Dear Constituents –

After months of discussion and debate, the General, Housing, and Military Affairs committee passed by a vote of 8-3-0 S.79, a comprehensive bill to improve rental housing health and safety.  There are pieces contained in this legislation to like – namely, clearer exemptions to the eviction moratorium that will help landlords in certain extenuating circumstances and incentives for property owners to rehabilitate vacant or blighted housing stock, as well as a program to encourage first-time home ownership. As with most legislation this session, there are also pieces that I could not support, and the negatives outweighed the positives this time. This legislation establishes up to 6.5 new positions in State government for the registration of all rental properties and the enforcement of inspections on those properties, along with the associated appropriation of State dollars and required fees to pay for this expansion of government. At a time when we are receiving unheard of amounts of money for economic relief, I find it particularly distasteful to further raise revenue by requiring increased fees from landlords and short-term rental owners. This bill has been sent on to House Ways and Means, as it affects the revenue of the State, and it should be up for a vote of the full House next week. The Senate must concur with the House before it can be sent on for the Governor’s consideration to be signed into law – the journey is not over yet!

At the end of the week, we discussed H.313 as it will be coming back from the Senate, which is our miscellaneous alcohol bill.  There will be more testimony about distribution of low-alcohol “canned cocktails” and also direct to consumer shipping of spirits next week.

On the House Floor, after considerable discourse, a bill to ban chemical PFOAs and PFAs in consumer products was passed unanimously, along with a few others that elicited little to no discussion. Several more bills were referred to money committees or back to the committees of jurisdiction that asked for more time to go over amendments proposed by the Senate.

This morning’s Tourism Caucus focused on relief funding for businesses, and what we as a Caucus could do to provide support for legislation that is being proposed, specifically for language in H.315 and H.159.

As we head into the final two weeks of the session, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with your concerns at [email protected] or www.hangoforhouse.com

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

This week the virtual Statehouse was crammed with testimony in Committee and debate on the Floor. The majority of the testimony in Committee continues to be on S.79 a rental housing health and safety bill. This bill was scheduled for a vote out of Committee today (Friday), but it had not yet been completed by the time we adjourned for the weekend, so we will continue to do mark-up on it and vote it out early next week. We continue to discuss the Eviction Moratorium, but to my dismay the advocates seem to be at an impasse as to a compromise on language to protect both tenants and landlords, and the Committee has taken no further action. Judging by the letters and phone calls I receive, the Legislature needs to take action immediately to exempt certain circumstances from the moratorium, and I have been advocating that position in my Committee for weeks now; I’ve been told that we will take that up next week, and I remain hopeful that we will.

On the House floor, numerous bills were passed, the longest debates being on S.66 an act relating to electric bicycles, S.86 pertaining to miscellaneous DMV subjects (particularly ATV/side-by-side helmet requirements and snowmobile noise), and H.361 amending the Charter of the Town of Brattleboro.  You may ask why we spent so much time at the State level debating a town charter, but this change was one of great impact – it opens the door for other municipalities to allow 16-and-17-yr-olds to vote in local elections, just like the recent change to the City of Winooski charter allows non-citizens to vote in those elections. This session has seen a series of small changes in statute that have the potential to become cumulative; nothing is decided upon in a vacuum, and I am concerned for the future direction of the State.

There was little time left for special caucus meetings, but I did attend a meeting of REDWnG for a presentation from the Vermont Council on Rural Development on their priorities and the Vermont Independent Restaurants Group in the Tourism Caucus.  If you are a restaurateur whose business has been affected by COVID, the new Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) will start accepting applications on May 3 and can be accessed at www.sba.gov/restaurants Or by calling 1-844-279-8898. It is important to note that this program prioritizes certain groups, such as minority business owners and women-owned businesses, but all may apply, and as there is less funding than the anticipated need, it is best to apply now.

Please feel free to reach out to me a www.hangoforhouse.com or [email protected]

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Dear Constituents-

The General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee spent this week primarily taking testimony on housing issues – S.79 Improving Rental Housing Health and Safety, H.232 Promoting Land and Home Ownership and Economic Opportunity, H.273 Promoting Racial and Social Equity in Land Access and Property Ownership, the effects of the eviction moratorium, and Ag worker housing in a joint hearing with the House Agriculture Committee.  We also took testimony on H.178 dealing with low-alcohol spirits and H.401 a tri-partisan bill Promoting Racial and Social Equity in Vermont.

On the House floor, we passed a literacy bill (S.114), a probation bill (S.45), a bill establishing the Office of the Child Advocate (H.265), a bill setting up a task force on public employees pension reform (H.449), and a miscellaneous Natural Resources subjects bill (H.446) that a group of legislators including myself tried unsuccessfully to amend (Rogers Amendment) in favor of our forest products industry.

The Older Vermonters Caucus heard from representatives of the Area Agencies on Aging and Meals on Wheels about the important work they have continued to do in innovative ways throughout this pandemic, and I applaud their efforts to help Vermonters live independently with dignity and serving the needs of those who care for them. The REDWnG rural working group discussed TIF and mini-TIF funding and how these programs are important tools in the toolkit for municipalities to fund projects. We also heard from the Commissioner of Forest, Parks, and Recreation about the needs of our forest products industry and the marketplace challenges that face them in light of the pandemic.

Lastly, the Tourism Caucus took up the issue of shuttered performance venues, and we heard compelling testimony from organizations such as Higher Ground, the Champlain Valley Exposition, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra as to how the pandemic has affected their revenues.

We have been told that the Legislative session has been extended to May 22 in order to pass bills, but I certainly hope we can adjourn before then – there is a great deal of non-essential legislation being worked on in committees that can wait until we are no longer legislating over Zoom in a State of Emergency.

You may reach me at [email protected] or www.hangoforhouse.com

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

This has been a long week in the virtual Statehouse – Floor time commanded most of our time, with days stretching long into the evening. In Committee, we continued to take testimony on S.79, a rental housing health and safety bill that proposes, among several other concepts, to implement two rental housing registries – for both long-term and short-term rentals.  We also received the statutorily mandatory Annual Sexual Harassment and Assault Report to the Legislature from the National Guard.  In the National Guard Caucus this week, we held a joint hearing with the Legislative Women’s Caucus for an informative Q & A session with the Guard leadership on these issues, and more discussion ensued at the Women’s Caucus meeting later in the week. The remainder of our committee time was devoted to a “Mobile Home Park 101” presentation and testimony on collective bargaining and wage and hour bills.

Most of my time was taken up with meetings to craft an amendment to S.53, which during the week became a “Christmas tree” with everything but the kitchen sink hung on it.  This bill was a simple bill that came over from the Senate exempting feminine hygiene products from taxation. During the course of its time in the House, language was added to amend corporate tax codes, change fees charged to companies selling mutual funds in the State, exempt said products from sales tax, and add a “Cloud tax” for any use of cloud-based software as a service that we may use. My involvement in this bill came about suddenly when the House Ways and Means Committee at the 11^th hour took language from a bill on the wall that proposed to exempt military retirement pensions from Vermont State personal income tax and inserted it into this bill.  This is legislation that the National Guard Caucus with the Department of Defense, has identified as a priority for separating service members.  More personally, we all know that the State faces a serious workforce shortage – companies can’t find enough workers. Retiring service members who are looking to make their last move to a state of their choosing are often reluctant to choose Vermont as their “forever home” because of the lack of hospitable legislation to protect their assets. The last-minute addition of the pension exemption language created a perfect storm for amendments, divisions, and roll call votes. The NG Caucus got to work immediately, after determining that although the addition of this language was an unexpected and welcome addition, it was more of a case of carrot and stick, to entice those of us who favor the tax exemption as a way to honor military service members, to vote for a hefty tax increase.  We crafted an amendment asking for an increase in the threshold amount, which was defeated in Ways and Means and on the Floor, despite welcome tri-partisan support for it.  The bill was divided and amended over four hours of floor debate, giving us all the opportunity to show support for the portions that were important to our constituents.  The final bill that passed the House unfortunately contains the Cloud tax that will raise $11 million over four years at a time when we are receiving a bounty of federal dollars into State coffers and don’t need to be raising taxes on hard-working Vermonters. The other bill that caused us to lose sleep was H.175, an update to bottle redemption statutes, which includes new types and sizes of containers in the redemption category, making a trip to the grocery store a more costly venture and a trip to the redemption center more cumbersome. Over at least six hours, on two different days, this bill was debated and amended.  The end result was in my opinion a poorly thought-out piece of legislation that does nothing more to advance clean water or reduce litter than is being done by the recycling and redemption laws that already exist; in fact, it appears to make that trip to the grocery store or redemption center even more costly and complex. Both of these are on their way to the Senate where we will wait with interest to see what action they take.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with your concerns at [email protected] or

www.hangoforhouse.com

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

As both cases of COVID and vaccination rates rise, pandemic fatigue and Spring fever are working against the tide  – please remember to keep our unvaccinated neighbors and communities safe as the economy opens back up and we look towards better times.

My work in the Legislature this week has been largely around H.157, an act relating to registration of residential construction contractors. On the House floor and in various Committees, amendments to the contractor registration bill were taken up, debated at length, re-worded, and decided upon, some in the negative and some in the positive. All of these proceedings are available to watch on the General Assembly and Committee websites by clicking on Livestreams, which will bring the viewer to the YouTube recordings. I am disappointed to report that this bill passed the House on April 6 on a second reading roll call vote of 97-52, and by voice vote the next day, when it was messaged to the Senate, where it is reported to have been referred to the Committee on Rules. However, as of this writing, the bill does not appear on the Senate Rules webpage.

In other Committee business, we continue to take testimony on the State eviction moratorium, hearing compelling accounts from landlords who have been adversely affected by a year-long delay in judicial proceedings. We also continued taking testimony on another bill, S.79, that is concerning.  The bill proposes to create a rental housing registry of all properties in the State, including those listed for the short-term rental market. A Statewide registry is purported to be necessary for increasing health and safety measures, yet the agency tasked with maintaining the registry does not have inspection or enforcement powers, and the agency that will have them would only respond on a complaint basis.  There is a disconnect in this process that leaves me uncertain of the validity of needing such a registry. The Senate removed much of the affordable housing incentive language from this bill that was recommended by the Governor, so it will be up to the House to work to re-insert it. Additionally, House General took up several bills dealing with land access and ownership and social equity, which we will take testimony on in the near future and whose language could possibly find their way into S.79.

In the special legislative caucuses, we continue to hear about the benefits of legislation passed and pending for our various constituencies, be they rural Vermonters, older Vermonters, or the tourism industry.  I appreciate those meetings where a non-partisan effort is made to work together across our shared interests.

Of interest to the Towns, I attended a Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting, where I heard updates on various road projects.  RT 120 in Franklin/Sheldon has been elevated to a priority project to be further discussed with VTRANS, RT 7 in Swanton/Highgate and Georgia/St Albans are on this season’s construction schedule, a few dangerous intersections in the County (including Franklin and Fairfax) were highlighted for further investigation, and the replacement of the RT 105 temporary bridge entering Richford from Berkshire is slated to be replaced in 2022.

As always, I welcome your comments at [email protected] and www.hangoforhouse.com

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

Floor time was very quiet this week, with H.315, an act relating to COVID-19 relief, being postponed each day for further work on the funding mechanism – the majority party believes that waiting for the new federal American Recovery Plan Act dollars, which haven’t yet been disbursed or have adequate guidelines, is preferable to the minority party position on using General Fund dollars and saving the ARPA money for other needs that are yet to be determined; we have until 2024 to use them, and it is not clear yet how they should be used. The other floor action was an unanimous, affirmative vote of 146-0 on JRH.2, an apology to all Vermonters and their families for harm caused to them by State-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices. It was with a feeling of satisfaction that this was passed by so many Representatives who have differing views, yet who came together on this issue to agree that an apology was needed. My Committee worked on this legislation for many years, and I’ve had the privilege to be a part of that work for the past two years.

Committee time was entirely taken up with hearing new bill introductions – relating to Recovery Residences, collective bargaining, Vietnam Veterans, tiny houses, abandoned swimming pools – and amendments to H.157, registration of residential construction contractors. This is a bill that is walking a fine line between its stated intent of consumer protection and regulation of the only other industry in Vermont that this would be a requirement for besides Funeral Directors. I remain unconvinced that this bill serves the purpose for which it is intended, and after hearing from constituents, I will not support it as it leaves my Committee on Tuesday.  As it is currently written, I believe it will put unnecessary burdens on small, local contractors who are well-known to their neighbors and who often do business by word of mouth and with a handshake. We also heard about the re-start of a well-used, re-named Vermont Emergency Rental Assistance Program (VERAP), which will open to tenants on April 5 and landlords on April 7 on the Vermont State Housing Authority website, and will include both rental and utility arrears assistance.

Legislative Caucuses held informative meetings on bills coming from the Senate that will affect rural areas (REDWnG), a presentation on the Vermont Outdoor Community Recreation Program and Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance grants and services (Tourism Caucus), another presentation on innovative new programs in our corrections institutions for women (Women’s Caucus), and information on the re-opening of Adult Day Programs (Older Vermonters Caucus).

It is an honor to serve you.  Please contact me at [email protected] or www.hangoforhouse.com

As we all move into the vaccination-eligible stages in the next few weeks, please remember that public health protocols are still necessary to keep our community safe.

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

As Spring begins, most of this week’s work revolved around the virtual House floor, with must-pass money bills. The Transportation Bill, the Capital Bill, and the Budget Bill all passed the House and are headed to the Senate.  We also passed legislation opening the door to alleviate gaps in broadband access, childcare programs, and Vermont’s workforce. Although there are things that I hoped would be included (like the ability for private internet providers to receive funding for buildout) and things I would rather not have seen (reliance on Federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that is yet to be disbursed instead of State revenue for on-going programs), there was much to be pleased with in all of these bills, as the committees worked hard to allocate money to the most important needs of the State, and I supported them all. One bill that did pass without my support was H.437, affecting revenue of the state.  Among other provisions, this bill adds a surcharge to the property transfer tax on properties sold for over $1million, which includes commercial and agricultural properties as well as residential, adding a burden to anyone wishing to purchase a high-value property.

Committee time was limited by long afternoons and evenings on the House floor. The House General Committee concluded its work on an apology for the Vermont eugenics movement and passed JRH.2 on Friday afternoon.  This work was begun in the Legislature as early as 2009, and as more information became available, it evolved into the inclusive, historically accurate document that was sent to the General Assembly today.  We all agreed that the pause the pandemic provided us was an opportunity to take more testimony, particularly around the French-Canadian experience in the early 1900’s, and to reflect on what we learned in past testimony.

On Thursday, we attended a virtual Joint Assembly of both chambers to hear judicial retention reports on candidates for Superior Judges and Magistrates so we could mail in our ballots. I also attended a meeting of the Rural Economic Development Working Group, where we discussed the House bills that affect rural constituents; next week we will hear about the Senate bills that do the same.

It is an honor to serve as your Representative.  Please feel welcome to contact me with your comments at www.hangoforhouse.com or [email protected]

Stay well,

Representative Lisa A Hango

Franklin-5

Dear Constituents –

This was a hectic week in the virtual Statehouse, as bills came to the House floor after crossover, other bills came over from the Senate to be referred to House Committees, and bills carrying appropriations or fees came out of the money committees at a fast pace.

My week began on Monday at a virtual Legislative Day with the Vermont Retail Grocers Association and a panel discussion withadult higher education students sponsored by VSAC, both very informative and worthwhile presentations. Later in the week, I attended the virtual Disability Awareness Day Legislative Panel, which was a rewarding event to witness.

On the House floor, we passed quite a few bills this weekdealing with the judiciary, mental health legislation, updating and clarifying statutes of the National Guard, State publications, alcoholic beverage, agriculture and energy subjects, and we extended deadlines on healthcare provisions passed during the COVID crisis. All of these bills will go on to the Senate for their consideration. I am very disappointed that legislation to exempt military pension benefits from Vermont personal income taxesdid not advance out of the Ways and Means Committee, despite a position letter in support for the concept being drafted by the National Guard Caucus and distributed to House and Committee leadership.

The General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee spent the week hearing new bill introductions and focusing primarily on JRH.2, which is an apology for State-sanctioned eugenics practices, legislation that we have been working on for several years.

Thursday evening brought some of the Franklin County legislative delegation to the Highgate Selectboard to discuss the expansion project moving forward at the Franklin County State Airport.This is an important economic development program for the entire region, and in our opinion, this is one of the most important projects to come before voters in Franklin County in recent history. The potential for increased economic activity would be an invaluable resource for our region, especially as we seek to re-open our economy and trade with our international and bordering state neighbors.

At Friday morning’s meeting of the Tourism Caucus, the topic was an introductory discussion about registration of short-term rental properties. There are a few bills in the pipeline that seek to register all rental housing, short-term rental housing, and/or add regulation and inspection of those types of units.  There is much testimony to be taken on these issues, and language will be amended, merged, and discarded over the next couple of months.

As the good news of more age bands for vaccination opening up comes to us, I ask you to continue to exercise vigilance as you are out in the community. Please reach out to me at [email protected] or www.hangoforhouse.com with your concerns or comments.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa A Hango

Dear Constituents –

Crossover week in the Legislature is complete. What this means is that all policy bills that are destined for passage this session have been passed out of policy committees and are headed either to the House floor or to a money committee, if they hold an appropriation; those bills have one more week to make it to the floor.

In the General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee, we took up H.149 (Modernizing National Guard Statutes), H.313 (Omnibus Alcohol Bill), and H.157 (Registration of Residential Construction Contractors) this week. All passed out of Committee favorably after much discussion. I was unable to support H.157, which I see as over-regulation of the “handyman” industry, despite the Committee consensus that this is a consumer protection necessity. I will be interested to see what my counterparts in the Senate do with this bill. On Thursday, we had a welcome break with a presentation from the Dept of Defense State Liaison on government initiatives that arepriorities for supporting military families.

On the House floor, we debated and passed several bills, including S.110, a fast-tracked Unemployment benefits bill using Federal funds that will allow for a seamless extensionwhen PEUC benefits expire next week. Other bills that I supported were relating to criminal defenses based on victim identity (H.128), the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement in cases involving sexual exploitation of children (H.195), a miscellaneous Agriculture bill (H.420), and one providing for animal cruelty and investigation response and training (H.421). Additionally, bills that passed without my support were relating to emergency relief from abuse orders and relinquishing of firearms (H.133) and changes to the Charter of the City of Montpelier allowing non-citizen voting (H.177). Several bills were postponed until next week to give Committees more time to work on those bills needing to be voted out by crossover.

Throughout the week, I attended various meetings: the National Guard Caucus, where we heard a presentation on Recruitment and Retention in the Guard and discussed military retirement benefits tax exemption bills; the Vermont Early Childhood Day at the Legislature on Zoom, where H.171, an important childcare bill that was passed out of House Human Services, was the topic; the Rural Economic Development Working Group (REDWnG), where members pitched bills in the pipeline that pertain to Rural Vermont communities; and the Women’s Caucus, where the Public Assets Institute issued their annual report on the economic health of women in Vermont.

Please feel welcome to reach out to me on any of these issues at [email protected] or

Www.hangoforhouse.com  Thank you for the opportunity to serve. 

Stay well,

Rep Lisa A Hango

2021 Town Meeting Update

Thank you to town officials for being flexible and adapting to the COVID situation and Town Meeting; it is all new to many of us, and I commend your for your work!

The Legislature continues to work remotely and will for the remainder of this session. The silver lining to our remote work is that we are able to attend more meetings locally – you all are just a click of a button away on my computer – something that isn’t always possible when I spend my weeks in Montpelier. The downside to this is zoom fatigue – 10 hours a day on zoom can be really tiring.

As a body, the General Assembly is working to ensure that Vermonters continue to receive assistance for a variety of issues compounded by the pandemic – small business relief, unemployment benefits, rental and utility assistance, food security, greater broadband capacity, increased COVID testing and vaccine distribution, and helping municipalities navigate this unprecedented Town Meeting schedule.

In my House committee, General, Housing, and Military Affairs, we are working with the Administration to properly allocate $200 million in rental and utility assistance for landlords and tenants that was passed by the Federal government at the end of 2020, and we continue to work with our community partners on long-term goals of ending homelessness and increasing the supply and affordability of our housing stock on a State-wide level.

We are taking up legislation to make small changes to liquor licensing statutes, such as continuing to allow alcoholic beverages to be sold with take-out meals, modernizing statutes pertaining to the National Guard, and improving on rental housing health and safety standards.

As part of my work, I am one of a tri-partisan group of legislators to found the Legislative National Guard Caucus, and our work has been focused on supporting National Guard troops on their various deployments to the US Capitol, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as their mission at home to assemble COVID test kits, provide COVID testing, stand up and dismantle alternate ICU sites, and distribute food to our communities. We are grateful for their service and to the leadership of Major General Greg Knight, our Adjutant General, to successfully fulfill their State and Federal missions.

Thank you for the privilege to represent you in the Legislature.

Stay well, 

Rep Lisa A Hango