May 4, 2023
Housing Bill - Rep. Simms
-House Environment and Energy Committee selected many of the items brought up in Rural Caucus for the amendment
-”25-5-5 threshold” now includes village centers
-Funded “housing navigator” positions in RPCs
-Rural Recovery Council, facilitated by VCRD
-House General Committee’s amendment is being integrated into Appropriations, Environment and Energy is considering additional amendment
-Revolving loan fund, middle income building incentive, first generation home buyer fund won’t make it through to budget
-Hoping that small amounts will find their way back in
-”Any one person” has been changed back to “any ten people”
-Utilities are not all treated the same under Act 250- rural service providers have a higher threshold. Municipalities are not subjected to restrictions
-Even with the revolving loan fund stripped out, there’s still historical levels of investment going into housing this year. The revolving loan idea is in “waterfall”- meaning if revenues are higher than expected, it will be back in.
-25/5/5 thresholds will be voted on Friday or Monday
Bill tracker updates
-H124: capacity building for small towns.
Successes: $3 million in BAA to provide technical assistance. This is making it out the door, there’s an RFP for contractors out now. Using an “Index of vulnerability” to assess each town, a score over 75 means the town is automatically pre-approved. The language around a “rural recovery council” is now in S100
-H263: EMS bill
Successes: Both budgets include significant investments in EMS- education and training, salaries, medicaid reimbursement rates. Also includes $100k for a statewide EMS systems study
-H111: housing bill
Successes: The vast majority is now in S100
-H275: trade school education bill
Did not move at all.
-H105: Community resilience and disaster mitigation fund.
Didn’t go anywhere
-H277: Business exchange bill,
Successes: Many pieces went into the workforce bill
-H81: Right to repair bill
Successes: Rep. Templeman and Rep. Priestley will be presenting on the floor today. This bill will allow loggers and farmers to fix their own equipment.
-H109: Reimbursement for home delivered meals.
Successes: Funding included in house budget
-H367: full Rural Omnibus bill.
-Didn’t move, but pieces have shown up elsewhere.
Summer and fall planning
-Hopefully there will be retreat for Rural Caucus members in the Northeast Kingdom in the fall
-Working to schedule some visits to different infrastructure projects
-Montgomery and their wastewater project could be a good project to visit
-Reach out if you have any suggestions on rural infrastructure projects!
-VCRD will help flag some of these communities
-Attempt at comprehensive Act 250 reform in summer and fall. Rural Caucus has always been engaged in that work
-Potential “Grand Isle County swing”: a trip for caucus members through South Hero, Grand Isle, Alburgh, and Isle Lamotte
-Good examples of both challenges as well as new projects
-Water systems- Alburgh is still pulling water from the lake
-Major food insecurity in rural areas of the islands- Grand Isle county has 1 food shelf with one satellite location for over 6,000 people
-Potential for work with Tourism Caucus- maybe a trip down to Killington/Okemo?
-Examining challenges faced by tourist-heavy areas
-Privately owned water, which has made building and infrastructure work challenging
-Talking as a group about the importance of the charge to ourselves, our mission, why we’re here. What is the focus of the Caucus? How do we set goals?
-Supporting Rep. Williams in Essex County, who is working very half on behalf of the state’s most rural communities. Help boost the victories and take on some of the larger challenges
-Future of the Caucus, and how to track projects and bills going forward
-Potentially having a rural caucus intern, someone who can be tasked with research and data analysis
-Partnering with Norwich and UVM
-Defining as a group what “rural” means to this caucus