Progress and Headwinds - 5/11/26

Happy Mother's Day!

ACT 181

Well, the big news last week was the House passing S325, the bill that repeals the controversial elements of Act 181. (Act 181 is the bill that reformed Act 250, our signature land use bill from decades ago.) Balancing smart development, property rights and conservation is an ongoing high wire dance. But clearly, with 181, the legislature went too far and S325 was needed. The original bill that came from the Senate consisted of just a delay in the implementation timeframe  to give the Land Use Review Board more time. But the non-partisan Rural Caucus, of which I am a member, after listening to rural Vermonters closely (even before this issue exploded), sent House leadership a letter asking for repeal of the Road Rule and Tier 3. This letter carried the day, forcing the Environment Committee to add the repeal elements. This was a learning experience for all involved. The main point here: the legislature works best when Vermonters are involved. 

Protecting Vermonters from ICE

There are two bills the Judiciary Committee has presented to the body for consideration. S208 originally had a ban on all law enforcement wearing masks and it required visible identification. Unfortunately, a similar bill from another state was deemed unconstitutional recently so the fate of this bill remains unclear. 

S209 we voted out last week. This bill expands existing law as it relates to where individuals are protected from civil arrests without a judicial warrant both by local, state and federal officials. Civil arrests include those effectuated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement pursuant to administrative warrants, as opposed to judicial warrants. Current law protects individuals traveling to, entering, remaining at, or returning from a court proceeding in Vermont from being arrested without a judicial warrant. S.209 would expand protections for individuals who are at sensitive locations from civil arrests. Those locations are the following:  

• Schools

• Buildings owned and wholly controlled by the State/County/Town, where members of the public may enter in order to conduct public business; 

• Public Libraries;  

• Departments of Motor Vehicles; 

• Polling places;  

• Social services establishment (this has a broad definition in S.209 to include many different service locations including, domestic violence shelters, victim services centers, child advocacy centers, food pantries, homeless shelters or similar establishment);   

• Places of Worship;  

• Child care locations; and 

• Health facilities (i.e. Hospitals).  

 This is a good bill that I was happy to vote for.

Vermont at the Mercy of National Dynamics

There is an interesting article in the New York Times this week about the problem of declining enrollment across the country. Believe it or not, Vermont doesn’t even make the top 10 in enrollment declines. (Vermont is at -6.8%) Here is the list:

Enrollment changes from 2014 to 2024, by state

• West Virginia -13.6%

• Mississippi -12.0%

• New Hampshire -11.1%

• Illinois -10.1%

• New Mexico -9.8%

• Oregon -9.4%

• Hawaii -8.4%

• Maine -8.3%

• California -8.0%

• New York -7.8%

It is easy for all of us to think that Vermont is unique and that the state government somehow screwed up to get us to this point, but the reality is much more complicated. Our biggest challenges - health care, education, housing, demographics, inflation - are all national issues that are difficult or impossible to address in isolation. We are also at the mercy of terrible foreign policies - the Iran war - which exacerbate these problems, particularly inflation. In addition, Vermont suffers the impacts of climate change - flooding, drought, possible fire dangers - with no ability to impact global trends. In other words, Vermont is a small feather being blown about in a global windstorm. 

That said, on many of these issues the response from state government has been slow and plodding. We can and must do better. The key is to focus on areas we can control, especially building personal, municipal and state resilience to the economic, social and environmental headwinds we are facing.