When the state doesn’t pay its share of local road projects, towns have to choose between paying more of the cost of repairs through property taxes or leaving town bridges in disrepair, and paying higher costs later.
§ The proposed budget proposal shorts the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund by about $6 million. These cuts will result in 183 fewer new units of affordable housing and 21 fewer farms conserved.
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Senate bill 209, the Energy Efficiency and Affordability Act, will save Vermonters money. It also advances innovation, energy independence, economic development, and job creation.
Vermonters are spending roughly $800 million more this year than they did four to five years ago on total liquid fuel use, including propane, gas for vehicles, heating oil and natural gas. Vermonters are spending about $800 million this year on fuel for buildings. This represents an approximate 60% increase over the last four to five years. Vermonters are spending $300 million more to heat their buildings than they were four to five years ago. Skyrocketing heating fuel costs place a heavy burden on Vermonters and on businesses, school and municipal budgets. Electric rates are also on the rise, albeit not as dramatically as fuel costs. For now, Vermont is protected by long-term contracts with Hydro Quebec and Vermont Yankee (VY) —contracts that have cushioned us from the crippling increases that other states are experiencing. However, these contracts, which supply two-thirds of our electricity, begin to expire in just four years. And, relying on an aging nuclear power plant raises serious safety and reliability concerns, especially in light of recent incidents at VY and the lack of safe storage options for high level nuclear waste.
S. 209 encourages in-state renewable energy generation by expanding net-metering, growing farm methane projects, increasing goals for energy production through Vermont's farms and forests, and increasing goals for electric utilities' use of renewable energy. It expands weatherization services to low income Vermonters, and allows Efficiency Vermont to expand their work beyond just electricity to provide comprehensive efficiency services for all fuels. It also establishes new programs, managed by the Department of Public Service that will offer efficiency services for Vermont businesses and household of all incomes. Two regional energy conservation funds and increased revenues that are generated as a result of the increase in fuel prices will fund these initiatives.
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Health Care
Too many Vermonters still don’t have health care coverage and many more struggle to afford the coverage they have. Although Vermont has good quality care, there is more that we can do to improve the overall health of our citizens.
The overall goal of our health care initiatives is to slow the rise in health care costs in order to make health care more affordable for all Vermonters. Controlling costs requires transforming care for people who need the most health care services – those with chronic conditions. We must also improve health information technologies in order to better coordinate services and reduce health care errors. We also are examining how to encourage and enable people to improve their health -- incentives that would result in premium savings.
Vermont’s groundbreaking health care reform legislation of 2006 set a goal that 96% of Vermonters would be covered by health insurance by 2010. With this in mind we want to allow more people access to health care coverage they can afford. We are considering steps to allow small businesses to purchase a product like Catamount Health, shortening the 12-month waiting period necessary to qualify for Catamount, and the eliminating or limiting preexisting conditions exclusion for Catamount.
To find more about any of the options offered through Vermont’s Green Mountain Care family of health care products, go to www.greenmountaincare.org or call call 1-800-250-8427.
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Protecting Water Quality
The legislature wants to protect the quality of the water in Lake Champlain and in Vermont’s rivers, lake, and wetlands.
The areas of land along a body of water are important for ensuring that nutrients and pathogens running over land surfaces during rain events are filtered, thereby reducing the amount of sediment flowing into the water. This buffer protects water quality and ultimately human health.
House Bill 549 would protect stream and river water quality by establishing buffer zones along their edges. It allows certain activities within the riparian buffer zone, many of which are subject to environmental review under other provisions of law. The Agency of Natural Resources would also be authorized to adopt certain rules as necessary regarding uses within the riparian buffer zone and municipalities would be allowed to change the width of the buffer zone in specific circumstances and to regulate certain activities within the buffer, including development; the storage of hazardous materials, and other practices that impact water quality.
Lake Champlain is one of Vermont’s important natural assets, but has become overloaded with phosphorus. Several state agencies are charged with lake clean-up through what’s been called the “Clean and Clear” program. Last year the legislature commissioned an audit of this program to determine whether our costly clean-up efforts have been effective and whether Vermont has established the right goals for lake clean-up through the TMDL, which stands for Total Maximum Daily Load. The audit reported that we are not making much progress in cleaning up the lake. In H.873 the House has voted not to change the goals (in water quality jargon, not to “reopen the TMDL”), but rather to ask the Natural Resources Agency to revise its plans for how to meet the goals. We also secured a pledge from the Douglas administration to find the money necessary to take advantage of federal projects aimed at assisting farmers to reduce their farm runoff.
The Vermont Senate is discussing legislation to protect Vermont’s groundwater. The House will consider that legislation after town meeting break.
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Housing
All Vermonters should have a safe and affordable place to call home. H.863 fosters new housing at all income levels while ensuring that growth remains in character with our traditional rural landscape. It also addresses unique challenges of our aging rental housing stock.
Creation of new housing would be encouraged by providing incentives and easing state permit rules for development in community centers, including designated downtowns, village centers, new town centers, and growth centers. To qualify for these special incentives, 20% of the homes must be moderately affordable.
Preserving existing housing is as important as the creation of new housing. The bill takes steps to ensure that rental housing meets basic health and safety standards. Another bill (H.352) would address the regulation of lead paint in older homes. Children with high lead levels in their blood may suffer from problems with brain development, which potentially contributes to future increased special education costs.
There are two primary differences between H.863 and the proposals offered by Governor Douglas. One, in return for loosening Act 250 requirements, the legislature wanted more assurance of not encouraging sprawl and including affordable homes in the mix. And, secondly, the legislature is not willing to raid the Education Fund to create incentives for housing. That would increase school property tax pressures. Lastly, in the budget, the legislature will work to reinstate funds the Governor proposed to cut from housing and conservation efforts.
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Transportation
Vermonters expect to drive on safe and well-maintained roads, yet Vermont’s roads and bridges are facing a perfect storm of dramatically aging infrastructure, skyrocketing construction costs, and declining revenues. The legislature is grappling with how to fund our significant transportation needs in a difficult budget year.
Vermont has 438 bridges (16% of the total) that are rated as structurally deficient. This ranks Vermont as 44th in the nation, or 8th from the bottom, in terms of percentage of structurally deficient bridges. While a large number of bridges are in need of critical repair, the funds coming into the Transportation Fund are declining, and the costs of construction are dramatically increasing, a rise of 20% last year.
The condition of our state-maintained roads is also declining. Currently, 21% of our state roads are considered to be in very poor condition. If we do not increase our investment in paving, this is expected to increase to 50% in three years. In rural areas, the situation is far worse. In Caledonia County, for example, 81% of the state roads are currently rated as “poor” or “very poor”.
We recently learned that in its annual report on the condition of roads, the administration has changed how it labels the condition of roads, so that what used to be labeled “very poor” is now called “poor” and what used to be called “poor” is now labeled “fair”. The potholes and ruts haven’t changed, just what we call them. This is not a constructive way to improve the condition of our roads.
The House Transportation Committee is working toward more substantive long-term solutions to this trend of deterioration. One idea is bonding for our most critical bridges. With interest rates on bonds at 6% and construction inflation increasing at 20% it makes financial sense to borrow money, build now, and save the costs we would incur by delaying projects. We can either pay now, or pay more later. We all need to share in the investment in our infrastructure for the future. Also, as we face a national recession, it makes sense to invest in projects that create good, well-paying jobs.
The goals for this year are to advance discussion around real economic stimulus through bonding for transportation and increase funding for town bridge and highway programs in order to reduce pressure on property taxes.
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Improving Community Safety and Saving Millions
Although Vermont has a low and declining crime rate, we are spending money faster than ever on our prison system. In fact, Vermont spends more to put people behind bars than we do to send our children to college. This is a reversal of how we spent our dollars just 15 years ago, when Vermont spent two-to-one on higher education vs. prisons. In addition, more than half of those we let out come right back into our prisons within three years.
The legislature (in H.859) is crafting alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, alternatives that can make society safer while saving tens of millions of dollars. The key is addressing certain root causes of society’s problems, particularly substance abuse and untreated mental health challenges. By redirecting our dollars away from prisons and into community-based programs, we could save over $50 million in ten years. Just as importantly, we’ll also reduce crime by working to end the revolving door in Vermont’s prisons and jails.
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Property Tax Pressures
The legislature is addressing property tax pressures through cost containment initiatives, budget choices, and other policy choices. To really address school budget pressures we need to address the major drivers behind school and municipal budgets. That's why the legislature has been so intent on dealing with health care costs and fuel costs. We are also reviewing school mandates and reporting requirements.
The House has voted to substitute a more effective cost containment provision in place of the two-vote procedure that was devised at the end of last session. The two-vote provision would have taken effect a year from now in districts with above average spending where spending is proposed to increase by a high amount. In those cases the budget vote on town meeting day would be presented in two parts. We determined that dividing a budget vote into two articles is potentially confusing to voters, regardless of the wording and voted to instead tighten the current high spending threshold.
The Governor's budget proposal would under-fund local roads and bridges and shift special education costs from Medicaid to local school budgets. We are intent on avoiding those property tax shifts in our budget process. The legislature also has refused to go along with proposals to raid the Education Fund, even for measures as important as affordable housing.
On March 13th the House tax policy committee will hold a public hearing on two proposals to revise current school funding law. One would replace the current residential property tax with a school income tax that fluctuates with spending per pupil. The other would return to a version of the old foundation formula that funds schools from a local property tax with subsidy from the state, a proposal that clearly violates the equity requirements of Vermont's constitution.
Last fall Vermonters' property tax bills included income-based deductions right in their bills, rather than as a separate check. Any time there is a change in tax mechanisms there are transitional issues, and this was no exception, especially for taxpayers whose property taxes are escrowed. However, now that the system is in place, many of those problems have been resolved and in general the feedback has been positive. Vermonters prefer to receive a bill for what they owe, rather than having to pay too much and then receive a separate check. We have been working with town clerks and financial advisers to clear up procedural issues, particularly with the closings on property sales.
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Campaign Finance
Following guidelines spelled out in a recent Supreme Court decision, S.278 establishes reasonable campaign contribution limits to political races for the Vermont legislature, governorship, and for other statewide offices. Contribution limits promote accountability and public trust because they encourage candidates to reach out to a broad base of supporters, not just political parties and wealthy donors.
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Why Vermont Works
Several committees of the Vermont House began the session by inviting a diverse group of successful employers to the statehouse to discuss the strengths, challenges and opportunities Vermont offers as a place to create meaningful will paying jobs that can support Vermonters and their families.
In identifying why they chose to grow their businesses in Vermont, successful employers consistently spoke of Vermont's quality of life, quality of schools, quality health care, sense of community, access to government, and unique natural resources. They also acknowledged that while being attractive for many reasons, Vermont also presents challenges. Employers spoke most often of the difficulty of finding reliable workers and the need for more affordable housing. Other challenges they identified were the cost of health care, energy, workers' compensation and access to cell phone coverage and broadband services.
The discussions reinforced the importance of maintaining excellent schools, maintaining a qualified workforce and improving access to affordable housing. Hearing from employers also reminded legislators how important it is to continue to address the costs of health care, energy and workers' compensation. Beyond reinforcing these specific assets and challenges, the discussions emphasized how important Vermont's community ethic is as social capital that attracts and sustains Vermont entrepreneurs and those they employ.
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