SOUTH BURLINGTON — In an effort to more “proactively” impact legislation, the Vermont Technology Alliance has announced that it will lobby in the Statehouse.
The move was disclosed during a technology public policy discussion held Wednesday, during which VtTA outlined issues it will be watching in the upcoming legislative session. The nonprofit’s members have frequently provided testimony for legislative committees in the past during discussions related to Vermont’s technology industry. But now, the organization is looking to make more impact on legislation, said Mark Heyman, board secretary at VtTA.
“We’ll be pushing for things that we’re involved in that we think still need fixing and addressing in some way,” Heyman said. “But you can’t hang out in the Golden Dome without the proper resources.”
Which is why Heyman said VtTA is currently soliciting bids from lobbying firms and raising money in order to support this lobbying pivot. He said he expects VtTA to be fully registered by the start of the legislative session in January.
VtTA is also taking on this new role in reaction to national concerns about big tech companies like Facebook and Google, said Matthew Dodds, VtTA’s former board president and a current board member.
“When tech and Facebook suddenly became such news … I couldn’t believe the amount of stuff that came over last year,” Dodds said. “It really kind of hit us in the side because we didn’t foresee a lot of that. … We wanted to stop being the organization that’s reactive.”
In the upcoming session, VtTA will specifically be keeping an eye on the reemergence of a cloud tax — a levy on cloud software that VtTA is concerned will hurt Vermont’s tech economy and stifle innovation. It was proposed last legislative session as a way to fund the state’s water cleanup plan, but the measure was cut by the Senate before the bill passed.
VtTA is also watching a bill proposed last session that would restrict non-compete contractual agreements, which Heyman called too “punitive” and threatening to the intellectual property of budding tech companies. The bill has been stuck on the wall of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development.
Heyman said VtTA will continue to watch any legislation that comes up this session that focuses on other priority issues for the tech community, like broadband and telecommunication development and building blockchain infrastructure.
