Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good morning. Welcome to the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. Today is the first day of spring, March 20. It's nine o AM. And as we do on every Friday, we started off with some reports from our legislative interns. And so I don't know which one of you would like to propose. Okay. Great. Thank you, Darren.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: Morning, everybody. My name is Bailey Davis. I'm the committee intern from Norwich. So my task this week was to track all the bills that came from this committee that got passed over to the Senate, with the exception of stuff in the Senate's economic development committee of affairs, which obviously Cabinet is tracking. So there's not too, too much outside of that. There's four bills, two of which are older, but are still technically in committee. And the two committees that have those bills are Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Judiciary. So first and foremost, House Bill 34 is an older one. It's been the Senate Finance Committee since fivethirteentwenty twenty five. So like I said, it's kind of an older one that's just been sitting there. The two that are of interest, though, for us that are a little bit newer is House Bill six forty eight, an act relating to banking, insurance, and securities. That one was read the first time in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Finance. That's been there since 02/04/2026. And then House Bill six forty nine, an act relating to captive insurance companies. That one was passed by both the House and the Senate, and it was delivered to the governor as of two days ago, threeeighteentwenty twenty six. And then for the Senate Committee on Judiciary, this is an older one as well, That's House Bill three forty two, inaccurate relating to protecting the personal information of certain public servants. That one was read the first time and referred to that committee. That one's been sitting there since April, April 2, but it's still technically in committee. So with all that said, are there any questions?

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Yeah, the captive insurance one is being signed. And the other ones, I don't know the status. Suspect the chair knows that those are probably being woven into Senate bills, would be my guess. Great, thank you. What you're going to find is that we just passed a bunch of them this week, so you'll have more stuff Okay. For

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: mean, certainly, obviously, if there's any questions related to any of these, can book specific details, but of course, I just wanted

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: to get a general overview first. Yeah. That's great, and you, you looked up their status. You know that you can also look at them when they've done their most recent testimony, just like, so after it's been deferred, then look at what dates they've done testimony on this to see if did you do any of that?

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: I was trying to look through some of the agendas. I know for some of the older ones, I'd be a little bit harder because I'll be going

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: through

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: the agendas. But for some of the newer ones, I was through some of the agendas. Obviously, the one that was passed by the House and Senate had all the way to testing on, like I said, it's through the process. In regards to House Bill six forty eight, I can certainly look into the status on that.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Anyone have any questions for Bailey? Thank you.

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: Morning. Morning, everyone. Abbott Sales, intern from UBM. I'm going to be talking about the Senate, Department of Housing and General Affairs again, some bills that went there and that came here. I'm to start with S-one 173, which is now here. I'm not gonna go over the summary because I'm sure you all know, but some discussion from the committee, most recently was about whether the governor should be able to appoint members of the working group. There was no decision on that. And an earlier discussion from the committee, gave a specific question to the house, and that was, will removing the and this is the bill, related to vocational rehabilitation. And they'll be removing the screening process is what's proposed in this bill. So the specific concern is, will removing the screening process actually save money in the system, or will it lead to more people using more expensive VR services than they actually need? And there was some debate about that, and that's the standing question there. Also, they discussed age six thirty nine, data privacy. Some specific questions that came up in discussion committee were around de identification. So once data is de identified, it falls out of the bill's protection. Senator Clarkson raised the question whether that creates a gap for research. The committee's sentiment was positive, but they do want experts to weigh in on that. They also talked about interstate differences. Senator Barack questioned the burden of companies navigating 50 different state privacy laws. And Chittenden raised the concern what happens when Vermonter moves to a state without these protections. They also were talking about law enforcement access. Senator Weeks noted that genetic and biometric data is important for law enforcement and intelligence. And the committee wants Vermont State Police to come in, confirm that the warrant requirement language doesn't create unintended problems. There were also questions about health care. Senator Chittenden raised the concern of whether patients should have the same rights with their doctors that consumers have with testing companies around genetic data.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Could you repeat that last one?

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: Oh, that last one. Whether patients should have the same privacy rights with their genetic data regarding their doctors as consumers with testing companies. And who was that? Shannon Weeks, you had? That was Chittenden. Oh, okay. Yes. And then you came out to age five twelve, maybe that you didn't read that That's correct. Discussion here was around individual resellers. There were questions around the bill technically applying to anyone, including personal sellers. Chittenden that this is something that they should look at more. And it was noted that the AG would likely chase individuals, but theoretically, there could be violent cases. They also discussed platform regulation versus just seller regulation. Senator Chittenden again identifies that if you resell at 110%, you might not make your money back with any fees from the platform. And the bill doesn't regulate what platforms charge, only what resellers can charge buyers. And then reseller status. So Senator Chittenden questioned when Ticketmaster acts as a primary seller versus a reseller, since it can function as both depending on the context. And they just discussed that that distinction matters for the cap. And then there were questions about the actual cap number at 110%, and they want to dig a little bit deeper into why that was chosen. And Legg Council is not afraid of comparison of what other jurisdictions have enacted. Both h 12, h five twelve, and h six thirty nine are going to need more follow-up, and they're gonna have more discussion on that going forward. In the report, if you'd like to oh, yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Go ahead. Yeah. So the question about seller versus reseller, I guess. Yeah. And I think you mentioned Ticketmaster. So and and we we had that that provision in the bill that talked about those kind of issues. Were they concerned about that particular provision? Or They were. In other words, who are acting under contract with the event. Right. So what was the discussion about that? Who was concerned about what?

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: Yeah. That was senator Chittenden. Okay. And I think they really want more like, we had there was last testimony in this committee Sure. Actually, like, the sub hub and and such, and I think they want more clarity on how that actually works. And there's just questions about in what capacity does Ticketmaster actually act as a primary seller when they have a contract.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Any other questions on that?

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: I also included in this report some information on H548 and H775. That is labor relations and rural financing, if

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: you'd like to look at that. Listen, I know what you found. I don't know if they're all under our jurisdiction, but I'm happy

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: to do that. So labor relations, age five forty eight, that was produced by Connor Casey, and that would create a state labor mediator position housed on the Vermont Labor Relations Board, And that is based on the Congressman's cutting of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service from one forty seven mediators to six. And additionally, Vermont's launch time FMCS contact was let go in April. So discussion around that was caused. Private mediators are very expensive, and an in house full time mediator would likely be cheaper. There were questions on how much work a mediator would actually have being a full time mediator in Vermont. And they discussed having a contractor versus having a full time employee mediator. They also discussed confidentiality, and a new subdivision was added to the BLRB to develop policies insulating mediation communications from board members and other staff. The appropriation for that would be $250,000 for two positions, a mediator and a staff attorney of the BLRB, which currently operates with essentially 1.5 staff and administrating seven labor statutes. And then page seven seventy five is rural financing, and that is a six part housing finance bill designed to address financing gaps in rural Vermont where existing tools fall short. So the components of that are special assessment revenue bonds, which allow municipalities to issue revenue bonds with only property owners on the book needing to vote. This addresses instances where opponents of the development used to bond votes to kill projects even after the selector approved them. Mod a modular and manufactured home accelerator. This would use the state treasurer's 10% for Vermont program and expand that to 12.5 with an additional 1% credit facility for bulk purchasing of off-site housing. VHIP refunding, currently VHIP requires landlords to advance their own money and get reimbursed. This gives the Department of Housing and Community Development explicit statutory authority to front the money for capital constrained projects. VIDA expansion is to allow VIDA to finance multifamily residentials. It's, again, the raising the Vermont program from 10% to 12.5%. And then municipal housing targets and reporting. This would ask municipalities to incorporate state housing targets into their land use plans. If they can't meet the targets, report back to the Parks and Recapartment of Housing and Community Development to explain why. And a lot of the language in this bill is very similar to S-three 28, which is the Senate Committee's housing bill. So they're going to look at a side by side comparison of those two.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So I have for this one. Any questions for Kevin? I mean, I know that the housing piece isn't really our committee, but on the other hand, it does touch into a number of things that we have done, including, as you didn't say it, but you said that they framed it as that the CHIP program is oversold for rural or small projects, couldn't make the tax increment financing work. So some of these are our strategies to try and address that. And then, and as you said, some of the, that we certainly do, we weighed in on the beta expansion, in on the impacts on BHIPS and its applicability to workforce housing.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Okay. Yeah. Not directly our,

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: keep including that or just focus like in the beginning on the bills that came from. Kansas? Wouldn't mind to keep including it because, I mean, I do report to my constituents once each weekend. Housing is a huge issue, but I have that extra information. It's very helpful to me. It's actually

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: a different way to feel. Yeah, I agree.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Senate bill number on housing?

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: That was, the Senate one is S-three 28. Yes.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: And I have some seconds I can find. Let me have a little update on x one seventy three, which we've been doing recently. And then also some of their concerns around the genetic data privacy, six years behind. Well, thank you. Thank you. And as I said, we voted out a bunch of bills this weekend. And so there'll be some more things for you to follow next week. And then there may or may not be some additional projects. Were going to do one research thing that I think we've backed off on this.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Maybe one of you would like to take a look

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: at the pending issue. Oh.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Mhmm. Because we are gonna have conversations about that. We have eight thirty seven we're gonna take up next week, but I think that's based off the Canadian how the Canadians dealt with with removing the panic. But it may be good if you can take a look at that and find out what the ramifications are so that we're aware. I think there's, you know, there's certainly tax ramifications, terms of collecting or not collecting sales tax and rooms and meal stocks. You know, ramifications for retailers. I think it's a whole host of things. You're using cash, those are more of the ramifications than if you're transferring money back and forth online because you can do the penny there, but it's not gonna happen when you want to cash things out. I mean there's a whole host of things that I think we want to think about, so yeah, it's something we'd like to look at. Yeah. Do you want do want Cabot or Bailey to do that? It's whichever one that's I'll leave that. Alright.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: We'll we'll we'll we'll chat. We'll discuss it. Yeah. Any other projects that that you think are Not yet. Talked about

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: the predominant development. 337? 327. 327. Didn't talk about that.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: What's that? We haven't talked about that?

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: No. So that's coming over here at some point. Do you know where it sits right now? In the street? Yeah,

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: the appropriations amendment was

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: a bit of

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: a blood cutting. No.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: A shock.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: But the the the they struck most of the bill.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: The the language what? Is there some language that's gonna over here, I hope? There's some language. Yeah.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: There's a couple provisions, the study, the report, and I think the downtime tax credits are still in there.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: The finance then too.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Right. So it may just be by the time we get it, it may just be the report as well.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: As long as we have a bill.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Appropriations deleted. Everything they could. Right.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: It's always, you know, it's gonna depend on what comes over here from from the senate where we'll have you take a look at Should have them take a look at the right to repair on medical devices.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: It's a good idea. I'll

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: talk to you soon and see who wants to

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: which of those. That's something that we're I think we won't take up this year, but it's something that if we could tee up for next year, if next year's committee wants to deal with that. That we took a little testimony yesterday, Took testimony weeks ago on the group. So I think it's interesting. It's a problem.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Have a good week, Don. Yeah. Good. Glad to be back. You didn't get out. You had a drill. Yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: No. I I think it's quite a break, but he

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: made it. Alright.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Thank you both. Thank

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: you. Anything the committee has?

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: The bill that is on a fortieth

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Is it para quam, para quam? Or No. It was Vegetables. Vegetables. So

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: they're talking about common this was condos and common spaces. That's UCC, which is we dealt with some of that a number of years ago. Oh, interesting. So when I'm looking at it, I'm going, that's our domain too. Yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Yeah. There's been a lot. Oh, interesting. Yeah. We should have Yeah.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Man, but that's I think we haven't really yeah. But we didn't you all haven't dealt with it. I did.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Yeah.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: So I remember it. Yeah.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. That's not intuitive that that would be UCC. No.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: But yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: You can say. Catchy title.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Who would know? Who knew? Yeah. I thought that was interesting when I was looking at that. Of course, you have to have

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: a right vegetable garden.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: UCC, Well, you know, when you're looking at agreements Yeah. I know. I get it. We were dealing with I get it. You know, how they sell a condo someone that hasn't paid their their association fees and things that we dealt with a lot of that a number of years ago. And so it all came rushing back. I told Richard Nelson, it's all one piece in there where they talked about the association has has the ability to tell them what what containers they can use. I told Richard, I said, well, what if they don't want you to do it? They're gonna tell you you can have a container that big. Well, we have reason why it's nice. You have reasonable in the the section down below it, but not there. Yeah. But you might wanna look at that because they may not be planting too much, but posing or something.

[Bailey Davis (Legislative Intern)]: Of course, I have to ask the

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: question, is wheat a vegetable?

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: when we're done before, we're done today. Think the weather they're talking about the weather getting crappy at k. 12:30, 01:00 here, so starting to snow. Okay. I think in the South, it's gonna turn to rain, but so we can get out, it's been a long week anyway for a long long two weeks, I think. So next week, Tuesday, we have the Japanese general counsel from coming in at 09:00. We have we're going to have more discussion on one seventy three s one seventy three, the what we have bill. You can hear some testimony, a little bit more testimony, then we'll dig into that the week after. But also, we'll take we'll start looking at eight thirty seven. And my thought with eight thirty seven is to put that into the economic development bill that comes over so that we can do something with that. So give us an idea and whoever what information you all can gather for us who will be really helpful to take a look at that. So we'll hear from a retailer, we'll go Cameron's the drafter, and I think it represents Casey, is the was the sponsors. We'll hear from them on Tuesday, Wednesday morning. We'll hear from Common Good. They'll be over here. It's their day here. We're on the floor at 10:00 on Wednesday for Caucus of the Whole for the Budget. 10:30 is thirty is in judicial retentions. We'll be on board till noon at least on that one, and we're on the floor at one. So Wednesday, be much here. Yeah. Okay. I'm looking to set up CTE again on Thursday. I waiting to hear from secretary Saunders to see if they'll be able to provide us with the answers to those questions that we we asked last week and continue our discussions on CTE. My understanding is the bill is we'll get that bill today from the Senate, CTE bill, we have something that we can look at too. We may, I think we'll schedule a walk through of that too, number it is. At the same time, Wednesday morning, after we hear from Secretary Sanders. So all Wednesday Thursday. Sorry. It's all Thursday morning. Friday, we haven't discussed that prior

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: yet, but it

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: may still be the CT back to the floor. April 2, are definitely gonna show up to Randolph. Good morning. We have we need to be back to the floor at one. That's our Thursday night. That's the one that's Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. We may not be going in, because I think we're supposed to have a joint hearing.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Oh.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. That's not gonna work then. Thank you for reminding.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good catch.

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: Did you

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: do a representative?

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: If somebody wants to go down, Kirk, you can go. You're right there. Is

[Abbott Sales (Legislative Intern)]: it just on the side

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: in there? I'm sorry.

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: Can't believe you

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: that. It's the

[Kirk White (Ranking Member)]: that one, though. It's the The lumber dealers. The lumber dealers. Oh. Bright futures. Bright futures. Bright futures. They're fine. So the longest future. So

[Edye Graning (Vice Chair)]: I think we need to check with Kiera in that April 2 manufacturer's date. And who's who's doing that, Sean? Yeah. The good. Your state working through you? Who is who is it? The chamber. The chamber. So can you find out from Megan and Jeremy they're looking for a joint hearing? Sure. I'm not I really haven't heard much. If they are if they are not, then make sure we will go. So we'll find out. Okay. Let's see. Yeah. So let's go offline. We gotta get to the floor. So everyone have a good weekend. Get set up

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: and