As another verdant summer unfolds in the Green Mountain State, Vermonters can take comfort in the reemergence of some annual rhythms: blooming flowers, the rush of a pleasant south wind — and a postmortem on what the state’s seasonal Legislature did for them lately.
In Vermont’s largest city, the 2022 session gave residents plenty to talk about. The Legislature took up five proposed amendments to Burlington’s city charter — which require approval by city voters, state lawmakers and the governor. It also debated a host of other measures that would affect the city’s school district, airport and transit system.
“It was an extraordinary year in terms of the number of issues the Legislature was working on that had a major impact on Burlington, and that I was personally very engaged in,” said Mayor Miro Weinberger, a Democrat.
On the whole, Weinberger and other Burlington leaders celebrated the legislative session as a win for the city.
But perhaps the city’s most prominent charter change this year — which would have banned “evictions without cause” — was vetoed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott. The House sustained that veto earlier this month by a single vote.
Proponents of the legislation said it would have offered security to tenants who follow the rules by barring landlords from evicting them or not renewing their lease, with some exceptions. But Scott shot down the bill, saying it would worsen Burlington’s housing crisis by disincentivizing property owners from leasing to prospective tenants with blemished renting histories.
For the convoluted, multiyear process of passing a charter change to have ended with such a narrow failure demonstrates how difficult it is for municipalities to take action on certain issues, said City Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District.
“It’s frustrating to see us go through this robust local process, and you have strong voter approval, and then it ultimately gets shot down … by the governor, and then in the Legislature it fails by one vote,” Hanson said in an interview. “It’s legislators who aren’t even from this community or don’t live in this community that are preventing us from making our own decisions.”
Yet Weinberger — who did not publicly support the housing charter change — said the process is the cost of doing business in Vermont government.
“I’m not going to complain about it,” the mayor told VTDigger. “We’ve generally found a way, as Burlington, to navigate that pretty effectively. It takes hard work, but that’s what democracy requires.”
Ranked-choice voting
Scott and lawmakers did sign off on Burlington’s ranked-choice voting charter change, which would allow city leaders to resurrect a previous system used in the city to determine City Council races. The City Council must first pass an ordinance laying out the parameters for how its ranked-choice method would work before any changes are made to the city’s voting system.
Hanson said he wants to enact the ranked-choice voting method articulated in the original charter change that Burlington voters approved in March 2021. (That language was amended out of the bill in Montpelier.) Under the system, voters would rank all eligible candidates; if no candidate received at least 50% of the first-choice votes, second-choice votes would be added to the mix, and so on, until a winner was determined.
Weinberger, who did not support the charter change, suggested that the council explore other ways to institute ranked-choice voting, but ultimately said: “It’s not a priority for me one way or another.”
School funding, carbon fees and sex work
What did attract the mayor’s attention, though, was a proposal to rejigger the formula used to calculate how much money school districts receive from the state each year. The new law — which adjusts the “weights” meant to account for the increased expense of educating certain students, such as English language learners — is set to help Burlington reap more per local tax dollar sent to the state’s education fund.
“It’s going to have very positive impacts on our ability as a community to properly educate all of our children, and to do so through a financing system that is fair and doesn’t overly burden Burlington taxpayers,” Weinberger said.
Weinberger also lauded the passage of a charter change allowing the city to charge property owners for how much carbon they emit. The authority comes with a catch, however: Burlington voters have to approve any new fees the city wants to institute.
Councilors tasked the city’s electric utility with exploring how they could use this new power to help achieve Burlington’s goal of being carbon-neutral by 2030. The utility has said it initially plans to focus on new, city-owned and large commercial buildings.
“There’s a great opportunity to make some additional progress over the next few years,” said Darren Springer, general manager of the Burlington Electric Department. “We’re going to need, obviously, a strong public process for engagement as well … (on) any policy changes that are proposed.”
The fourth charter change lawmakers approved was an amendment stripping the City Council of its ability to regulate sex work. Supporters presented the change as a bid to remove antiquated language from the city’s ordinances. It has passed both chambers and been delivered to Scott, who is expected to decide early next week whether to sign the bill.
Airport issues
The Legislature approved a fifth charter change to add two seats to Burlington’s airport commission — one representing the city of Winooski, the other Burlington — bringing the advisory body’s total to seven members.
The charter change was not the only bill that dealt with Burlington International Airport. The South Burlington-based facility is owned and operated by the city of Burlington — a dynamic that some legislators wanted to scrutinize through a state- and federally funded study as part of the annual transportation budget.
On two separate occasions, Weinberger traveled to Montpelier to ask legislators to drop the effort. His labor paid off — somewhat. The transportation budget now calls for a “working group” of representatives from the state and neighboring municipalities to examine the airport’s governance structure.
Weinberger expressed doubt that the task force would endorse a transition away from a city-owned setup. Switching to another structure would be too costly and complex, he said, when the city is already addressing its neighbors’ concerns through more informal collaboration.
“It is possible that something will happen in the study group that will suggest we should keep on the table a governance change. I think that’s unlikely,” Weinberger said.
Fare-free buses
Weinberger and Hanson both praised the continuation of fare-free service on Green Mountain Transit buses. Despite rising fuel prices, the Burlington-based transit agency relied on a combination of state and federal funds to provide rides free-of-charge for another year while avoiding major service cuts.
The outcome, Hanson said, is just one reason Burlington residents should be happy with the wins they scored in Montpelier this session, even if they didn’t cross every item off their wish list.
“I’m really proud of the important policies that we did get through the Legislature,” he said. “I think they’re going to make a big difference.”
