Representative Alice Emmons

Legislative Report, May 24, 2026

The plan, and hope, of this year’s legislative session being done by Friday May 22nd didn’t come to fruition. There is tremendous backlog in final work on the Senate side and the House is still wrapping up some key legislation dealing public safety as well a bill dealing with protecting our data privacy in the digital world. So we are back to the State House this week to finish up. While all this work was being done, the education bill that moves school districts to consolidate was being negotiated between the House, Senate and the Governor. When we left the building on Friday evening there appeared to be a compromise developing. If this holds true we should be finishing up our session this week.

My past week was working with the Senate Institutions Committee in our Conference Committee to resolve the differences in the two version of our Capital Bill. The Capital Bill is what’s termed a money bill and a must pass bill. It funds construction projects for the upcoming fiscal year and allows bonded money to be spent on these projects. There was disagreement between the two bodies as to where the dollars would go and how much. By last Friday both sides agreed to the projects and the dollar amounts. Some of those projects included dollars to state owned properties for installing stormwater management systems and the cost of those projects. We also resolved large projects in two of our correctional facilities. And we ensured that dollars that went directly to towns for their municipality drinking water and sewer projects were fully funded.

I want to bring attention to language that was also included in the Capital Bill that pertains to Springfield. For many years the state and our town has been in negotiation for a portion of land up at the correctional facility to be transferred to the town. There needed to be an agreement as to the amount of land to be transferred and Springfield needed to have some direction as to the use of that transferred property. Both the State and the town of Springfield have reached an agreement and language needed to be added in the Capital Bill to allow the transfer of the property. The language allows the State to transfer approximately 22 acres of state owned land to the town to be used for municipal purposes, including economic development as an industrial parcel. The land can be transferred once some conditions are met. The State needs to obtain any state or local zoning or subdivision approvals required for the transfer. Also, the two parties need to establish responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the road that goes up to the facility, as well as the water and sewer service line that is under that access road. There also needs to be assurance that the transferred property does not include any brownfields. Springfield needs to begin work on the transferred property for the purpose of economic development by the end of March 2030. If this has not occurred, Springfield will need to consult with the State to examine alternative uses for the transferred land.

As we finish up our work in Montpelier, please feel free to reach out to me with your thoughts. During the week I can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 802-828-2228.

Legislative Report, May 17, 2026

Now that we are getting close to Memorial Day Weekend, the legislature has shifted into what we call adjournment mode. The focus now turns to finishing work on major pieces of legislation. And that work is now occurring in committees of conferences to resolve differences between the House and Senate version of their respective bills. Once the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year is agreed upon by both chambers, the legislature adjourns for the year. This year we are working with the Governor in hopes of avoiding a veto so we don’t have to return to Montpelier after we have adjourned for the year. So stay tuned.

One piece of legislation the House has been working on over the past two weeks is Senate Bill 193. This bill is important as it begins to put in place a process for the state to establish a forensic facility to house folks who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial or are not guilty by reason of insanity. Four House committees have been working on this legislation which is really remarkable. Vermont is one of a few states that does not have a state operated forensic facility. A forensic facility would be providing a competency restoration program, which the state currently lacks, to hopefully help the person gain competency in order to stand trial and to be sentenced.

The four committees are focusing on the clinical and security pieces of the legislation. It is the intent of the legislature that the clinical programming in the facility would be done by the Agency of Human Services, not the Department of Corrections. The Department of Corrections would provide the security outside of the facility if the building is on the site of a current correctional facility. The legislation states that the Secretary of Human Services shall establish and operate a locked secure forensic facility for the competency restoration, evaluation, stabilization, treatment and care of persons who have been found not competent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity for serious criminal offenses. A person would be placed in this facility is they have been charged with a serious criminal offense that is punishable by a life sentence, and the person is being held without bail, and has been found not competent to stand trial. Once placed in the facility, clinical services would be provided to help the person gain competency, if possible. Some folks will not gain competency and therefore could be held for a long period of time receiving treatment.

By January 1, 2027 the Agency of Human Services is to develop their plan of establishing this locked secure forensic facility and its operational needs. Once this is presented to the next session of the legislature and approved, the forensic facility would then be operational come January 1, 2028. So you can see there is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done before it opens, but the legislature wants to make sure we do it right as the state will be holding people who have not been able to have their day in court due to their incompetency to stand trial or they have been deemed by the court to be not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the crime.

As we enter the final week or so of this legislative session, please feel free to reach out to me with your concerns. During the week I can be reached in Montpelier by email at [email protected] or by phone at 802-828-2228.

Legislative Report, March 29, 2026

This past week was one of the longest and hardest week of this session. Once we finish with what is termed cross-over, all those bills that have passed out of committees now come before the full House of Representatives for debate and votes. Each day this past week we worked into the early evenings and still didn’t complete all of our work for that day. By Friday of last week we had finally caught up. Many of us were relieved and tired when we finished our work early Friday evening and were free to drive home for the weekend.

Over the week we dealt with a wide range of bills. They range from reigning in data brokers to protect one’s personal information, establishing a Vermont Prescription Drug Discount Card Program, dam safety, landlord tenant rental agreements, the Fiscal Year 27 state budget, the Transportation state budget for Fiscal Year 27, and the school property tax rate for the Fiscal Year 27 school budgets. It was a packed full week of big issues to say the least.

The property tax rate for school budgets took up the most debate and time. The House Ways and Means Committee has been working all session on bringing down the anticipated state average of a 12% increase in school taxes. This is an average, it does not mean every community will see that percent of increase, some towns may see more and other town may see less. Our system of paying for school budgets is a state system, we need to raise enough money to cover the sum of all school budgets all over the state. The Education Fund supports the funding of this statewide system. The revenues that go into this fund besides the property taxes, come from the state lottery, the sales tax, the rooms and meals tax, the purchase and use tax on vehicle sales, and a few other sources. The anticipated revenue growth from these other sources are not growing as anticipated thereby putting more pressure on the property tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year.

There are two proposals in an attempt to bring down the projected 12% increase. Both proposals are not sustainable and kicks the can down the road. And both proposals use General Fund money that is available only once, this term is called one-time money. The Governor wants to use all of this one-time money this year to bring the property tax rate to around a 4% increase. The legislature is looking at spreading the same amount of one-time money over two years, resulting in a 7% increase to the tax rate, instead of the projected 12%. Spreading the General Fund one-time money over two years results in the school property tax rate of increase to be decreased for this year as well as next year instead of the Governor’s proposal that would only ensure the tax rate is decreased for this year only. Either way, there are projected rate increases for the upcoming year. The Ways and Means Committee proposed the two year model as an effort to balance property tax relief and avoid economically irresponsible decisions that would lead to an even larger increase in property taxes next year. The state is looking at an anticipated $80 million deficit in our state revenues for the general operations of state government next year. Using up all of the capacity of General Fund dollars this year to offset some of the school taxes for only one year will put much more pressure on our school property taxes come next year. A quick fix may look good today, but it will make things worse for taxpayers tomorrow.

As always, please feel free to contact me with your thoughts and concerns. Over the weekends I can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 802-885-5893.

Legislative Report, March 22, 2026

Now that we are getting close to the end of March, the House Education Committee continues to work on finalizing a proposal that will bring improvements to strengthening our public education system. There has been discussions for the past year that consolidating school districts into larger districts will decrease costs and increase educational outcomes for our students. The jury is still out so to speak if these goals are achievable in larger districts versus our current district sizes across the state. Last year a School District Redistricting Task Force was formed and they met through the summer and fall. Their final recommendation was to create mandatory statewide Cooperative Education Service Areas (CESAs) instead of consolidating our school districts into larger districts of say 4,000 students or larger.

These CESAs are regional shared service structures offering support in areas that small school districts cannot efficiently manage alone. The legislation now being proposed by the House Education Committee would establish up to seven CESAs across the state. The core functions of these CESAs would be to offer greater opportunities for cooperative purchasing of supplies and heating fuel, capacity to hire high quality staff, enhanced opportunities to apply for and administer grants, and an ability to offer broader services to our students. Research from similar states to Vermont show that CESAs effectively improve access to services, reduce duplication and decrease costs to the district. The committee has received a lot of feedback in opposition to forced school district mergers. Instead the committee heard that Vermonters want increased efficiencies, more opportunities for our students, and at the same time cost savings if we do move into strategic school district mergers in the future. This legislation establishing CESAs is still being developed based on this testimony and the goal is to vote it out of committee in the next week.

As the session continues, please feel free to contact me with your thoughts and concerns. During the week I can be reached up in Montpelier by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-802-828-2228.