VNPA Lobbyist, Leonine Legislative update - 2/15/2019

Posted about 5 years ago by Callan Janowiec

COMING INTO FOCUS

The House and Senate agreed to set a “crossover” deadline of March 15 for all policy bills to move out of committees, while giving the money committees one additional week, or until March 22, to advance bills. That only leaves two and three weeks respectively, excluding the Town Meeting recess the first week of March, for committees to complete their work.

As a result, committees are beginning to wrap up their work on major bills in order to meet the crossover deadlines. Those bills include ones addressing cannabis, abortion rights, Act 250 reform, paid family leave, minimum wage, data privacy and broadband connectivity, to name a few.

In terms of money bills, the Senate passed the FY19 budget adjustment bill this week, which makes adjustments to last year’s $6 billion state budget bill. Here is a summary and highlights of the Senate-passed budget adjustment bill.

Other money bills taking shape include the FY20 budget bill, the miscellaneous tax and fee bills, the Transportation Bill and the Capital Bill. Lawmakers and Governor Scott have yet to have a public spat about these money bills but everyone is holding their breath to see if the governor unveils an April surprise similar to the ones he did in the past two years that sent the money bills into a tailspin.

The next two weeks are critical. When lawmakers set off for a week away from the State House on March 1, it will be clear what bills have traction and those that didn’t make the cut and have to wait until next year. The day after we pass crossover is best summed up with, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.

CANNABIS
On Friday morning the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-1 to favorably recommend H.54, a bill establishing a regulated market for cannabis in Vermont. Perhaps the most contentious debate surrounding H.54 is whether to allow the state’s medical dispensaries to begin retail sales of cannabis more than a year before other retail cannabis establishments. In the end the committee rejected that idea. Before the full Senate votes on H.54 the bill must first go to the Senate Finance and Appropriations committees. It’s expected that the bill will hit the Senate floor the week of February 25.

BROADBAND
Broadband connectivity continued to be a significant topic of discussion in both the House Energy & Technology Committee and Senate Finance Committee. Late Friday afternoon the Energy & Technology Committee moved beyond open ended discussion and looked at a multi-faceted draft “committee bill” the committee’s Chair, Rep. Tim Briglin (D-Norwich) put on the table. His proposed bill raises the USF fee from 2.0% to 2.5% for four years. The resulting $1.6 million additional annual revenue would largely go to the Connectivity Fund, which provides grants for the deployment of broadband infrastructure and “high cost support” subsidy payments to Consolidated Communications and the independent telephone companies like Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom. The proposal also appropriates almost $1 million from the General Fund for studies concerning the feasibility of contemplated new intermunicipal Communications Union Districts similar to EC Fiber, for Connectivity Initiative grants, and for studying the idea of electric utilities providing broadband connectivity. Another significant feature of the proposal, and one that came from the administration, is authorizing municipalities to issue General Obligation bonds, i.e., bonds backed by a municipality’s general tax revenues, to finance municipally owned broadband infrastructure.

AUTOMATED VEHICLES
Joe Segale of the Agency of Transportation unveiled AOT’s automated vehicle testing proposal in the Senate Transportation Committee this week. The proposal requires anyone interested in testing an automated vehicle on a public road in Vermont to obtain a permit from the Traffic Committee. The permit will define the scope and operational design domain for the test and demonstrate the ability of the automated vehicle tester to comply with the requirements of the new law. The Traffic Committee’s members are the Secretary of Transportation, the Commissioner of Department of Motor Vehicles and the Commissioner of Public Safety, or their designees. The bill imposes many restrictions on vehicle testers including that they must inform municipalities where they plan to test the vehicles but municipalities do not have the right to say no. The committee is considering including the proposal in the draft DMV miscellaneous bill. The committee will hear more from Mr. Segale on the proposal next week.

ONLINE TRAVEL
Governor Scott proposed a new tax on service fees for Online Travel Agents (OTA). Popular sites like Expedia which are utilized regularly by travelers to find accommodations for their vacation would be subject to this tax. These sites have arrangements with hotels and bed and breakfasts that help increase traffic to their establishments. In exchange, OTAs charge a fee for their service which is not currently taxed by the state of Vermont. The Vermont Tax Department predicts this new tax will generate an additional $2 million in revenue for the state which demonstrates the popularity of using an OTA to book accommodations.

VEHICLE EMISSIONS TESTING
After the Senate gave initial approval to S.84, the vehicle emissions inspection bill last week, the Senate passed over the bill this week to allow for additional testimony. The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee took testimony and came to an agreement on how to move forward. The final agreement is not on-line at the time of this writing. The most significant change is that the agreement requires all motor vehicles to continue to undergo a safety inspection each year but only vehicles 15 model years or less (rather than 10 model years or less) have to undergo an emissions or OBD (on-board diagnostic) system inspection once a year. It is likely the bill will be up for final action on the Senate floor next week.

ABORTION
A bill that would preserve a woman’s right to choose in Vermont statute passed the House Judiciary Committee on Friday morning on a vote of 9-2. Since being approved by the House Human Services Committee last week, only minor, technical amendments were made by the Judiciary Committee. The bill codifies what has been practiced legally in Vermont since abortions were decriminalized in the state in 1972. Proponents of the bill have expressed the critical need for this legislation citing the lack of any mention of abortion rights in current Vermont statute. It is expected that H.57 will be debated on the House floor next Wednesday.

FROM THE LEONINE BLOG
Over the last several years, the Airbnb mobile app and website has exploded in popularity, challenging the dominance of hotels and creating an entirely new front in the sharing economy by allowing individuals to monetize their apartments or empty rooms around the globe. Though known by many names, these types of accommodations are typically referred to as “short-term rentals.” For as long as these rentals have been around, their regulation and taxation has perplexed lawmakers, with some seeking to cash in on their popularity. Others have preferred a hands-off approach to let the market grow. While the hands-off approach has been the most common type of state legislation to date, an increasing push in the opposite direction – to tax and regulate these rentals at the state level – has begun to take hold.

Comments

Russell Payne about 5 years ago

I would be interested in hearing about H-116 which is, I understand, before the Health Care Committee.

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