IN FEB. 4’S FINAL READING…
Act 250 modernization takes on a racial justice lens, Progressives flip on paid leave, and the cannabis bill sees a proposed tax rate for the first time.
THE TOP TAKE
Reforming the Act 250 permitting process is a devilishly complicated thing, even by legislative standards. Tuesday afternoon, a House committee was introduced to a whole new dimension: social and racial equity.
The House Natural Resources, Fish & Wildlife Committee has been slogging through Act 250 modernization since the biennium began in January 2019. The goal is to make the state’s signature land-use law more closely align with environmental priorities. Tuesday brought testimony from Xusana Davis, the state’s first executive director of racial equity.
And she brought the fire, pointing out how Act 250 reinforces implicit social biases while excluding the voices who have, in the past, gone unheard.
“We need to codify community engagement,” Davis said. “And not just the NIMBY crowd, but those who don’t typically take part in the process.” Too often, she said, people of color and the economically disadvantaged are shut out of “the quiet closed rooms where decisions are made.”
This includes Vermont’s indigenous people. “We have a responsibility to be humble about the fact that we’re using land that wasn’t ours,” she said.
Davis pointed to statistics that show a dramatic disparity in home ownership between whites and people of color. “Housing is a means of transferring generational wealth, and people of color have been shut out,” she said. “Dominant groups own the land and make the decisions about how land is used.”
This isn’t just a matter of fairness or liberal guilt-tripping; it’s about future prosperity. “Vermont is set to be a receiver state for climate migrants,” Davis noted. “The future of Vermont is going to be a lot more diverse. Our towns will be denser and more colorful.” Considering racial and environmental justice in land use, she asserted, will set the stage for a more diverse and more prosperous Vermont.
The all-white membership of House Natural Resources was, at times, a bit taken aback by Davis’ testimony. That’s the thing about implicit bias: It’s implicit, which means you aren’t even aware of it, so it’s a surprise when it comes to light. The committee was generally amenable to considering Davis’ arguments, but members are also facing a short timeline to move a very complicated bill in time for the full House to consider it before Town Meeting Break. – John Walters
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
— Rep. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, chair of House Ways and Means, is proposing a 20% combined tax rate for legal marijuana sales. A mid-range estimate projects the tax could raise $13 million. Massachusetts, where cannabis sales are legal, has a 20% tax rate.
There seems to be enough support on the committee to advance the proposal and the bill to legalize a cannabis market in Vermont. It could move out of committee as soon as tomorrow. – Xander Landen
— The Vermont Growers Association is raising concerns that the cannabis regulation bill, in its current form, favors corporate growers and hurts small growers. The VGA’s Bernardo Antonio is particularly concerned that small growers would be limited to plots smaller than 500 square feet.
“The whole thing is set up to fail,” Antonio said. He said current regulations in the bill would make it impossible for many small growers to make a profit, causing them to continue selling their product through the black market. – Grace Elletson
— Senate Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P Chittenden, said he doesn’t know when the medical monitoring bill will move forward in the Senate after it was vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott last session.
“My hope is that within the next week or two the Senate will announce what its path is, either a vote on an override or a replacement bill. My hope is that we would do an override,” Ashe said. – John Walters
— The justice reinvestment bill is a top priority for Senate leadership. But the key to getting it passed, according to Judiciary chair Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, is an appropriation of $2 million to “kick-start the process,” especially to provide more transitional housing for ex-inmates.
But he’ll need to convince the Appropriation committees, which will face numerous demands for surplus funds.
Senate Pro Temp Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, cautioned that “[Senate] Appropriations has already discussed the need for transition funding. We’re going to do everything we can to make that investment.” – John Walters
— Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, told her fellow lawmakers in House Education to take up the recommendations of an education funding study released late last year.
The weighting study recommends major changes to the way Vermont’s education taxes are calculated, particularly where poverty, rurality, and English-language-learners are concerned.
“When I first started to read this, I was ecstatic. And then I was really angry,” Sibilia told the committee, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’ve been in this building testifying for more than a decade that there’s an injustice being done. And the study outlines that, very well.” – Lola Duffort
— House Judiciary unanimously advanced a bill to House Appropriations that would provide “good Samaritan” protections for sex workers who report crimes. The bill would bar charges of prostitution and low level drug possession against those who report crimes, or are victims of crimes.
The legislation comes after House lawmakers briefly considered a bill earlier this month that would decriminalize prostitution. The good Samaritan bill includes a study committee that will research the possibility of legalizing sex work in Vermont. – Xander Landen
— At this morning’s House Republican Caucus, the sex work decriminalization bill came up in conversation.
“Will this bill protect male prostitutes?” Rep. Brian Smith, R-Derby, asked the caucus. (Answer: yes.) “Now you’re all set!” Rep. Topper McFaun, R-Barre Town, jokingly told Smith. – Grace Elletson
— The “Women in the State House” exhibit has popped up in the Statehouse lobby. The four-panel display profiles some of the state’s most influential women political leaders, both from the past and present.
It gives homage to Flora Coutts, one of the state’s first lawmakers with Abenaki heritage, and Louvenia Bright, the first African American lawmaker in the Vermont House. It also profiles the four women lawmakers who chaired the influential “money” committees in 2017. – Grace Elletson
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
The paid leave bill, which was vetoed last week by Gov. Phil Scott, is heading to the House floor tomorrow for a veto override vote. When the bill originally passed the House, a group of Progressives opposed it, and vowed to not support a veto override.
Now, they’ve changed their minds. Grace Elletson caught up with VTDigger’s Xander Landen to learn more.
GE: Why are Progressives throwing their support behind this now?
XL: They opposed the bill last month because they didn’t believe the benefits in the program that had been agreed to in the House and Senate went far enough. Their biggest issue was that the compromise did not include mandatory paid time off if you became sick or had an injury. But now they’re saying that even though the program isn’t perfect, they’re willing to support it because they favor getting a program up and running and improving on it later over preventing a paid leave system from being established at all.
GE: Do you have any sense if there will be enough votes to override the veto tomorrow?
XL: I think it’s fair to say this is going to be extremely close. With the five Progressives votes, they only need three more to meet 100 and beat the veto. There’s definitely going to be a lot of pressure and, in the situation of a veto override, the calculus is less about whether you support a policy and more about whether you’re willing to side with the governor and stand in the way of a major party priority.
Correction: Flora Coutts was not necessarily the first woman legislator of Abenaki heritage. Also, Louvenia Bright was the first African American woman to serve in the House, not the first woman lawmaker.
