AGC/VT Lobbying Efforts and Results
The AGC/VT lobbying team includes our Government Affairs Committee, William Shouldice Associates including Heather and her team, Matt Musgrave, AGC of America and your board of directors. The complex process of getting good legislation out the door while battling against bills that would harm Vermont and its businesses requires dedication and lots of engagement with our elected officials. From time to time we can see the efforts we make come together and most recently wanted to report the following:
- During COVID-19s lockdown and subsequent layoffs that resulted drained Vermonts unemployment trust fund requiring legislation to maintain a healthy balance without having to borrow money from the Federal government to protect those unable to work. You probably remember the lobbying team reporting on the successful implementation of a policy known as the "2020 Fix" which prevented Vermont employers from 60+% increases in their unemployment premiums and avoided having to repay more than 4 times as much that was spent during the process. We were very proud of that and were reminded of our hard work from our neighbors to the west. The state of New York has recently issued notices to employers because they did not have an unemployment trust fund as solvent as Vermont and had to borrow money from the Feds to make up their shortfall. Now those employers are required to refill their trust fund, pay back the loan and the notice issued recently also included a surcharge per employee to cover the interest payments on those loans.... We did good here in Vermont...
- Nationally our lobbying efforts have paid off we too with the creation of a trillion-dollar infrastructure and jobs act and other COVID recovery funding. Most recently our lobbying teams in Washington DC have delivered yet another win in the form of another $4.75 billion supplemental payment to fund multimodal transportation including roads, airports and rail. These funds will be distributed to states once the Senate finishes the package and will benefit contractors across the country.
- Locally we got some more good news that Governor Scotts administration was able to secure additional funding to the tune of $7 million that will go towards Buildings and General Services projects in Chittenden County. Another win!
We think its important to remind our membership that we have been very successful because of the relationships forged with our elected officials. Those relationships renew every two years as Vermonts General Assembly is up for a vote. This is one of those years. We have over 40 seats that have been vacated due to retirement or seeking higher offices and some motivated parties who would like to change long standing representation in multiple districts. Thats why your lobbying team is spending hours on the phone and in person meetings with candidates to see who will be contractor champions and who we would like to avoid.
We assist candidates in many ways including introducing them to members at events, we held a training session to teach new candidates how to campaign and we also run a political action committee call Politically Active Contractors. This political action committee helps fund candidates that will help us run their campaign, and as important helps us preserve partner incumbents who we would like to continue to work with. We have had many members already reach out to contribute and we need more. We will be reaching out in the coming weeks to ask if you can help us with our mission and we thank you in advance for working with us. If you have any questions or would like to be more involved with the lobbying team please reach out to me at matt@agcvt.org.
- During COVID-19s lockdown and subsequent layoffs that resulted drained Vermonts unemployment trust fund requiring legislation to maintain a healthy balance without having to borrow money from the Federal government to protect those unable to work. You probably remember the lobbying team reporting on the successful implementation of a policy known as the "2020 Fix" which prevented Vermont employers from 60+% increases in their unemployment premiums and avoided having to repay more than 4 times as much that was spent during the process. We were very proud of that and were reminded of our hard work from our neighbors to the west. The state of New York has recently issued notices to employers because they did not have an unemployment trust fund as solvent as Vermont and had to borrow money from the Feds to make up their shortfall. Now those employers are required to refill their trust fund, pay back the loan and the notice issued recently also included a surcharge per employee to cover the interest payments on those loans.... We did good here in Vermont...
- Nationally our lobbying efforts have paid off we too with the creation of a trillion-dollar infrastructure and jobs act and other COVID recovery funding. Most recently our lobbying teams in Washington DC have delivered yet another win in the form of another $4.75 billion supplemental payment to fund multimodal transportation including roads, airports and rail. These funds will be distributed to states once the Senate finishes the package and will benefit contractors across the country.
- Locally we got some more good news that Governor Scotts administration was able to secure additional funding to the tune of $7 million that will go towards Buildings and General Services projects in Chittenden County. Another win!
We think its important to remind our membership that we have been very successful because of the relationships forged with our elected officials. Those relationships renew every two years as Vermonts General Assembly is up for a vote. This is one of those years. We have over 40 seats that have been vacated due to retirement or seeking higher offices and some motivated parties who would like to change long standing representation in multiple districts. Thats why your lobbying team is spending hours on the phone and in person meetings with candidates to see who will be contractor champions and who we would like to avoid.
We assist candidates in many ways including introducing them to members at events, we held a training session to teach new candidates how to campaign and we also run a political action committee call Politically Active Contractors. This political action committee helps fund candidates that will help us run their campaign, and as important helps us preserve partner incumbents who we would like to continue to work with. We have had many members already reach out to contribute and we need more. We will be reaching out in the coming weeks to ask if you can help us with our mission and we thank you in advance for working with us. If you have any questions or would like to be more involved with the lobbying team please reach out to me at matt@agcvt.org.
