Well, well, well, would you look at the time? Today marks Crossover Day under the golden dome: the halfway point of the session when policy bills must pass out of their committees of origin, or die. Clouds part to reveal a full moon. A flock of crows bursts from the trees. A wolf howls in the distance.
It sounds ominous, but it’s true. This marks the second year of the biennium, so any bills left unfinished by their committees can’t carry over into next year for further workshopping. If they don’t make the cut, lawmakers will have to pick up the pieces, mend their bruised egos and reintroduce them all over again next year — assuming they get re-elected, that is.
There’s a second crossover deadline, next Friday, for so-called money bills — most notably, of course, the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Catch me popping Zynz in House Appropriations next week to stay awake (while they’re still legal).
“It’s the part of the legislative process to hold ourselves accountable,” House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, told reporters on Thursday, referring to crossover. “It provides deadlines this week and next week to ensure that both bodies move bills to the other chamber.”
It’s a time of year that can foster high tensions among members as they race against the clock. In the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday, for instance, Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, walked out of the room when Chair Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, bulldozed through S.151, an all-but-doomed health care regulatory reform bill of which Lyons is prime sponsor.
Without the votes to get the bill through committee, Hardy interrogated the chair: “Why are you continuing to make changes to a bill that is not going to pass?”
“Because I can,” Lyons responded.
It’s also the time of year in which lawmakers bite their tongues and make concessions, voting in favor of imperfect-to-them bills just to see them live another day. Take Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, who, come Friday morning, voted in favor of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s public safety omnibus bill, S.58, despite his reservations, in hopes that the House would further tweak the bill to his liking.
By the time committees adjourned on Friday, several bills were zombified — gutted to mere summer studies, or directives to state agencies to develop model policies. Take S.284, which initially would have set limits on the use of cellphones in schools but now directs the Agency of Education to develop a model policy on the matter. Or look at H.721, which would have dramatically expanded Medicaid eligibility for thousands more Vermonters; a significant piece of the bill has been replaced with a study, although some other provisions remain intact.
Like everything in the Statehouse, crossover deadlines, too, carry caveats. If the mad scientist (leadership) has the appetite, he or she can always reanimate their monster (a bill). The second half of session can see bill amendments that stretch the definition of germaneness to its outer limits. Or, lawmakers can X out a bill’s entire contents and replace them wholesale with a strike-all amendment.
So with those disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the major bills that are dead or alive as of Friday afternoon.
DEAD
- S.151 would have altered how the Green Mountain Care Board operated, allowed children 12 or older to consent to sexually transmitted infection preventative care and supported Vermont’s application for a new federal health care reform program.
- S.211, an earlier attempt to shift some of the care board’s powers to the Agency of Human Services, withered in committee.
- S.224, the latest bill attempting to increase legislative compensation, never received a committee vote. Neither did S.221, which would have slashed the governor’s salary.
- H.719, the tri-partisan, Gov. Phil Scott-backed housing bill is all but dead. House Energy and Environment never took it up.
- S.723, central Vermont legislators’ big omnibus flood recovery bill has stalled, though pieces of it are progressing in other bills.
ALIVE
- S.58, a sprawling public safety omnibus bill, changes laws on incarceration, drug trafficking and youthful offenders, and yet again delays implementing the next stage of Vermont’s “Raise the Age” initiative.
- S.98 would give the Green Mountain Care Board oversight over drug prices, in a bid to make them more affordable.
- S.195 would change how some people accused of crimes are supervised when released on personal recognizance, and eliminate cash bail for certain repeat offenders.
- S.258 changes the composition of the state Fish and Wildlife Board and outlaws the hunting of coyotes with dogs.
- S.259, the Senate’s so-called “make Big Oil pay” bill, would create a climate “superfund.”
- S.310 would bolster state government’s response to natural disasters.
- H.626 would create a one-employee Division of Animal Welfare within the Department of Public Safety.
- H.687, which House leadership dubs a conservationist and developer compromise on Act 250 reform, lives to see another day. The Senate’s version, S.311, is also still kicking.
- H.766 seeks to limit pre-treatment prior authorization requirements from insurers.
- H.871 directs a group of lawmakers and education officials to hash out the details of a future state school construction program, including a continued source of funding.
- H.873 would pause PCB testing in schools when the funding for testing and remediation hits a certain threshold.
- H.875, a bill to establish uniform ethics codes for both local and state officials, made it across the finish line after a week of spirited committee debate.
— Sarah Mearhoff, with a helping hand from Carly Berlin, Peter D’Auria, Shaun Robinson, Babette Stolk and Ethan Weinstein
IN THE KNOW
The latest school budget data released Thursday shows a continued, gradual decrease in projected education property taxes.
Collecting information from approved budgets and budget revisions in districts whose voters rejected spending plans, the state Agency of Education models that education spending will rise 11.9%, less than the 14.8% projected a month ago.
The Legislative Joint Fiscal Office has also modeled average tax increases assuming lawmakers close a sales tax loophole for software and give income-sensitized property tax payers an additional tax break.
If those assumptions hold, homestead tax payers could expect an average education property tax increase of 16.54%, and nonhomestead taxpayers would face a 19.9% rise.
— Ethan Weinstein
ON THE MOVE
The Vermont House passed a ban on the sale of flavored nicotine products and tobacco substitutes Friday morning, a key hurdle before the legislation goes to the governor’s desk, where what will happen is unclear.
The passage of S.18, after hours of floor discussion Thursday afternoon, was the culmination of years of effort by lawmakers who have sought to protect children from addictive nicotine products with appealing flavors.
— Peter D’Auria
The Vermont House passed legislation this week that would create a new felony charge for repeated retail thefts, and would ask the state Department of Corrections to reinstate a type of sentence that prosecutors see as a valuable alternative to incarceration.
Under current law, retail theft can be either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the value of property that a person steals. If that figure totals $900 or less, the charge is a misdemeanor — but if it surpasses $900, the charge bumps up to a felony.
H.534 would allow prosecutors to aggregate the value of multiple thefts and charge a felony if the combined figure is more than $900 — provided that the thefts occur within the same two-week period, and at retailers located all within the same county.
— Shaun Robinson
Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.
WHAT WE’RE READING
While state stands up shelters, some Vermonters exit motels without a plan, VTDigger/Vermont Public
Anti-Trump Republicans in Vermont recalibrate after Haley drops out of the race, Vermont Public
Mulvaney-Stanek weighing when to resign Statehouse seat, Seven Days
