Legislative Update: March 31, 2025

Legislative Breakfast Recap

Thank you to everyone who attended last Monday’s legislative breakfast in Georgia. Your Representatives and Senators heard your concerns on key issues such as housing, childcare, and education.

Remember, you don’t have to wait until the next legislative breakfast to share your thoughts—please reach out anytime with questions or concerns. 

If you missed the breakfast, the St. Albans did a great write-up of the event. 

https://www.samessenger.com/news/government/georgia-fire-station-franklin-county-legislative-delegation/article_047954e6-9c2b-4a2b-a5ce-a2116612fea2.html 

I had the pleasure of meeting with Alec from the British Consulate to New England . I always welcome the opportunity to share what makes Vermont such a special place!

Education Update

As we pass the halfway mark of this legislative session, it’s clear that many Vermonters are feeling the strain of our current education funding system, which is failing to provide the high-quality education our children deserve. 

Unfortunately, House Democratic leadership has chosen to delay action, opting instead to defer the redistricting of school districts to an unelected board of retired superintendents. This process won’t be completed until December 2025, leaving necessary changes stalled. 

However, I am encouraged that the Senate is taking this issue seriously and working toward meaningful solutions rather than waiting on external committees. 

Housing Update

This past Wednesday, the House General and Housing Committee presented H.479, our omnibus housing bill, on the House floor. This bill updates the Vermont Rental Home Improvement Program (VHIP) with several key changes. Notably, it removes the

Helping present H.479 on the House Floor.

requirement for participating lenders to hold a Vermont lender’s license and broadens eligibility for the five-year program, allowing organizations to lease housing on behalf of individuals. 

For the 10-year program, landlords will now be able to charge fair market rent instead of limiting tenancy to specific groups, such as homeless individuals or refugees. At least 30% of funding must be allocated to the five-year program annually.

H.479 also includes major housing, infrastructure, and tax provisions. It establishes the Manufactured Home Improvement Program to support home and park enhancements and creates an Infrastructure Fund offering low-interest loans for municipal projects related to housing. The bill also prioritizes Brownfields cleanup for housing development. 

Additionally, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) is authorized to issue tax credits for first-time homebuyers. 

The Budget

The House also voted to pass the Big Budget Bill (H.493). I fought hard for $40,000 in funding for “Empty Arms Vermont,” an organization that supports families experiencing miscarriage, stillbirth, early infant loss, or termination for medical reasons. I was encouraged to see it added to the “big bill” by a unanimous vote out of the House Appropriations Committee.

I was not pleased with the entire bill, as I opposed certain funding allocations — such as the $4 million for VHIP being designated as a one-time appropriation rather than ongoing base funding as proposed by the Governor. This is a program that has shown a high success rate. When I questioned the rationale on the floor of the House, the answer I received was (paraphrasing) “we’ll wait and see longer.”

The major selling point for my yes vote on the bill was it included a $77 million “buy-down” on the education fund to help level property taxes. With Georgia and Fairfax both seeing a revote for their school budgets next week, I think this is very important to note. The 9.9% (Fairfax) and 6.6% (Georgia) increases in property taxes do not take into account the buy-down. 

The bill passed with bi-partisan support with over 100 members of the House of Representatives voting for the bill.

Supporting Our Service Members – H.483 & H.43

Many of you have expressed the need for greater state support for our servicemen and women. Earlier this year, I co-sponsored H.43, a bill aimed at exempting military retirement and survivor benefit income from Vermont’s income tax. 

Unfortunately, this bill did not advance and was excluded from H.483, which expands existing income tax credits. This is unacceptable. In response, Representative Lipski of Stowe introduced an amendment to include this tax exemption. I was prepared to strongly support this amendment, but the chair of the Ways and Means Committee requested that the bill be recommitted to her committee, where it is unlikely to see further movement. 

This remains a priority issue, and I will continue to advocate for fairer tax policies for our veterans and military families.

State House Visitors

On April 1st, Mr. Emery’s AP Government class from BFA Fairfax will visit the Vermont Statehouse. I look forward to meeting with these students and connecting them with my colleagues to explore legislation they find interesting. We are excited to welcome them to the Statehouse!

Opening Day is a holiday in the Bartley household.

Baseball is back!

As many of you know, Opening Day is a holiday in the Bartley household. This year, as I am making it my yearly tradition, I gave the devotional from the Speakers Podium to honor Opening Day and continue to promote collaboration among all political parties. The issues facing Vermonters, of all walks of life, do not align with one political party. We are all impacted -- directly or indirectly.

As always, I value your thoughts and input—please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Ashley

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Rep. Carolyn Branagan Updates

(Rep. Carolyn Branagan serves on the House Ways & Means Committee and has been a strong advocate for lower taxes and fees. She's worked very hard to help buy-down property taxes. I'm so thankful to have her as a district-mate and mentor. - Ashley)

This past week the Vermont House of Representatives voted to implement the yield  dollar amount of $8,596 in raising money for operating our schools during fiscal year 2026.  

This makes an increase of 1.1% in costs for fiscal year 2026.  Last year’s  cost increase was 5.8%.

Other key tools are:

Income yield- $12,172

Non Homestead property rate per $100 equalized value- $1.703

This year’s yield bill uses $41 million in unused money from the Education Fund and $77.2 million in money from the previous year’s general fund.

All these changes move to help in reducing property tax, as taxpayers asked.  

Contact us at cbranagan@comcast.net  or abartley@leg.state.vt.us

We want to hear from you.

Rep. Carolyn Branagan

Rep. Ashley Bartley

Franklin-1, Georgia/Fairfax