Economy & Business

Review of VAN FY25 Request at the House Committee on Government Operations.

The committee is including support for VAN’s one-time funding request of $1m in their budget memo. Great job with your outreach to this Committee! Details on their discussion this week is below:

On Thursday, the committee discussed their memo to House Appropriations regarding the FY25 Budget, listing their priorities for the year. Chair McCarthy noted that he will draft the memo this evening, and share it with the Committee tomorrow. Then they discussed what they wanted to put in the memo. Chair McCarthy talked about PEG TV stations and local access, and recognized that Paul Snyder was in the room. VAN is asking for $1M to backfill the declining revenue from cable TV.

House Government Operations Draft Memo: 
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/House%20Government%20Operations/FY%202025%20Budget/W~Michael%20McCarthy~FY%202025%20DRAFT%20HGO%20and%20MA%20Budget%20Memo~2-23-2024.pdf

Discussion of H.657 a bill meant to modernize Vermont's communications taxes and fees at the House Committee on Ways and Means.

On Thursday, the House Ways & Means Committee walked through a new draft of H.657, which as expected, had the PEG portions of the bill removed. Legislative Counsel Maria Royle noted that the pole attachment charge for PEG would be dealt with going forward as a Committee bill, and Chair Kornheiser said, “and that [bill] we will probably pick up next Wednesday.” On FRIDAY, the bill passed committee 12-0-0-.

Draft 1.4 H.657:
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/House%20Ways%20and%20Means/Bills/H.657/H.657~Maria%20Royle~House%20Ways%20and%20Means%20Amendment,%20Draft%201.4~2-22-2024.pdf

From Preservation Burlington:

Co-hosts Ron Wanamaker and Liisa Reimann discuss the launch of Preservation Burlington's redesigned website, an upcoming newsletter, and the Homeport Store/building on Church Street in Burlington.

More information: preservationburlington.org

Testimony of S.55 Update to Open Meeting Law at the Senate Committee on Government Operations.

On Wednesday, the Senate Government Operations Committee continued testimony and committee discussion on S.55. Legislative counsel, Tucker Anderson, gave a walk through of the most recent version of the bill (Draft 4.2) - this version allows advisory bodies to meet hybrid, in person, or fully online and requires state boards to hold hybrid meetings. It also allows the public to request physical or electronic access to a meeting in writing. The new version of the bill requires a working group to be appointed and report back by November 1, 2025 - this version removes the $500k for grants to towns since the proposed changes do not require towns to vastly change their current meeting structure. All changes are highlighted in yellow in the document linked below - also linked is the committee meeting, and materials presented. The committee plans to vote on the bill next week on Tuesday - LG is scheduled to testify.

S.55, Draft 4.2:
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/Senate%20Government%20Operations/Bills/S.55/Drafts,%20Amendments,%20and%20Legal%20Documents/S.55~Tucker%20Anderson~Draft%204.2,%20Strike%20All%20Amendment~2-21-2024.pdf