Dear Constituents -

The week of April 1 in the Statehouse was much quieter now that the crossover deadline has passed. Both the annual budget and biennial capital budget passed.

The biggest news not worth celebrating is that the House Education Committee passed out the “Education Transformation Bill” (H.955) on Thursday that isn’t a transformation at all. The bill tasks school districts, with the guidance of paid facilitators, to look at how to combine services within Cooperative Education Service Areas. A great idea, but we already enacted legislation allowing school districts to do that! At the moment, there are far too many unknowns to be enthusiastic about this bill, the voluntary implementation deadlines stretch too far in the future to provide any real relief to struggling taxpayers, and there are too many steps between now and “transformation”, whatever your district votes that it should look like. VT is not much farther ahead than a year ago…

The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee began to take testimony on bills from our Senate counterparts: S.232 (relating to public Libraries and the Dept of Libraries); S.298 (VT Voting Rights Act); S.255 (establishing a pilot Law Enforcement Governance Council in Windham County); S.206 (licensure of Early Childhood Educators).

The Rural Caucus held its previously postponed Rural Listening Session on Wednesday evening.  We heard from 45 Rural Vermonters in-person or online and nearly 30 others provided written testimony. To learn more about the Rural Caucus, visit https://www.vtruralcaucus.com/

Because of the importance and sheer number of individuals who have spoken out on the impact of Act 181, the following is a brief explanation of one troubling provision of that law, and a link to provide public comment on future guidance:

Act 181 of 2024 created a new jurisdictional trigger for Act 250. Beginning July 1, 2026 “the construction of a road or roads and any associated driveways” will trigger the need for an Act 250 permit with few exceptions, when the length of any single road is greater than 800 feet, or the length of all roads and any associated driveways in combination is greater than 2,000 feet. See 10 V.S.A. §6001(3)(A)(xii). Exceptions are provided for municipal, state, utility, farm, and forestry roads and driveways.

 Act 181 also provides that the Land Use Review Board (“Board”) may adopt rules to help guide implementation. The Board has requested that the Legislature delay the effective date to allow for the public outreach and consultation required by rule making. Given the uncertainty of whether or not this delay will be granted and the upcoming July 1st effective date, the Board is working instead to develop guidance. Guidance under development is intended to help clarify exemptions, define what qualifies as pre-existing road, and give definition to the difference between a road and a driveway.

 Draft Road Construction Jurisdiction Guidance is now available here: https://act250.vermont.gov/document/road-construction-jurisdiction-guidance-draft-3-25-26 The Land Use Review Board is holding a 30-day public comment period from March 30 through April 30, 2026 on the draft Road Construction Jurisdiction Guidance document:   Comments may be submitted via email to:  [email protected] 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve Franklin-5.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Berkshire