Dear Constituents –

The highlight of this week’s House action is the passage of language that provides a graduated exemption for military retirement pensions and survivors benefits from State income tax and several additional civilian tax credits, as well as an additional tax credit for Veterans who have served less than 20 years. Readers will recall that a “military retiree” who earns a pension has served 20+ years, and a “survivor” receiving benefits is the recipient of a pension plan for which they are the designated beneficiary. “Veterans” are service members who have served any length of time. The bill has now passed to the Senate and still has a long way to go before it is finalized, but this is the best progress that the language has made in the two decades since it was first introduced.

In the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee, we continued to take testimony on S.59 (amendments to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law) and S.23 (use of synthetic media in elections), and we took another look at H.472 (professions and occupations regulated by the Office of Professional Regulation) as it is coming back from the Senate in the context of learning about language from S.119 (licensure of early childhood educators), which we do not have possession of but may see within the H.472 language.  We also did a “drive by” and straw poll of of a House Human Services bill, S.53 (certification of community-based perinatal doulas and Medicaid coverage for doula services) because the Office of Professional Regulation is within our committee jurisdiction. This is the season for the annual jockeying of language from one vehicle to another in hopes of ensuring its passage! Lastly this week, we took up a new bill referred to us by the Senate, S.131 (approval of an amendment to the Charter of the City of Burlington relating to the possession of firearms). There is much to unpack about this bill, and it will certainly take considerable committee time to hear from all of the witnesses who would be needed to testify on it; the same can be said for the aforementioned S.119.

On the House floor, we passed several bills back to the Senate: S.87 (extradition procedures); S.44 (authority to enter into certain immigration agreements), which gives the Governor the sole authority to sign those agreements; H.248 (supplemental programs and Child Care Financial Assistance Program), to which an amendment was defeated that would have put all private pre-K within the budget of the Department of Children and Families; H.230 (management of fish and wildlife); H.137 (regulation of insurance products and services); S.117 (rulemaking on safety and health standards and technical corrections on employment practices and unemployment compensation);

The Rural Caucus met and learned more about S.127 (housing and housing development), specifically regarding the CHIPs (project-based TIFs) program, and we heard from the newly created Land Use Review Board (formerly the Natural Resources Board), which administers Act 250, the Vermont Association of Planners and Developers, and members of Let’s Build Homes, a new coalition of interested individuals advocating for smart growth and creation of new housing of all types. The discussion provided more details on when to expect new mapping for land use Tiers to take place, and how those new maps will be used to determine eligibility for development. The concern of the Rural Caucus is that rural communities don’t get left out of the eligibility criteria.

It is an honor to serve you in the Vermont Legislature. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5