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Public Policy Positions



 State House Photo
 
 
The Associated General Contractors of Vermont will continue to support Vermont’s building trades by having a regular presence and involvement with the legislative process. The AGC/VT lobbying team has prepared for another session during the COVID-19 pandemic which will mean web conference committee meetings, challenging budgetary conversations, and additional engagement efforts with leaders.

  Regulatory 

  • Support development by exempting designated downtown areas from Act 250 and increase available downtown redevelopment tax credits
  • Oppose state action on any employee classification policies until USDOL has completed defining who should be considered an employee or independent contractor
  • Support enforcement of traffic laws within work zones by either adding uniformed officer enforcement to VTRANS contracts or employment of speed detecting license plate reading technology
  • Oppose required licensing or registration of commercial contractors  

 Financial 

  • Support a balanced state budget with no new taxes or fees that includes additional stimulus funding for VTRANS and BGS projects due to COVID-19
  • Oppose doubling of the dyed diesel tax to pay for home winterization
  • Oppose mandated employer funded vacation and family leave programs
  • Support reinstatement of association health insurance plans
  • Oppose unemployment insurance rate hikes without robust conversations about who is paying in and how to adjust due to the impacts of COVID-19
  • Support financial assistance with compliance with stormwater mitigation caused by the “3-acre rule” and faster clean water project deployment  

 Employment 

  • Support funding for programs like Vermont Technical College, Career Technical Schools, and other building trades workforce programs
  • Oppose requirements to disclose personal contact information from non-government organizations
  • Support changing the employee drug testing threshold from “probably cause” to “reasonable suspicion”
  • Oppose policies expanding both Vermont’s Prevailing Wage and Davis Bacon
  • Support Vermont continuing the tradition of “employment at will”
  • Support exempting military retirement from state income tax  

 AGC of America Priorities

AGC works with the Legislative Action Committee to set the legislative agenda every two years, to coincide with the start of each new congressional session.  Issues are added or removed from the legislative agenda based on three factors: the top issues of importance for a majority of AGC members, the timeliness of each individual issue and the achievability of success. Once the legislative agenda is set, AGC's government affairs subject matter experts create one-pagers to provide talking points for issues currently moving through the legislative or regulatory process. These one-pagers can be found by visiting www.agc.org/agcs-policy-priorities.  
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