2023 Weekly Legislative Report #15

The State House is entering the last few innings of the legislative session, and things are getting a bit unpredictable – particularly for a legislative session with the largest percentage of new members in memory. At this point, legislators are expecting to adjourn May 12 or 13.

The concept of “Crossover”, whereby a bill is dead for the session if it is not voted out of the last committee of reference by a date certain, seems to be out the window. Committees are continuing work on draft bills. There are bills still being introduced, and they are not only municipal charter bills. Senate “morning” committees are shutting down in the next week or so. At the same time, committees are working to finalize bills that have come to them from the other chamber. And interestingly in some instances, leadership is having a bit of difficulty keeping their members in line.

Our report today consists of short updates of a number of bills. As we move toward the end of the session, you may receive two more regular Weekly Legislative Reports. Thereafter, additional reporting would be stale almost as soon as you received it. We may send you a legislative Alert if we need assistance from you, the local officials doing the hard work in your cities, towns, and villages.

Thank you for all you do every day. 

For over a month, the Senate Finance Committee has worked on and off reviewing S.139, a bill that came from the Senate Government Operations Committee that would completely overhaul how Vermont runs emergency communications and dispatch statewide. For over forty years, the state has struggled to develop a statewide, regional dispatching system, and S.139 was intended to resolve that issue by taking the hardest first step. The bill as it came out of the Senate Government Operations attempts to touch every aspect of emergency communications rather than taking a piecemeal or tiered approach to solving this vexing problem.

The Senate Finance Committee is leaning heavily into a multi-year, tiered approach for addressing the funding and costs aspects of the bills’ implementation. Although the committee does not have an updated draft of S.139, the following represents the suggestions the committee has identified as the direction in which they’d like to move forward. This committee is considering breaking up the bill and implementation approach into four different paths: inventorying the current regional dispatch services; designing a new, modern statewide public safety communications system; determining long-term funding for a new, modern system; and determining where current funding will be allocated in the short-term.

Inventory

The committee seems to agree that the first step should be for the state to conduct an inventory of all aspects of regional dispatch services currently in place, including but not limited to an inventory of facilities, equipment, personnel, technology, communications systems and networks, operations, catchment areas, and response agencies. The inventory would identify municipalities facing the greatest challenges with respect to the provisions of dispatch services as well as municipalities that would be most affected by (a) no longer being served by state-run dispatching services and (b) the corresponding new financing mechanism for the continuation of those services. This data gathering would have to be done by hired consultants with expertise in this area, since no state agency or department currently has this level of expertise. It appears the E-911 Board is the favored state entity to oversee this first step.

Design

The second step, which could run simultaneously with the first step, is to design a statewide public safety communications system, comprising an integrated E-911 system and a dispatch system. The system would incorporate standards and procedures to ensure it is reliable, secure, efficient, interoperable, and universally accessible by all persons throughout Vermont. The design of a governance model is necessary to ensure effective state and regional oversight, management, and continuous improvement of the system. The design would also include the development of costs estimates for such a system, including operation and capital costs, but not the long-term funding and financing issues – which will fall to the third step. Similar to the inventory step, the state would need to hire consultants with appropriate experience and expertise to develop this design. Given the state, regional, and local impacts of this stage, there would need to be significant stakeholder input which may involve an advisory committee comprised of various affected entities and persons. The committee recognizes that this design will likely be the hardest step in the process.

Long-Term Funding

The third step of implementation is an analysis of options and a proposal for sustainable and equitable funding source(s) to run the system into the future. This long-term funding model would consider budgets that currently fund regional dispatch; potential funding streams at the state, local, and federal levels; population and call volumes of each municipality; current funding shortfalls for the E-911 system; and stakeholder input through public hearings or other mechanisms. It’s unclear what entity would be responsible for this step yet. However, it is a vitally important step and will certainly require stakeholder buy-in, given the potential impacts on local and state budgets. 

Short-Term Funding

Perhaps the clearest step in the process is the one related to short-term funding. There are two potential pots of money available to finance the first three steps outlined above. Nine million dollars in federal Congressionally Directed Spending was appropriated to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to support Vermont’s transition to a modernized, regional communications network. However, the Commissioner of DPS testified that in recent weeks the department has learned that this funding is not guaranteed and may not be available given the timing restraints tied to the funding. The good news is that the state FY24 budget carries forward $11 million of unexpended funding from FY23 of state General Fund money to assist in the inventory, design, and financing of a statewide emergency communication system. It appears the Senate Appropriations Committee is anxious to get a recommendation from both the Senate Finance and Government Operations Committees to identify more specifically how this $11 million should be allocated in this year’s budget.

Potential Effect on Dispatching for Non-State Emergency Providers

In addition to these steps, the committee has also stated an interest in amending the bill to include a sunset date whereby the state will discontinue dispatching for non-state entities. The suggested sunset date floated in committee was December 31, 2026. The committee recognizes that those local, county. and non-profit entities that rely on state dispatching services will need time to consider alternative options and to budget the necessary funds to contract with an existing dispatching entity. VLCT strongly encourages municipalities to review where the local emergency responders that serve the community are dispatched from, particularly for fire and EMS services. If your agency or an agency you use to provide those services are listed as being dispatched by the Vermont State Police at either the Westminster or Williston Barracks, you or your service provider would have to contract directly with a non-state dispatching service. A list of the affected agencies and municipalities can be found on pages 52-53 of the Regional Dispatch Working Group Report from December 1, 2022. https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/Regional-Dispatch-Working-Group-Report-12012022-Act-185-Section-E.209.1.pdf 

Municipal Element of Certain Proposed Long-Term Funding

One of the biggest issues VLCT has with the S.139 as passed out of the Senate Government Operations Committee is the long-term funding model proposed that would have all municipalities paying for the statewide system with local budgets and on the municipal property tax. VLCT always has great concerns when unfunded mandates are imposed on local budgets. In VLCT’s 2023-2024 Municipal Policy’s Guiding Principles we oppose all unfunded mandates and cost shifts to local governments. We support locally initiated and approved regionalization of services and resources to provide public safety services. That said, our policy also states that we support regionalized public safety initiatives. The proposal to create a statewide oversight of dispatch without local approval and with funding on the backs of local budgets, is in direct conflict with these positions adopted by VLCT’s membership in October, 2022. 

In the interest of moving conversations forward, and in recognition that a funding model may not be immediately adopted under the proposal being considered in the Senate Finance Committee, VLCT remains engaged and hopeful that a pared down version of S.139 moves forward. Over the years it has become increasingly clear that the State Police would be moving forward with shedding non-state agencies from their dispatching services and that those agencies and municipalities would have to join the over 200 others that already contract out for dispatching services, funded by local municipal budgets. Requiring all agencies to contract out for dispatching creates some level of parity between municipalities for funding dispatching services. However, it will not be easy for many agencies, especially those EMS services that already struggle to keep their doors open and their ambulances on the road. Local governments contracting with these EMS providers should prepare for future budgets to absorb the costs of these services, which will certainly be passed down to the communities they serve.

VLCT remains very concerned that although S.139 states that “protecting public safety and welfare is an essential function of State government,” funding the system would be on the backs of local governments thatwould not have any control over its design, implementation, and future operations. It is one thing to pay for dispatching services for local police, EMS, and fire agencies, but it is an entirely different issue to remove all local control and authority at the local level and then turn around and require municipalities to fund a state enterprise.

The committee will likely continue their work on S.139 next week, and VLCT is looking forward to seeing a new draft and providing testimony to improve local government’s positioning in a final statewide emergency communications system.

Town of Brattleboro (H.386) 

On Wednesday, the House passed H.386, a proposal that would amend the charter of the Town of Brattleboro to allow  16- and 17 –year-olds to participate in municipal government by voting at local elections and annual meetings and running for offices in the Town of Brattleboro. In the previous biennium, this charter amendment was vetoed by the Governor and the legislature was unable to override the veto. The bill heads to the Senate Government Operations Committee for consideration. 

Town of Berlin (H.504)

The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee voted out H.504, a charter amendment proposal from the Town of Berlin that would change the office of town clerk from an elected position to an appointed one. It would also authorize the town treasurer to waive the personal property or inventory tax when the total assessed value of personal property or inventory is $1,650 or less, with selectboard authorization. Most municipalities no longer levy personal property and inventory taxes, but some municipalities do assess such taxes under charter authority. Additionally, most municipalities with such taxes levy them on commercial enterprises and the inventory those entities keep.  

The charter will be on the House floor next week. 

City of Rutland (H.505)  

The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee voted out H.505, a charter amendment proposal from the City of Rutland that would authorize the Board of Aldermen to assess a one percent tax on sales. The charter would restrict the use of revenues from a sales tax to funding a capital improvement reserve fund in the city; to reduce the deficit in any underfunded pension; or to finance the construction, reconstruction, or repair of city buildings, streets, sidewalks, or other infrastructure.  

The bill now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. 

Town of Springfield (H.271)

The Senate Government Operations Committee made swift work of H.271, a charter amendment proposal from the Town of Springfield this week. The amendment only makes minor technical corrections, and the committee passed out the bill Thursday with no amendments. If, as expected, no amendments are added on the Senate floor, it will soon head to Governor Scott for signature.