AGCVT Weekly Legislative Wrap - Week 16
There’s less than one month to go before the anticipated end of the legislative session – and if last week at the Statehouse was any indication, it’s not only heating up outside.
The Senate held a number of key votes last week on the (which contains key investments in state construction projects and faces a second Senate vote next week), as well as the Senate’s latest drafts of the state budget and transportation bill. For the latter two bills, the Senate did significant enough edits to the House’s work that members from both chambers will head into conference committees next week to rectify their differences.
Ahead of the Senate’s vote to pass the T Bill, Sen. Richie Westman, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, made a compelling floor speech, in which he emphasized the long-term threat facing the T-Fund (about which I’ve written to you ad nauseum this year). Here’s an excerpt. You can watch the full thing here starting at the 10:15 mark.
“I need to set the stage on where I think we are in transportation, and I can't do that without telling you that there are dark clouds in our future. … This year is probably the last really good year before we – and excuse my pun – before we hit some really bumpy roads. We're literally approaching a point of no return for the transportation fund. The structural problems facing the T fund are real and literally, I can't see, without fundamental change, how we can build budgets going forward. … We do lose ground after this year if we don't do something – and I mean that in every level of this budget.”
This quote from Westman sums up this year’s T Bill succinctly: “We've done this with a balanced budget, with help from the general fund, but we can't keep this up forever.” So stay tuned; there’s more work yet to come in the years ahead.
On a less bleak note, our final Government Affairs Committee coffee hour with legislators last Wednesday morning went swimmingly. Our topic du jour was career and technical education and workforce development – one of the few issues everyone in Montpelier can seemingly get behind. We were joined by some really heavy hitters from the Statehouse: Lieutenant Governor John Rodgers, Commissioner of Labor Mike Harrington, Chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee Alison Clarkson, Chair of the House Commerce Committee Mike Marcotte, Vice Chair of the House Committee on General and Housing Ashley Bartley and Sen. Tom Chittenden, who serves on the Senate’s economic development and finance committees. Friend of AGC-VT Rep. Ken Goslant also sat with us, but he doesn’t really count. Our conversation ran the gamut, from how we can better equip our career and technical education centers with staff and resources, to recruiting students to the trades at earlier ages, to encouraging mid-career Vermonters to join – or remain in – the construction industry. Big thanks to the members who made the trek to Montpelier to join.
Also last week, the House’s General and Housing Committee advanced S.127, the likely vehicle bill for housing reforms this year. Most of the House’s recent work on the bill has been on sections establishing a new project-based TIF program, dubbed CHIP, which is designed to fund infrastructure needs for new housing projects, particularly outside of dense areas already eligible for TIF districts. The House’s proposed CHIP language establishes significantly more guardrails to the program, such as affordability and domicile requirements. The House General and Housing Committee advanced the whopping 70-page bill by a 10-1 vote Friday afternoon, and it now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee, where it surely awaits more changes next week.
Two final, rapid-fire updates for you:
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AGC-VT is pushing back against a section of a bill, H.181, which would reduce the state’s existing contractor registry requirements from $10,000 of work to $2,000. Notably, the primary sponsor of the bill said on the record during a hearing this week that the $2,000 trigger was picked “arbitrarily.” You can watch my testimony here. This bill did not meet the Legislature’s “crossover” deadline, so it’s unlikely to advance this year, but we're keeping a close eye on it.
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The Department of Public Safety testified to the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday afternoon on the issue of automated speed enforcement cameras in work zones. You can watch here. We can likely expect action on this issue from the committee next week.
Have a great week and keep in touch,
Sarah Mearhoff
Director of Advocacy and Communications
Associated General Contractors of Vermont
610-790-4992
