Dear Constituents –

Rural Vermont is certainly in the spotlight! This week in the Statehouse, the buzz was all about rural capacity and how we can put human capital to work to ensure in an efficient and effective way to make sure the remaining federal funds reach the neediest of communities in a timely manner before the rapidly approaching deadline of Dec 2026. The work of many folks on the VT Rural Caucus and  around the Statehouse has yielded a rural administrative capacity bill that should be introduced next week, as well as a comprehensive rural omnibus bill dealing with many issues particular to rural life that is in the works. Through collaborative, tri-partisan efforts, these bills and others like them seek to highlight the plight of many rural towns with respect to overwhelming public safety, infrastructure, and housing needs. All of the bills being introduced have a long road ahead of them as they move through the committee process, but I am encouraged to see so many legislators and advocates willing to work together for the common good of their collective communities.

In committee, several new bills were introduced by their sponsors, including one to return to mailing out general election ballots only to those voters who request them (H.23), sponsored by Rep Larry Labor. The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee received a Pensions 101 briefing by the Joint Fiscal Office, a subject area new to several of us, and an introduction to the operations of the Department of Liquor and Lottery and the Agency of Digital Services, new to our committee jurisdiction, the Department of Public Safety,  the Vermont Judiciary, and the Cannabis Control Board, all within our purview.

The House Floor was relatively quiet, with the introduction of new bills being referred to committees of jurisdiction, such as H.66 Paid Family Leave, H.68 a housing bill that I signed onto, and H.77 a bill establishing a Physical Therapy Interstate Compact, to name a few. We voted to pass H.48 an update to an act relating to diversion and expungement and H.1 an act relating to legislative oversight for case management for individuals with developmental disabilities. As a reminder, all bills can be entered by number into the legislative bill tracker tool on the Vermont General Assembly website if you are interested in following their progress.

Friday marked the Governor’s Budget Address and continued to highlight the needs that rural communities are facing. Much of what is proposed uses one-time surpluses for seed money to make investments in key economic drivers.  You can access the text of the Governor’s speech in multiple media outlets, and I encourage you to read about these investments in roads, water projects, working lands, brownfields, clean energy, health care and dental care stabilization, substance use prevention, mental health services, fair and impartial policing, housing, homelessness prevention, childcare access, trades training, the Vermont State College System, internships, scholarships for critical occupations, and more.

 The takeaway for all of us, elected officials and citizens, is what does this budget mean for your family and your town?

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

Stay well,

Rep Lisa A Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

This was the first full week in the Statehouse for legislators, and the pace was brisk! On Monday, UVM Legislative Interns joined their mentors for an introductory lunch and to complete their safety and administrative briefings. 

House Floor sessions were brief, mainly for the introduction of bills, several of which have been referred to my Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs, including bills that seek to do the following: amend the definitions of “cider” and “hard cider”(H.7),  modify the reapportionment process (H.20), dissolve the Colchester Fire Dept No.3 (H.46), establish a statewide retirement system for voluntary firefighters (H.49), and establish creditable service for Temporary State employment (H.52). Please recall that any member may introduce bills on behalf of constituents and advocacy organizations, but House leadership determines which bills “come off the wall” and are actually taken up.

The bulk of Committee time this week was devoted to bringing members up to speed on various organizations that will interact within our jurisdiction: State Human Resources,  union groups, Association of Municipal Clerks, Vermont League of Cities and Towns, Regional Planning and/or Development Corporations, and the Vermont National Guard, to name several.

Our committee took up one bill this week, H.42, an act relating to temporary alternative procedures for annual municipal meetings and electronic meetings of public bodies. This bill seeks to extend pandemic provisions for municipal bodies to continue to offer the option to meet remotely if desired, which are set to expire on January 15, 2023.  The impetus for this extension came from town clerks across the State who have found this to be a good option to allow for more individuals to access public meetings. The current iteration of the bill extends this provision out to July 1, 2024, and contains the same guidelines around public access that ACT 157 of 2022 set forth. This bill then went on to House Ways and Means for further refinement.

The Rural Caucus, of which I am a Co-Chair, met this week and offered overwhelming support for the Governor’s inclusion in the Budget Adjustment Act a line item for $3M to support rural communities with respect to accessing and utilizing ARPA funding and other State and Federal grant programs over the course of the next three years.

The VT National Guard & Military Affairs Caucus, of which I am also a Co-Chair, met this week and heard presentations from: the VT Director of the US Selective Service, who highlighted a relatively poor compliance rate for men aged 18-26 in Vermont compared to other states and the lack of individuals willing to serve on regional boards that hear conscientious objector cases, the downfall for failing to register for Federally mandated Selective Service is not only a violation of Federal law carrying a fine and a jail sentence, but also the lifetime exclusion from being considered for all Federal jobs, such as with Homeland Security and the Veterans Administration; the VT National Guard on the new national Integrative Primary Prevention Program (IPPP) in each state that will focus on the prevention of assault, harassment, substance misuse, and suicide; the Adjutant General also provided an update on the Provost Marshal position transitioning to full-time, and the efforts of the VT Guard to recruit New Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents into service.

Lastly, the first Franklin County Legislative Breakfast will be held on Monday, January 23 8-9:30am in the Richford Town Hall. Please consider joining local legislators to discuss what is important to you.

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

Stay well,

Rep Lisa A Hango, Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

The first week of the 2023-24 Legislative biennium is behind us, and it was a busy one in Montpelier! This personally was my first time experiencing the pomp and circumstance of the swearing in of Constitutional officers and the entire General Assembly in person, having been appointed after the fact four years ago and legislating remotely two years ago. It was a momentous occasion, and I am honored to have been a part of it.

For those of you who have followed Statehouse goings-on in the past, you will find that much has changed this year: committee room locations are moved, jurisdiction of committees has evolved (as an example, there is no House Natural Resources, Fish & Wildlife Committee; these policy areas have been rolled into other committees), and members have their legislative lounge workspace back after three years of pandemic relocation to empty committee rooms. Many of us were assigned to new committees based on these changes and the need to balance the number of new members with returning members on each committee. My new committee assignment is House Government Operations & Military Affairs, which reflects its new policy jurisdiction to include Military Affairs and the Department of Liquor and Lottery.  The General Assembly website lists all standing committees, a description of their areas of jurisdiction, and their membership. You can find email addresses for all members on this site, as well.

Government Operations & Military Affairs (Gov Ops & MA) is chaired by Franklin County delegate Rep Mike McCarthy and vice chaired by Rep Matt Birong – Vergennes.  I have worked closely with Rep Birong on our previous committee, and he is one of my co-chairs on the tri-partisan VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs Caucus, and I am pleased to be able to work with him and Rep McCarthy on our new committee.  We have not begun our committee work, but I know we have a full slate of hearings scheduled for next week. You can find Committee agendas on the General Assembly webpage for each committee, which will give you information on hearing times, witnesses, and upcoming committee votes, as well as supporting documents concerning the topics at hand.  All committee hearings are live-streamed from the General Assembly website, and you can find those recordings on YouTube for review at a later time.

On the House Floor, we had several trainings and Joint Sessions with the Senate to prepare us for our work this biennium, mostly dealing with House Rules and procedural measures. Twenty bills were introduced and referred to committees. If you recall from my bill explanations in prior years, a bill will now be “on the wall” in a committee until House leadership determines that it should be taken off the wall for discussion and testimony.

To support my Republican Caucus, I applied for and was granted two UVM Legislative Interns who receive 5 credit hours for completing coursework and a 200-hour internship with a Legislator. The interns will be participating both in-person and remotely by attending committee hearings, doing research, and submitting reports to the Caucus.

In addition to co-chairing the VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs Caucus with Rep Birong (D) and Rep Laura Sibilia (I- Dover), I was elected to co-chair the VT Rural Caucus with Rep Sibilia and Rep Katherine Sims (D-Craftsbury). Our caucus has over fifty members and takes up any issue that affects rural Vermonters. If there is something you feel is important to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]

Thank you again for the honor of your support and the opportunity to represent you in the Vermont General Assembly.

Stay well – Rep Lisa A Hango, Franklin-5

To Franklin-5 voters and supporters –

Thank you for the opportunity to represent you again in the Legislature and to all who supported my campaign - with lawn signs, donations, and kind words. I look forward to working with my colleagues to balance the needs of the State with available resources through a reasonable, meaningful, and thoughtful process. Please feel welcome to reach out to me at [email protected] with your questions and concerns.   It is an honor to represent the people of Highgate, Franklin, Berkshire, and Richford in the Vermont Statehouse.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa A Hango

ANSWER: Although I am running unopposed in this election, I want to take this opportunity to renew my commitment to my constituents and thank you for your support. In times like we have been experiencing over the past few years, I feel that it is important to have continuity and understanding of the issues, and I am grateful to be able to serve in that way.  I am always available to constituents by phone and email, [email protected], and I strive to answer every message; if I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does to connect you with. The most rewarding part of legislating is helping people, and it is gratifying to assist constituents with their requests. During the off-season, I attend School Board and Selectboard meetings, community forums, and other events to learn learn more about my constituents’ needs and to network with advocates so I can formulate my policy decisions in an informed way. I also serve on local boards and advisory councils, which keep the issues at the forefront for me. I take my commitment to voting according to my constituents’ best interests very seriously, and I appreciate the emails and phone calls I receive that help to guide my work. My goal is to be reasonable, reliable, and understanding of what Vermonters need, and I am honored to represent you in the Vermont Statehouse.

With a supermajority (not quite a veto proof majority) democrats and progressives have had their hands full trying to overturn these vetos, many coming down to just a vote or two in the legislature. That makes each and every seat (especially in the house) a powerful one. 

It is highly likely that Governor Phil Scott will get reelected with his high job approval ratings, so If you are elected, and these bills (or versions similar) come back up into the legislature, would you support the initiatives these bills work to accomplish, why or why not?

ANSWER: As a sitting legislator who had the opportunity to weigh in on supporting Governor Scott’s vetoes, I will continue to uphold those positions if re-elected. Most vetoes were borne out of the need for a common-sense approach to legislation because the bills as written went too far and represented unwarranted government overreach. With one exception - the state employees pension bill - I supported all of the Governor’s vetoes, and we worked very hard to bring awareness to voters about those issues. If these initiatives are brought back in the new biennium, it is my hope that with new members taking their seats, there will be better collaboration across the aisle on issues that affect all Vermonters. 

QUESTION: As a legislator, you would be intimately involved with deciding how Vermont spends hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time federal relief money. How would you like to see one-time federal money used to best benefit Vermonters?

ANSWER: The legislature has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in housing assistance, childcare subsidies, and other essential services; now is the time to address crumbling infrastructure issues: long-delayed upgrades to roads, bridges, water, sewer, cell and broadband systems. These are also essential investments, without which we cannot expect to grow our economy, attract new businesses, or provide adequate housing for Vermonters. Municipalities are charged with outreach and research to determine how best to spend their allotted funding, and I encourage every citizen to have a say in how their town or city utilizes this one-time money. 

QUESTION: Many starting wages are already well above Vermont's minimum wage. Is this an indication that Vermont needs to readdress what the minimum wage is, or an indication that the minimum wage is currently not needed? What changes, if any, would you like to see made to Vermont's minimum wage law?

ANSWER: Vermont recently passed fair minimum wage adjustment legislation. At the time, we could not have anticipated the wage pressure that happened during the pandemic and subsequent “great resignation”, when we lost thousands of employees from critical sectors of the workforce. I believe that we should postpone any further legislation until we know what the economic fallout of inflation and recession and its impact on businesses will be. 

QUESTION: Updating Vermont's land use law, better known as Act 250, has become a perennial topic in Vermont politics. What changes would you like to see to that law (if any), and what would you do to ensure those changes are enacted?

ANSWER: Act 250 needs to be updated to reflect the need for more housing that is affordable and accessible. I have consistently advocated, and voted, for changes to relax restrictions on planned, thoughtful development. Anecdotally, potential homeowners in Franklin County have waited up to a year to have their permits approved, commercial builders have waited over 18 months, and permitting fees can be out of reach for many smaller businesses and individuals. This is unacceptable when we are in the midst of a nationwide housing crisis and are trying to attract new employers to Vermont. Reasonable climate mitigation and conservation efforts can, and should, be part of any development plan, but the current regulations go far beyond the balance of what is necessary and affordable yet protective of land and wildlife.