Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good morning, everyone. This is the Vermont House Committee on Finance and Economic Development. It is Friday, 02/20/2026 at 09:04 in the morning. We're using our Friday half hour before the floor to hear from our legislative interns, Bailey and Cabot. One's from Norwich, one's from UVM. Cabot, were you did you wanna go first? Yeah. Think that's alright.

[Cabot Sales (Legislative Intern, UVM)]: Morning. For the record, Cabot Sales, intern from UVM. I will be reporting on some hearings that I was watching with from senate economic development housing general and senate education. So starting on Tuesday, senate economic development housing in general discussed s three twenty eight, accolating the housing and common interest communities, specifically adding a 20% density bonus to construction projects that use union labor. And also on Tuesday, Senate Education was discussing CTE. They got a report regarding data on CTE from the secretary of educate of the agency of education. And there is information, overview of the data that they provided in my report. And also online, there is a link to the AOE's report that I'm also happy to discuss or go over any specific CTE data that they discuss now if you have any questions about that. They also heard from the Department of Labor related to CTE. Yeah. If you have any questions about that, skip any time. Wednesday, they moving back to economic development, housing, and general affairs, they heard from the small business development center and Common Good Vermont about resources available to businesses and nonprofits and heard their asks there. And Thursday, economic development, housing, and general affairs discussed s one seventy three, which is an act relating to workers' compensation, and that discussion was about removing the screening process for vocational rehabilitation services. They are favorable of that right now, but there was a specific question that came up that they said maybe the house could think about this, which is, will removing the screening process actually save money in the system by providing people the services they need to get back into the workforce sooner, or will that lead to people getting unnecessary vocational rehab services? So that was kind of left in the air. They also discussed s two thirty, which is an act relating to flexible working arrangements, and they specifically added teachers to the Family and Medical Leave Act. They're repealing a provision allowing for mandatory retirement for tenured faculty, and they're aligning the definition of crime victim to other statutes there. So that's their discussion on that.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: And that's all I have for this morning. Any questions? Good. Alright. Thank you, Trevor. Bailey, good morning.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Good morning. My name is Bailey Davis. I'm the Norwich intern for the committee. So my task this week was to look into, some recommendations, made by the Vermont Association of Career and Technical Directors. So that's the the CTE director organization here in Vermont, and they had some recommendations for policy revisions. And so, basically, what I did is I looked into what states have implemented some of those, at least in some part, as well as if Vermont currently does any of those. So the first thing that they recommended was credit recognition. So, basically, if if CT students have credit from their CTE instruction, whether or not that credit can be recognized through other schools. States like Massachusetts has something called chapter 74, and that's that means that approved CTE programs can grant them statewide recognition and academic credit. So the but with that being said, the districts, because of that act, much must, like, mandatorily honor, approved coursework towards graduation credit. Connecticut has done the same. Their CTE centers award academic credit as well. Same thing with New Hampshire. They have state approved CTE competencies that count towards graduation credit, and then Pennsylvania is another example. But Vermont does allow this. However, it's not consist con like, it's not consistently followed, generally speaking. It's it's generally the just at the discretion of the receiving district to honor that credit or not. So that means that it's not really consistent. So some places may take that credit, some places may not. The second thing they recommended was the modernization of CTE rules and regulations. So Massachusetts, like I said before, with chapter 74, they're period periodically revised through input by a CTE director. Texas has their state board of education who regularly updates CTE. Indiana structures their CTE in a framework that allows for them to update, frequently update funding and and regulation and whatnot. And then another example I have

[Unidentified Committee Member]: here is

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Tennessee. They completely modernized their CTE rules in compliance with what I talked about last week, Perkins five, which was the the federal bill that that mandated a lot of the modernization and certain standards be met. So as of now, Vermont doesn't have or hasn't gone gone over a complete overhaul in at least a few decades. Updates mainly occur kind of piecemeal, so they don't happen all at once. Instead, they happen there's a certain, like, section that's looked into. So I know, like, for example, if you were to look into kinda like what I was doing, right, looking into, particularly educators, or particularly, like, I don't know, maybe the credit, requirements or the academic requirements for students, it's kinda been done in that way where it's like you look into little issues rather than updating the whole system. The third thing they recommended was defining program quality, and and that's without, mandating, like, a uniform, I guess, a uniform way of providing CT education. So Maine permits the regional centers like we have here in Vermont, but also satellites and then also, like, the varied, academic integration. So they could have maybe CT education happening at just your local well, I guess not maybe not local, but state universities and whatnot, so public institutions. New York does the same. They allow, like, the regional flexibility, so those regional CTE centers while also mandating standards directed from the state. Like I said before, Vermont does allow, informally, that sort of regional center. So, like, you'll have the full day centers, regional satellites, and then embedded academics. So, like I said, we have the, the Vermont Technical College over in Randolph. So they do some of that integrated CT with them. And then I'll I'll I think I, a few weeks ago, put down all the centers we have here in Vermont, so it's kinda like that regional aspect. The the only issue with Vermont is that there's no statute that that clearly mandates certain standards, certain quality standards, while allowing some of those, like, different regional places to do kind of do what they're specialized in. So the Vermont doesn't really have something that comes from the state that says, this is what you must do in particular, like like, as as does Maine. But they do allow, you know, for the flexibility for those CT centers to to specialize in their own fields. So, like I said a few weeks ago, Burlington, for example, like, more a bit you know, up and coming aerospace industry, technology industry. But then if you go somewhere else, maybe you're looking more at, like, you know, the traditional technical education sense, maybe carpentry or, like you know, going to you know, being an electrician or something like that. The fourth aspect that they recommended changing was the funding. So Massachusetts is is one of the examples I have here. Their foundation budget includes CTE weight, so funding is formula driven. If you want, I can look into more of that formula. I don't have it here, but I think that would be interesting. New Hampshire provides the CTE education aid through some formulas similar to Massachusetts. Here in Vermont, though, funding relies on tuition billing between districts. So if a student from one district wants to go to another, typically, that funding has to come from the district that the student left and the student, originally came from. And then the fifth thing was, preenforcement intervention pathway. So Massachusetts through chapter 74 requires department oversight, which includes structured review and escalation for compliance. Connecticut has a centralized CT system that allows for early intervention before formal enforcement. So this is just obviously enforcement to say if one of those centers or one of those you know, anyone who's providing CT education is actually in compliance with state statute. Vermont, like I said, does have obviously has some statutes and rules, but there's no, I guess, early intervention to actually enforce those rules. It's it's it's there's just nothing in place here as, you know, a state like Massachusetts would have or Connecticut or New Hampshire. So and yeah. So I mean, if there's any questions, I'm gonna open up the questions now if there's any questions.

[Monique Priestley (Clerk)]: Bailey, this is great stuff. Very, very appreciated. So the information I'm

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: just trying you know, I'm

[Unidentified Committee Member]: trying to struggle where files are put and stuff like that.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Mhmm. Do you

[Monique Priestley (Clerk)]: see inform it sounds like you've inputted this to a document. Did that get folded into last week's doc? Is the information in last week's document updated, or is there some other document?

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Should you I can I can, yeah, I can get you the updated document? Didn't I wasn't able to upload this before the 05:00 deadline just because last night because I I was looking into it last night.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: So

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. That's that's great.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Weekends. But, of course, yeah, I'd be more than happy to get this to you. Of course.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So thank you very much. That'd be great, Bailey. I think this is something we wanna pass on to our alleged counsel as well. We're we're starting we'll give her the opportunity to take a look at some of the research that you've done Certainly. When they're talking.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Mhmm. Certainly. Yeah. And I

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: mean,

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: obviously, some of those more niche things, obviously, I wanna look into, like, a lot of funding too because that could I mean, that's a huge rabbit hole. And, really, it's hard to do it justice in in ten minutes. So I feel like I'm kinda skipping over stuff, but it's obviously something that, you know, kinda makes or breaks some of this stuff.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So Yeah, for sure. Thank you.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: So, Bailey, just so you know, our joint fiscal office is currently contracting with an outside group to help us come up with how that funding should work going forward. As you get information, would like to share it with them as well so that they I'm assuming they're being paid full time to do this, not as a side project. If you're collecting information that they don't have access to, I think that's going to be helpful. But when you're number one, which is the graduation requirements, All of the states, you've said, the other states that you mentioned, clearly delineated which graduation requirements tech centers have oversight over. Is that what I was supposed be saying?

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Yeah. I can I mean, obviously, I can give you more specifics? I know for Massachusetts that that chapter 74 is kind of a a big ticket item when it comes to this. And so part of that part of that required that CT programs grant statewide recognition for that credit. So if you know, and and my assumption is, obviously, what that means is if you're doing a program at a CT school, right, that can then be transferred for credit into, like, any other state statewide institution as opposed to here where from what I've done, you know, from my research of guess my my assumption from my research is that here in Vermont, it seems like that's highly dependent on the actual accepting institution. So it's it's kind of here, know, hit hit or miss sort of. It's you may get that credit recognized or you may not.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. You're exactly right. That's how it works here. The sending school gets to choose how the tech credit is used or not used. And it's it's a time issue. It's a time issue for all of the institutions. You have multiple sending schools into one tech school. So it's much more complicated that way. Yeah. Great. Thank you.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Of course.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Questions?

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Okay.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern, Norwich University)]: Alright. Thank you.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Thank you, Bailey. Any information from the that is your following, Michael?

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: 588. I looked at that. I didn't really I don't think it really applies to us.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: What is

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: it? That's the office of professional regulation. It's talking about licensing and mean, the consumer protection, guess, kind of, but I don't know. I don't really think it does. That doesn't really help in my report, but Is it just

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: are they looking at the fees or the pricing fees? No. They're looking at They're looking at

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: They actually have a nice document online. I can pull it up if you wanna go around to somebody else.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: I got nothing in the energy. I mean, a lot of it is around, you know, metering and stuff that probably has something to do with problems.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Ag and food resilience and, corrections in institutions are seeing many of the same people we are on FY twenty seventh budget requests. They also are getting hit by, say, the the fair associations and some of the other groups which have a significant, at least local, you know, economic impact. And I noted that Ag Committee has a bill that looks at fair labor standards and workforce housing standards, which may have some implications clearly for workforce. I don't know to what extent they go into that, but that is something they're on their radar and they're working on.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: So in healthcare, it's a little fluid. I'm actually just got their budget document, and it's still unclear what they're including in terms of scholarship and loan for various buyers and stuff. They did restore one area, but I think there were a few other components, and I'm still trying to data. In terms of workforce, I think that's what they're doing a whole lot of budget stuff, but in terms of our

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: They say they're looking at three AI The four, yeah. They're looking at

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And depending on which ones they take up, there's ones that I would say, like, expand the scope beyond health care. So yeah. Nothing in judiciary. That's other course that

[Unidentified Committee Member (remote)]: Everybody, sorry. I can't get my phone my camera to work. Transportation is still going over the budget. They had maintenance in to go over the RIF and to try to get a better understanding of how the slowdowns and maintenance are going to affect things. So yes. Hang on just a second. I I'm so sorry. I actually there's a cop that's pulled me over. Okay? Oh, no. I I pulled over on the side of the road, the cop is is, I think, checking in.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Oh, okay.

[Unidentified Committee Member (remote)]: Okay. I will I'll talk to y'all later. Okay.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: I mean, that's good because if she's pulled over, they're checking on

[Unidentified Committee Member (remote)]: her. Yeah.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: So the OPR, think, so especially in enabling office professionals to rescind licenses due to errors and non payments, one thing is enable OPR to enforce against attempted fraudulent or deceptive procedure or use of a license. But again, just don't know if that really requires us to take a peek.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: And if there's nothing that's changing don't one's licensing requirements, putting sometimes we weighed in, like on their preceptors, There was a big issue with that, where we couldn't really Hospitals couldn't utilize nurses that had worked in the hospitals for a long time because there were specific qualifications if they needed that, like they needed a Master's and they didn't take into consideration someone's longevity of work. We weighed in and pushed them to make some changes so that it would allow for nurses to become the receptors in the hospital it used to be like forty, fifty years ago.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: So they have a very detailed purpose of what the bill does. I'm just going to forward it to you.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: I just wrote.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: Oh, okay. Am I right? It's not really

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Mean, it adds a dental teacher. So it adds a profession where you don't have to pay, but you can actually teach dentistry, which is something that we need in Vermont. It's going to And allow then, yeah, there are couple of other things there. But you're right, there's nothing that we need to weigh in on. They're also looking at foreign licensure and how to make it easier for folks who are licensed outside of The US to keep their license in this.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: Maybe that could be part of our sister statement.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: No. But I mean, it could be part of keeping our workforce. Yeah. Which is Yeah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. For sure.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Like, in that workforce motif, is they doing anything specifically with expanding the range of activities that optometrists can do as opposed to an ophthalmologist or with CPAs? It's the other one that I'm particularly

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: So the extent of my knowledge would be the document. Okay. Orange desk is I I apologize. I I don't know if they did it.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: I didn't see the CPA piece, but you're right. We need to check-in because I I was told that was gonna be in there. Oh, the CPA piece about going

[Unidentified Committee Member]: to four years versus five. That

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: would be good. Do you see it, Michael? Yep.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: So that the out of state accountant does not need to obtain a state license if they both are licensed in any state, passed a uniform CPA examination, and have a permitted combination of education and experience.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: So it doesn't reduce the hours necessarily?

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: It would

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: just accept another state.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Yeah. I

[Unidentified Committee Member]: will look into that document, but for optometrists, I know, for example, my optometrist is looking to retire, and he can't find anybody to take over his practice because they can't do things they're being taught to do, and Vermont prohibits them from doing it under current license or license Oh, yeah. Relations.

[Michael Boutin (Member)]: There's a lot of the.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So, Cabot, Bailey, thank you both for your work this week. We appreciate it. We'll see you next week, and we're due on the floor now. And we're back here ten minutes after the floor. We have some students coming in to chat with us.