2023 Weekly Legislative Report #12

The Senate Government Operations Committee took testimony on S.55, a bill VLCT supports that would make remote meetings a permanent option under the Open Meeting Law. Currently public bodies are able to meet remotely only under the temporary authority that will sunset on July 1, 2024. Making remote meetings a permanent option is one of the top legislative priorities of VLCT member cities and towns is to allow for increased participation and flexibility via remote access for not only municipal volunteers and officials but also the public. A fear expressed by some people is that some public bodies will only meet remotely if the option is available. VLCT is open to putting parameters around the use of remote meetings to find a balance between in-person and fully remote meetings. However, VLCT does not support the proposal to mandate hybrid meetings for all meetings of public bodies. Many municipalities and smaller boards and committees lack the space, resources, funding, technological expertise, or broadband capacity to run every meeting both in-person and via ZOOM or similar means.

Although the bill did not meet crossover this year, the committee chair expressed interest in moving the bill forward so the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee could consider the bill this year in preparation for next year. The chair is interested in hearing from public bodies, including those at the municipal level, that support amending the Open Meeting Law to allow for fully remote meetings. Please contact Gwynn Zakov at gzakov@vlct.org if you or someone in your town or city is interested testifying in support of S.55. 

• H.263 as introduced

The Senate Finance Committee took testimony from local officials and VLCT Advocacy staff on S.139, a bill that would create a statewide regional dispatch oversight entity at the state level and implement a funding model that would require all towns and cities to pay for the ongoing costs of the system. VLCT Advocacy staff explained to the committee that the proposal would be a seismic shift in emergency communications statewide and would impose a cost shift to municipalities with an unknown price tag.

S.139 proposes the state E-911 Board be expanded and revamped to assume oversight over all dispatch operations across the state. All current and future dispatching agencies would be required to comply with rules and regulations created by the new Board and would not be authorized to operate unless they received Board approval. Every municipality would be required to be a member of a dispatching agency. By 2028 every municipality would pay a dispatch assessment to the Board that would help fund the operations of the Board and also be pooled for redistribution to dispatching agencies to fund dispatching operations.

VLCT testified that the funding formula in the bill is difficult to understand and the fees that cities and towns would pay to the state to fund the new regional system in future years is unclear. One can assume that the costs to towns and cities would be higher than at present because they would cover not only the dispatch centers but also the statewide oversight – the latter of which does not currently exist, and therefore isn’t something the state or the local governments fund.

The Senate Finance Committee had concerns about the bill’s funding model and did not vote the bill out of committee, therefore missing the crossover deadline. The chair of the committee said she may ask for special dispensation from Senate leadership to advance the bill despite it not meeting crossover, but it is unclear whether this will occur.

S. 115 Miscellaneous Agriculture

Sections 8 and 9 of S.115 would exempt farms and silvicultural activities from paying stormwater fees that support municipal efforts to manage stormwater runoff from municipal property and roads. The Agency of Agriculture strongly supports the exemption, while towns that have stormwater utilities or assess fees to property owners for municipal stormwater mitigation are concerned that such an exemption would end the “all in” approach to contributing to the very expensive mandated stormwater measures that towns must take on their road networks and properties.

On Friday, the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee considered an amendment to S.115 that would require a study to be submitted to the legislature by December 1, 2023, that would include recommendations regarding whether property (farms) subject to Required Agricultural Practices should be subject to regulation by a municipal stormwater utility or be required to pay an assessment or fee imposed by a municipal stormwater utility.

H222 Reducing Overdoses

H.222 would require the Department of Health to establish and maintain programs for disposing of unused prescription drugs, needles, and syringes. Between July 1 and December 31 of 2023, the Department of Health and Blueprint for Health’s Accountable Communities for Health would facilitate regional meetings of stakeholders, including municipalities, regarding those disposal programs. The department would report to the legislature by January 15, 2024.

The bill would also include in the zoning statutes that a recovery residence serving not more than eight persons shall be considered by right to constitute a permitted single family residential use of property. Upon request of the VLCT, the House Human Services Committee included language stating:

recovery residence means a shared living residence supporting persons recovering from a substance use disorder that:

(i) Provides tenants with peer support and assistance accessing support services and community resources available to persons recovering from substance use disorders.

(ii) Is certified by an organization approved by the Department of Health and that is either a Vermont affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences or another approved organization or is pending such certification. If certification is pending beyond 45 days, the municipality shall retain its right to consider the residence pursuant to zoning bylaws adopted in compliance with 24 V.S.A. § 4411.

S.60 Local Option Tax 

Last week we reported that the Senate Finance Committee unanimously voted out S.60, a bill that would grant general authority to municipalities to adopt a one percent local option tax on sales, meals and alcoholic beverages, or room upon a majority vote of the registered voters of the town. The requirement to thereafter seek approval from the legislature would be eliminated. As the Senate Finance Committee chair had been informed that the Senate Government Operations Committee did not have time to take it up, an amendment was added to the bill that would establish a charter for the Town of South Hero and bless the vote that town took at Town Meeting 2022 to establish a local option tax on meals and alcoholic beverages.

This week, the chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee asked that consideration of the bill by the whole Senate be delayed for one week until March 29. We are not sure of the reason for that request.