January 19, 2023

Meeting began at 8am with an updates from the co-chairs

Updates

-BAA (budget adjustment) has funds for rural capacity and the Agency of Administration has created an Index (how State determines priority)- leadership is working on this, and communicating with the Governor’s team

-Jan 31st is the deadline for getting on the official rural caucus letterhead. Contact Monique Priestley.

-“Parking lot” of potential meeting topics is full of people/groups who want to engage with rural caucus.

            -Talking with house leadership about doing a hearing, either in statehouse or potentially offsite in February

-Jan 24th is the Working Lands party in statehouse caf to celebrate 10 years of the tri-partisan Working Lands initiative.

-Food, cash bar, fiddler and guitar player.

-Grantees and past leaders attending

- VLCT and VCRD are working to address rural capacity, in conversation with RPCs, RDCs.

-Four working groups set up by VLCT and VCRD. VCRD convenes two, VLCT convenes two.

-Looking for one rep from the rural caucus in each working group.

-One is focused a “set aside” for small towns, one is focused on augmenting RPC and RDC funding, one is focused on the potential for a program accelerator, and one is on revenue sharing.

-Meets with stakeholders, trying to get rural caucus representation at every meeting.

-Waiting for final drafts from Leg Counsel on rural capacity and housing bills from Rep Sims/leadership

-Leg counsel is moving slowly due to covid/sickness right now.

-Keep an eye out for sign ons on these two bills.

-Trying to get this out today or tomorrow, trying to introduce early next week

Rural Omnibus Bill

-Goal of rural omnibus bill: caucus speaks together about top priorities to advocate for/monitor throughout the session.

-These can be their own independent bills as well

-You can vote for top 5, voting will happen via google form.

Bill Ideas:

-Rep. J Williams: municipal equity bill would create one standard grant agreement and grant reporting form for all state agencies and departments. These forms would be accessible, brief, and easier to navigate. This bill would permit applicants for grant funds to designate more than 10% for indirect costs. Would also create an index off all grant opportunities across the state for municipalities in one state.

-Rep. T. Buss: Market research studies are expensive and cumbersome for small projects in rural areas. Stories to submit in lieu of large scale market research.

-Rep Sims: Rural admin capacity bill. Many towns lack any full-time town admin. This bill looks at short term stopgap measures to add capacity right now to access ARPA dollars, while also looking to expand RPC and RDC support for communities long term.

-Rep. Sims: EMS stabilization. EMS services are vital and really struggling in small towns. Hard to find volunteers, reimbursement rates are too low. This bill deem EMS essential, investing in special fund, require insurance to reimburse EMS who are treating patients, and more.

-Rep J. Adriano: sliding scale for matching funds and grants. Match requirements can be too high for municipalities and small businesses. Sliding scale system could address this using index system to help small towns access state and fed grants

-Rep. Hango: regional animal control services. Towns don’t have capacity to retain staff on animal control issues, no funds or space. Regional approach would help share cost and admin burden. This entity would be clearinghouse for local animal rescue orgs. Officers and holding locations funded on regional level.

-Rep. Buss: Hard to recruit firefighters and EMS. Modeling after New York state, which offers up to 10% property tax assistance. Must reside in city or town where you serve, residential only. Have too be in service for five years, and municipality can opt in for lifetime benefit for serving more than 20 years. Cap is (like in NYS) at $1500.

-Rep. Buss: Business start-up assistance. When you go to open a business, attestation link that you have to view that shows you required permits, state info. Also provide link to small business development center.

-Rep. Sibilia: Regional small biz assistance. Support of RDCs. Rural business tech assistance exchange modeled after successful “Restart VT” tech assistance program administered by RDCs and funded by CaresACT. RDCS now have robust inventory of tech assistance providers. Critical tools to grow and adapt business: attorneys, architect, CPAs, IT, digital strategy, marketing, etc.

-Rep. Buss: Duplex or triplex assistance. More incentives needed to grow housing options. “Grow our town” tv series or video series, tutorial on homeowners becoming developers. Walking people through local permits, state permits, water, sewer, heat pump tech, thermal, solar, etc. Also, a portal that helps towns track progress on energy conservation recommendations, code compliance, etc. Towns can track data to watch energy goals.

-Rep. Buss: Rental registry, allows us to track short term rental activity, and get data on how this affects housing for local residents. Third tax rate (above homestead rate) for second homeowners.

-Rep. Buss: Buyout of shared equity model: programs (like CHT and others in state) that offer down payment assistance. You only get to recoup some of that equity if you want to sell. A slow buyout would allow people to scale up over time.

-Rep. Sims: workforce housing bill. Addressing housing crisis in communities by breaking down regulatory barriers, investing in middle income housing, and adding capacity at local and reginal level to build access

-Rep. Sims: Disaster mitigation and community resilience. Communities are vulnerable to changing weather events and climate change. No way to make upfront investments to build resiliency- only cleaning up after. Establishing a long term grant fund (one time investment plus additional insurance company contributions?) to help community develop disaster mitigation infrastructure.

-Rep. Adriano: Municipal solar bulk buying. Pooling buying power between towns to bring lower prices on solar buying and finding installers. Programs are opt in, one year to bring together towns that want to do municipal solar together, pass savings onto local taxpayer

-Rep. Templeman: Unposted unpaved VT roads currently have max speed of 50 MPH.Cchanging to 35 would be time and money for towns to do- change this at state level, 35 unless otherwise posted.

-Rep. Sibilia: EV Charging in rural Vermont. Lots of cost associated with it. Buildout of EV charging is great, rural VT is being left out. ACCD should develop a program to fund EV fast charging infrastructure in rural VT.

-Rep. Buss: Pilot project for rural cell coverage. Mac Mountain started in Woodstock, have raised enough funds to pilot 3 cell towers. One ski area and two rural areas. Long stretches- 25-30 mi of no cell coverage. This helps EMS as well.

-Rep. Sims:  Green Mountain Recreation fund. Outdoor rec demand has risen, good for health and economy. This fund would help protect rec assets funded through a portion of state liquor tax. Long term sustainable funding for infrastructure development and maintenance

-Rep. Noyes: State funding for meals on wheels. Many of these programs receive funding through Older Americans Act, 4$ reimbursement towards each meal. No state dollars going to this program. Inflation has asked nonprofits to do more with less, and this would be a good investment.

-Rep Rubio: universal healthcare. Removing obstacle of primary care costs.

-Rep Sims: working land business modernization. Regulations threaten viability of working lands businesses. Builds on work from last session: reducing ag soil mitigation fees, creating Act 250 permit exemptions for small forest enterprises, etc.

-Rep. Sims: Right to repair ag equipment. Currently, manufacturers limit individual ability to repair equipment that they own. This bill reforms existing laws, provides consumers and businesses with equal access to tools, services, parts to help repair equipment without manufacturers help.

-Rep Sibilia: Will be element of state budget, but the Working Lands enterprise initiative. Looking to increase base funding by 4 mil for base of 5mil in fy24. WL enterprise fund is key tool for farm and ag forest businesses. Funding has historically not always been a stable amount. 

Voting

-Monique will email everyone with link to Google form, everyone votes for 5.

-Vote by the end of the weekend

-Voting is for legislators only.

-Some of these bills are already being drafted by leg counsel

-If it is selected, still continue to push individually! Omnibus bills are hard to pass.

Next week:

-Slower agenda, and time for discussion.

-Talk about public hearing. Monique is working with Rep. Coffey on a potential overnight retreat in the Fall

-Parking lot issues: working to move these into agenda

-Will hear from committees and reps as issues begin moving forward.

Question (Matthew Lafleur) How do nonmembers participate?

-email listserv

Get in touch with your representative