The Vermont Senate on Friday supercharged a flood recovery bill through its typical stages of passage in an effort to pass it into law as quickly as possible.
S.160, the chamber’s first completed bill of the session, aims to relieve local municipalities of their school tax burdens to the state if they abate flood-affected residents’ property taxes this year. According to Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, who chairs the Senate’s finance committee, S.160 is modeled after similar legislation passed in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene — “so this is not new. It’s been done before.”
Without S.160 in place, local municipalities would be on the hook for school taxes owed to the state for tax-abated properties decimated by the floods — a cost burden that “doesn’t seem quite fair” for cities, towns and villages ravaged by this summer’s storms, Cummings said on the floor Friday.
“The buildings are gone,” Cummings said. “They’re just gone, or they’re substantially damaged and we don’t think the towns should have to bear the additional economic burden of having to pay the school taxes to the state.”
The bill’s race through the legislative process comes as flood-struck municipalities are racking their brains to write their budgets in time for Town Meeting Day elections in March. The Senate on Friday suspended the rules numerous times in order to fully pass the bill in one day — a process that typically takes up to three legislative working days — and expeditiously send it to the House for its review.
If passed by the House, S.160 will head to Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s desk for his anticipated signature. Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for Scott, told VTDigger on Friday that the Governor’s Office “fully support(s)” the initiative.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, said on the floor Friday that the bill’s brisk passage through the Senate was a testament to the chamber’s commitment to flood recovery this legislative session.
“As I hope everyone knows, flooding is top of mind for us in the Senate and in the other body, and we begin that work today,” Baruth said. “I think it’s clear how this would benefit the affected communities, so my hope is to move the bill through all stages of passage and to message it very quickly to the House.”
