Dear Constituents –

The Vermont General Assembly, although not officially adjourned, has taken a break. The House will hold token sessions until June 16, joining our Senate colleagues to leave the H.454 Education Committee of Conference to work to put together an Education Transformation Plan that addresses our communities’ diverse needs and challenges. There will be more to come on this during our “veto session” later in the month.

Notable on passage: the S.127 Committee of Conference report on housing and housing development contains many of the asks that the Rural Caucus put forward in a failed amendment a week ago.  The Community Housing Infrastructure Program (CHIP) in this bill has been described as the most impactful development tool that passed in recent Vermont history. The S.51 Committee of Conference report mirrors a bill passed by the House on May 7 that offers tax credits for Vermont households, and military retirees, survivors and veterans. The military language in particular has been submitted for 19 years by Reps Canfield of Fair Haven and Morrissey of Bennington and has finally advanced to the Governor’s desk, which is an admirable effort by those long-time legislators. While not the 100% income tax exemption that many had hoped for, this is a big step forward for Vermont military retirees and veterans and brings us closer to what is offered by surrounding states.

Please reach out at [email protected] with questions and concerns.  It is an honor to serve.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

Reporting from the Statehouse this week is a mixed bag: bills were brought to the floor for a vote and then pulled back, amendments were proposed and withdrawn, bills were recommitted to committee for lack of party support.  It finally feels like the end of a session is upon us… (stay tuned because the rumor is that at the tune of $60,000/day, we will be asked to stay even longer…)

The press and advocacy organizations have kept the public well-informed on the various versions of the Education Transformation bill (H.454) as it makes its way to the Senate.  As of Thursday, the current version was essentially thrown out on the Senate floor due to lack of support. What happens next is anyone’s guess (hence the need to keep legislators at the Statehouse on the taxpayers’ dime, long past the date that we are dismissed in an election year when majority party leaders are anxious to begin campaigning).

We have also heard a lot about the many amendments to this year’s housing bill (S.127). It began as an infrastructure financing/housing bill allowing for a new type of project-based TIFs (called CHIP) for rural areas and evolved into a bill with so many guardrails that no development will be feasible; it was voted out 100-36. Members of the Rural Caucus came back with our own amendment to counteract the damage, which had tripartisan support, but there was so much lobbying and coercing of new members by the majority party that they had to postpone the bill, and when we took it up again, many supporters had flipped their votes, so the amendment failed. Three controversial healthcare bills, H.126, H.266, and H.482, which could be harmful to our community hospitals passed on the House Floor despite opposition from your local delegation.

Again I want to reiterate that the number and speed of bills passing back and forth between chambers at this time of year makes it impossible to report in a timely manner. Readers should continue to reach out to their legislators for real-time updates on any legislation that is of importance or to look them up by number on the General Assembly bill tracker at legislature.vermont.gov. I can be contacted at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

The Legislative session is winding down with the passage of the Big Bill (the State budget) and other money bills (Capital Bill, Transportation Bill, Yield Bill) in motion. This year, the Committee of Conference on the Budget (H.493) had a heavy lift to bring down much higher spending proposals than both the House and the Senate had voted out over the Governor’s recommended budget. This is the time of year when bills are being passed between chambers fast and furiously, so in the spirit of being timely and concise, if you are interested in which bills have passed the House and/or the Senate, you may find them on the General Assembly website (www.legislature.vermont.gov), click on “More House Information” or “More Senate Information”, and then on “All House Journals” or “All Senate Journals”, which will report on all bills in motion on that day. Additionally, if the reader knows the bill number, all action on that bill is found by typing the bill number into the bill tracker field.

In House Government Operations & Military Affairs, we finalized our work on S.59 (changes to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law) by making several adjustments to language requested by municipalities and other organizations, including more clarity around disturbances at public meetings. We also began our work on a biennial reports repeal bill, which has us looking at all of the reports required by legislation and determining if those reports are being received by Committees of jurisdiction and if they are useful. We are also commencing what is anticipated to be extensive testimony on S.131 (approval of an amendment to the charter of the City of Burlington relating to the possession of firearms); and H.508 (approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Burlington), which changes how and when the City redistricts wards and notices of termination of residential tenancies.

Rural Caucus met to hear updates from the Senate about the Education bill (H.454) and from the Ways & Means committee on their amendment to the Housing bill (S.127), both of which contain problematic language for rural communities. More work is being done on both of these bills, and I hope to be able to report on progress next week.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

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

Dear Constituents –

The Legislature continues to move towards the end of session. By now, the pace should be at a frenzy, but we seem to be in the lull before the storm.

In Government Operations, we picked up our work on S.59 (amendments to Open Meeting Law), S.56 (Office of New Americans); S.233 (State-funded grants); S.23 (use of synthetic media in elections); a couple of new charter changes: H.506 (Town of Charlotte) and H.508 (City of Burlington); and H.153 (expanding family access to certified copies of birth and death certificates).

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs and the Senate Committee on Government Operations held a joint public hearing on Veterans Affairs. While only a small number of veterans signed up to speak, we have heard from others in writing about their concerns and plan to circulate a survey in the coming weeks to better understand the challenges faced by those who served.

On that topic, House Ways & Means passed out a favorable version of the military pension and survivors’ benefits tax exemption in a more comprehensive tax credit bill (S.51) that also includes a tax credit for low-income veterans. This bill will come to the House Floor next week, and I expect it to receive widespread support.

On the House Floor, we passed the following legislation to the Senate: H.364 (approval of the annexation of property by the Village of Swanton); S.36 (Medicaid payment model for residential substance use disorder treatment services); S.50 (increasing size of solar net metering projects that qualify for expedited registration); H.13 (Medicaid payment rates for home- and community-based service providers; H.206 (uniform commercial code); H.398 (Vermont Economic Development Authority); H.463 (Technical Corrections); H.218 (Opioid Abatement Special Fund); H.96 (increasing the monetary thresholds for Certificates of Need); and S.27 (medical debt relief and excluding medical debt from credit reports). To remind readers, at this time of year, if the House is passing an “H” bill, it means that the Senate has sent it back to us with an amendment, and if we are passing an “S” bill, we are sending it back to the Senate either with our approval or with further amendment. We also addressed JRS 15 (Joint Resolution supporting Vermont’s transgender and non-binary community and declaring Vermont’s commitment to fighting discrimination and treating all citizens with respect and dignity), which was brought to us by the Senate, and PR 3 (Declaration of Rights; Right to Collectively Bargain). It is of importance to note that PR 3 is a Constitutional Amendment and must pass through the Senate and the House in two successive bienniums and will be brought to the voters in a subsequent general election. The roll call vote in the House was 125-15. The language of this Amendment can be found on the General Assembly website, and it is worth noting that it includes a clause that would require an employee to join a union, if one exists, at their workplace as a condition of employment; it is for this reason that I voted no on this Amendment, despite supporting the premise on which unions were first established, their historical impact, and current union activity. We also moved to establish Committees of Conference on H.493 (Budget Big Bill) and H.488 (Transportation Bill). This is a good sign, as it typically signals that the end of session is coming. However, this year, because the Education Transformation Bill (H.454) is moving so slowly, we have been told that the session will go through the month of May.

The Rural Caucus this week learned more about the Housing Bill (S.127) that is making its way through the committee process and USDA federal funding cuts affecting local farm and food security programs and agencies.

It is an honor to serve your interests in the Statehouse. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee started the week with a Senate amendment to H.10 (charter of the City of Barre), hearing testimony on H.376 (creation of the Treatment and Recovery Fund and the labeling and taxation of alcoholic beverages), more proposed amendment language for S. 59 (changes to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law), S.233 (State-funded grants), H.505 (approval of amendments to the charter of the Town of Barre), H.504 (approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Rutland), S.56 (creating an Office of New Americans), learning about the potential effects of federal directives regarding elections, and hearing from the Vermont State Youth Council with their legislative priorities.

On April 30 at 4pm, our committee will be holding a joint public hearing on Veterans Affairs. If readers would like to testify, please use this Online form: https://legislature.vermont.gov/links/joint-public-hearing-on-veterans-affairs

Some of what we do in the Legislature is like a treasure hunt: at this time of year, especially, language from one bill may get rolled into another bill, or language will disappear entirely, so I spent time this week pursuing where military pension and survivors’ benefits language is moving by scouring various committee agendas, trying to track down which bill it might put into. I’ve also been following S.127 (housing and housing development) to learn the potential implications of Act 250 mapping changes and language to permanently extend National Guard tuition benefits, which are some of the best in the nation.

On the House Floor, we passed: S.27 (medical debt relief and excluding medical debt from credit reports), concurring to the Senate amendment to H.10 (Barre City charter), S.36 (Medicaid payment model for residential substance use disorder treatment services), and a bill that I presented on the floor H.346 (approval of annexation of property by the Village of Swanton).

The Rural Caucus met and heard an update from the Regional Planning Commissions on mapping and budgeting, with an emphasis on FEMA projects and a presentation on brownfields.

It is an honor to serve. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

This week began with the final Legislative Breakfast of the session for Franklin Co legislators and our constituents. Along with members of the public, we welcomed students from Richford High School who engaged with us on topics of importance to them, such as forgivable student loans and nicotine use.

In the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee, we attended a bill signing in Governor Scott’s Ceremonial Office for H.154 (designating November as the Vermont Month of the Veteran). The office was packed with press, veterans groups, and legislators for this occasion. It was an especially significant event for the Committee, as we had passed this bill last biennium, only to see it languish on our Senate sister committee’s wall when the majority wasn’t interested in taking it up. We greatly appreciate the makeup of this session’s Senate Gov Ops Committee and their willingness to move this forward. Although this is a small gesture recognizing Vermont’s veterans, the signing was done with a sense of pride and honor.

In other Committee business, we continued to work on H.72 (municipal ordinances governing nuisance properties containing salvage and scrap); H. 109 (municipal ordinances governing maintenance of properties within designated downtown districts); S.23 (use of synthetic media in elections); H.23 (requirements for State-funded grants); a group of municipal charters: H.506 (Charlotte); H. 505 (Barre Town); H.504 (Rutland City); and we successfully passed out H.364 (approval of the annexation of property by the Village of Swanton), which will go on to House Ways & Means.

On the House floor, the following bills passed: S.18 (licensure of free-standing birth centers) and S.28 (access to certain legally protected health care services); another bill S.27 (medical debt relief and excluding medical debt from credit reports) was on the calendar for action as of this writing.

In the Rural Caucus, we heard from entities representing rural healthcare interests, including the New England Rural Health Association and an interesting presentation on the community paramedicine model, which is being used in the Brattleboro area.  Paramedics go through a special certification program in conjunction with Brattleboro Memorial Hospital that allows them to make house calls to individuals with COPD, congestive heart failure, and other conditions that might otherwise bring them into the Emergency Dept. This preventative model is being used across the country in rural areas to supplement primary care practices and to avoid costly trips to the ED.

It is an honor to be a part of this process and to represent my district and Franklin Co in the Statehouse. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango

Dear Constituents -

The majority of time this week in Statehouse committees was spent continuing to hear testimony on bills: S.56 (creating an Office of New Americans); S.59 (amendments to Vermont’s Open Meeting law); H.233 (requirements for State-funded grants); H.23 (use of synthetic media in elections); H.364 (approval of the annexation of property by the Village of Swanton); and H.501 (deadline for public bodies to respond to alleged open meeting law violation). The Committee also heard an update on the operations of the Vermont Veterans Home, the only such residence and skilled nursing facility for veterans, their spouses, and Gold-star families in Vermont.

Action on the House Floor included passing the following bills: S.30 (updating and reorganizing the health insurance statutes in 8 VSA chapter 107); H.91 (Emergency Temporary Shelter Program); S.9 (after-hours access to orders against sexual assault); HR6 (amending House Rules to the House Ethics Panel); S.3 (transfer of property to a trust); H.293 (health equity data reporting and registry disclosure requirements); and H.454 (transforming Vermont’s education governance, quality, and finance systems). This latter bill, the “Education Transformation Bill”, took up much of our time on the Floor.  The original language of the bill, recommended by the Governor, was stripped by the House Education Committee, which proceeded to insert their own language pertaining to an extended timeline and a study committee that would be a subset of the recently concluded Commission on the Future of Public Education to further kick this can down the road; it was voted out of committee on a 7-4 vote along party lines. The House Committee on Ways & Means subsequently added their own language to this bill, encompassing changes to the property valuation system and classification of properties for tax purposes; this was also voted out of Committee 7-4, on party lines.  The House Appropriations Committee was the final stop on the way to the Floor for this bill, again being voted out 7-4 on party lines. On Thursday, the House held a Caucus of the Whole on the subject of this bill and the language contained therein. Suffice it to say that even after this presentation, there were many questions remaining. There were five proposed amendments to the bill and extended debate on the final day on the Floor alone. The bill that passed to the Senate is one that needs much more work; its current form was only released one week ago, and there were many questions left unanswered. The vote was 87-55, with several members voting yes merely to advance the bill to the Senate. Additionally, an amendment was proposed to align the effective dates with the intent sections, and that was voted down on the House Floor, which seems counter-intuitive to me. Typically, when a large bill like this passes to the Senate, it marks the mid-point of the session; the Ed bill was granted a reprieve from that crossover deadline, but that doesn’t bode well for the adjournment date this session. If this truly is the mid-point for Education Transformation, we will remain in session longer than necessary or be called back for further work later in the year.

On Tuesday, the VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs Caucus met to discuss various bills that are moving or on the walls in Committees, including the perennial military pension and survivors’ benefits state income tax exemption.  Readers may recall that a few weeks ago, a favorable tax credit bill was passed from the House Ways & Means Committee to the House Floor, but as an amendment containing the military tax exemption language was offered, the bill was pulled back into Committee, and there it languishes.  This was an affront to all military retirees and their survivors, as Vermont remains the State in the nation that has the most unfriendly tax policy for military members and their families. The reason for that move by the majority party was that other public servants deserve the same tax credits; in a perfect world, all of these folks whose careers are dedicated to keeping us safe are deserving of everything their State can do to honor them.  What they fail to recognize is that when someone signs up for the military, “they lose their freedom to serve to protect our freedom” (unknown author); they cannot merely walk away from their jobs and must serve their country for the duration of their contracts. Their service is truly unique.

On Wednesday at the Rural Caucus meeting, the Vermont Council on Rural Development presented on the work that they have done to assist a number of communities around the State with their next steps when their local schools have closed. They plan to continue to engage with members of this Caucus with case studies and offering services.

It is an honor to serve. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

This week began with the Franklin Co delegation meeting with Northwestern Medical Center officials to understand their prospective on the bills and policies being circulated throughout the Legislature.

At the Statehouse, House Government Operations & Military Affairs continued our work taking testimony on the following bills: H.233 (requirements for state-funded grants); amendments to H.397 (miscellaneous amendments to the statutes governing emergency management and flood response); an amendment to H.244 (State contracting standards for advertising); H.404 (authority over highways of Old Bennington); S.59 (amendments to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law); S.56 (creating an Office of New Americans); and S.23 (use of synthetic media in elections). These are bills that we will continue to take testimony on next week.  The Committee also heard a presentation on municipal charters and will be learning more about Veterans services being offered in the State and how those are funded.

On the House Floor, bills of note were: S.9 (after-hours access to orders against sexual assault); H.91 (the Emergency Temporary Shelter Program). This bill marked the start of the House Human Services Committee’s response to the situation we find ourselves in of dependence on the hotel-motel program. There are a number of good initiatives in the bill, but the price tag and uncertainty of a funding source proved to be too much for me to vote affirmatively.

The Rural Caucus continued the dive into education policy, hearing from the Senate on their district mapping work and a very interesting presentation by the Chancellor of the Vermont State College System on their vision for the future of the University.

On Friday, I attended a Rural conference with workshops on Rural Transit, Housing, Healthcare, and resilience in rural communities.

It is an honor to represent my communities, and I welcome your questions and concerns at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

The news from the Statehouse this week is that crossover is finally behind us! The Budget “Big Bill” (H.493) has passed to the Senate, along with most of the bills that committees worked on in the first half of the biennium.

Committees devoted this week to hearing a few bill introductions from the Senate and amendments to bills that they were presenting for votes on the House Floor. The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee heard amendments to H.474 (miscellaneous changes to elections law) and H.397 (miscellaneous amendments to the statutes governing emergency management and floor response). The bills that subsequently passed to the Senate were stronger for the process, and I appreciate the opportunity for another 139 members (my committee has 11 members) to lay eyes on a bill and offer changes that work for all Vermonters. Members often bemoan the fact that some bills leave committee without being properly vetted, but a legislative committee consists of 5 to11 individuals, and sometimes that offers only a narrow view of the subject matter; once a bill is on the Notice Calendar, many more members “take notice” and read the bill as it came out of committee (which often is drastically different than how it was introduced).  A one-day Notice Calendar gives everyone an equal opportunity to read a bill and formulate questions and suggestions, which could be asked during Floor debate or offered as amendments to the committee.

We also heard an introduction of H.404 (authority over the highways of the Village of Old Bennington), S.59 (amendments to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law), and S.23 (use of synthetic media in elections), otherwise known as “deep fakes”.

The order of business on the House Floor was passing crossover bills to the Senate, a Caucus of the Whole to hear the Budget explanation, and introductions of special constituents, including a representative from Taiwan, a valued trade partner with the US and Vermont. I had the pleasure of introducing representatives from the VT Association of Athletic Trainers and UVM Athletic Medicine, a special interest of mine.  Many of you have heard me speak about the importance of these primary medical providers and the role that they play in schools, clinics, hospital, workplace, and military settings.

At Rural Caucus, the Chair of House Education presented the work that they have done this session on the Education Transformation Plan.  Regretfully, it appears that they will be punting much of this work to a subcommittee to work on in the off-session.  This is a huge disappointment to me, as I was hopeful that by this time in the session, we would have had a plan that the House would have been in agreement on.  My committee was poised to do the work on drawing districts and setting school board elections policy, but that did not come to pass.

The Ways & Means Committee passed out the Yield Bill, which is crucial to setting tax rates. They elected to use $77M proposed by the Governor to buy down this year’s rates, and while a relief to taxpayers, I have serious concerns about the tax cliff we face next year since the work of the Transformation was not advanced this session.

As always, it is an honor to represent my constituents in the Statehouse, and I welcome questions and concerns at [email protected].

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5