This final update (after the one-day veto override session on June 20th of the 2023 legislative session) aims to go beyond status updates on the Governor's vetoes but summarizes key takeaways from all bills passed by the General Assembly that we flag as relevant to agrarian communities. For the first time ever, we are also providing an audio recording of the whole thing so that you can listen in while tending to other stuff on and off the farm as well.
We celebrate important gains alongside the Cannabis Equity Coalition for the agricultural status of outdoor producers, for the establishment of cannabis nurseries, the ability for producers to resale products they had manufactured and more. We welcome any feedback about the writeup and recording and will do our best to answer any legislative questions you might have - feel free to reach out to caroline@ruralvermont.org.
Read on or tune in to learn all about the 2023 changes that become Vermont law and are relevant for many farming families' work and lives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
H. 270 (now Act 65) - Miscellaneous Cannabis Bill
H. 472 (now Act 73) - An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects
S. 115 (now Act 42) - An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects
H. 126 (now Act 59) - Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection
S. 100 (Act 47) Development bill, so-called Home Act
S. 135 (now Act 35)- VT Saves Establishes Mandatory Retirement Plans for Businesses w. 5+ Employees
H. 270 (now Act 65) - Miscellaneous Cannabis Bill
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.270
Final Status: The Governor allowed H. 270 to become law without his signature (Governor’s letter).
Key Takeaways: The Governor reasoned not signing H. 270 into law with a critique of the Cannabis Control Boards (CCB) authority: “As an independent entity, the CCB regulates a multi-million-dollar industry with no oversight. Again, while I have complete confidence in the current CCB, this lack of oversight creates the risk for future mismanagement, conflicts of interest and other harmful impacts.”
This law provides important achievements from our coalition's original priorities (Cannabis Equity Coalition priorities).
It includes numerous aspects of agricultural status to outdoor producers as perhaps its most significant and consequential outcome. Specifically, treating all outdoor cannabis growing operations as agriculture would prohibit local ordinances from regulating them as public nuisances or through local zoning different from other agriculture.
It allows cannabis producers to take back into their possession for resale products which they contracted manufacturers to produce from their plants.
It funds its existing social equity program w. $500K (the Cannabis Business Development Fund), and though it makes no direct investments in community members harmed, or communities disproportionately harmed, we did get a study included which will work to develop data by which we can inform the development of a program like this.
It includes a new propagation license that allows for the establishment of cannabis nurseries that serve cultivators in Vermont (though it does not allow for direct sales of plants to the public for license holders)
It increases the number of plants allowed for caregivers and the ability for a caregiver to have 2 patients (among some other very limited improvements to the medical program)
It raises the income threshold for Tier 1 manufactures from $10k to $50k
H. 494 - the Budget
Final status: The budget was vetoed May 27 (veto letter here) and has been overridden on June 20 without changes so that all agriculture relevant budget items remain unchanged.
Key Takeaways:
Protests accompanied the beginning of the veto sessio on the House floor and demanded lawmakers to take action to address the humanitarian crisis of people unsheltered in Vermont and to secure housing for those who just lost their state-sponsored motel housing on June 1st and June 15th and for those just about to be removed from the program on July 1st (VTDigger). Almost 3,000 people, including about 700 children, are affected, making Vermont have one of the highest per capita rates of homelessness in the United States. End Homelessness VT is a group of community volunteers and is currently working to allocate resources to assist people - more info here and on VTDigger here and here.
The House amended the Senate version of H. 171 in an effort to revoke some of the harm occurring by the rollout of an end to the motel program by the legislature. The change requires the Agency of Human Services to keep the motel program in place until alternate stable settings can be identified between now and April 1, 2024. VTDigger reported that this relevant extension would exclude those already evicted in June and that would include many with an immediate need for medical care (more here).
Indeed, Sec. 6 of the amendment describes: “Not later than April 1, 2024, the Agency of Human Services, directly or through its community partners, shall assist in finding or offer to each household housed as of June 30, 2023 [emphasis added] in a hotel or motel through the pandemic-era General Assistance Emergency Housing Program an alternative housing placement, unless a household secures its own housing placement.”
The budget as passed included $50 million for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to build housing, of which $10 million would be for shelter expansions and homes for those experiencing homelessness. Another $10 million aimed to get grants to landlords to get vacant and derelict units back online through the Vermont Housing Improvement Program
One time Working Lands Enterprise Grant Program: 1M stayed unchanged despite the request from Governor Scot and VAAFM to increase funding to $4M (see press release here)
New Ag Development Program: passed with $2.3M appropriation for grants for the meat, maple and produce sectors and grantees in the produce sector will not include hydroponic operations. Secretary Tebbetts and the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets originally requested $10M for this program
Land Access and Opportunity Board: $1.2M base funding for the board to continue its work
Organic Dairy Relief: One-time $6.9M to help carry Vermont’s organic dairies through the year. Organic farmers who were shipping milk in 2022 will get approx. $5/hundredweight of milk shipped to compensate for nightmarish economic circumstances.
Conservation Districts: advocacy to increase base funding for Conservation Districts through VAAFM secured additional $250K to now $612K total. The Conservation Districts started to work on a process to re-write their enabling statute, the Soil Health Restoration Act. Get in touch with your local District Manager or Board of Supervisors to engage with your ideas for how to revitalize local governance and support for land managers and habitat restoration through Conservation Districts.
New! Small Farmer Diversification and Transition Program: One-time VAAFM funding reduced from $350K to $150K
Takeaways:
aims to support small farmers to transition and diversify their operation w. easy access grants of up to 15K
Definition of “small farmer” in this bill refers to any small farm that’s subject to the Required Agricultural Practices
Grants would be used for (1) farm diversification, (2) transitioning farm type, (3) on-farm processing, or (4) add on-farm accessory businesses.
Criteria for grant applications for advancing accessory on farm businesses, farm stands or farm stores include 50% of the annual sales from these business venues need to be from farm products
Securing meaningful additional funds for agricultural programming is hard - as the reduction of this program to 150K from the desired 500K shows, also with an eye to the underfunded Working Lands program. Rural Vermont and allies stressed early on this session (during Small Farm Action Day in February) for lawmakers to look into addressing shortfalls of existing programs with a goal to improve their accessibility and ability to meet on-the-ground needs. We still believe looking into reforming existing programs to address shortfalls is necessary - as pre-existing shortfalls like competitiveness and oversubscription will reoccur with this new pilot.
H. 472 (now Act 73) - An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.472
Final Status: Signed June 19, 2023
Key Takeaways:
This bill makes many small technical changes to statutes related to meat processing, bees and apiaries, and agency regulation of nurseries and pests.
Most of these changes are semantic or insignificant, but the bill does create a new grant program for agricultural fairs and makes changes to apiary registration rules that will be impactful.
Changes to the state’s bee and apiary legislation are intended to bring the statute into alignment with existing agency practices and policy
Change to inspection of bees within 45 days prior to any sale instead of requiring one summertime inspection.
The agency already does inspections within the 45 days prior to selling bees to allow for inspections just before the spring sales of bees, instead of in the annual cycle before the distribution of many hives.
This might require more inspections for those selling bees throughout the season.
Beekeepers near borders will likely need more import permits for moving apiaries in and out of state (see Section 14 of the bill)
Bees that are transported out of Vermont for less than 75 miles away for 30 days or less would require an import permit
There is no import permit required for bees just traveling through Vermont to another destination though that information is now required on the annual report
Changes to the annual report required by VAAFM include
No report on prospective changes to whether the location of an apiary will change in two weeks of report submission
New requirement to report bees, colonies and equipment that are just passing through the state
S. 115 (now Act 42) - An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/S.115
Final Status: Signed into law Jun 1, 2023
Key Takeaways:
Unsafe Dairy Products. VAAFM has the authority to quarantine dairy cows that are suspected of producing unsafe milk or other dairy products because they are suspected of having been exposed to biological or chemical agents that may cause adulteration;
Requirements for the sale and marketing of eggs. Current rules date back to Act 149 (1973) and are online here; the new rules clarify and tighten enforcement rules and add the explicit prohibition into state law to not advertise or label eggs in a false and misleading manner or to sell, offer for sale, deliver, or donate eggs that are adulterated. Previously, this was subject to the more general Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. VAAFM issues a written warning before determining a violation, especially before issuing a cease and desist order. Those affected have 15 days to request a hearing. Penalties for violations have been increased from max. 1K to max. 5K per penalty. But the law counts every day a violation continues as a new distinct offense, and did so in the past, so that the maximum total dollar amount for penalties was increased from $25K to $50K.
Stormwater management on farms. This bill prohibits municipalities from assessing stormwater fees on farms on the basis that the state currently handles agricultural stormwater, with a goal to avoid that farms in some towns are being double-penalized.
The final version of this law does not include the issuance of a report to further assess impacts of potential stormwater management changes for municipalities. VAAFM staff succeeded to oppose municipalities getting into a farms stormwater management (more on VT Digger 4/25)
S. 5 (now Act 18) - An act relating to affordably meeting the mandated greenhouse gas reductions for the thermal sector through efficiency, weatherization measures, electrification, and decarbonization
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/S.5
Final Status: House and Senate did override the Governor’s veto so that S.5 became law
Key Takeaways:
Rural Vermont endorsed advocacy led by 350VT, Vermonters for a Clean Environment and other organizations and advocates in demanding that the Affordable Heating Act should have removed clean heat credits for biomass, liquid biofuels and ‘renewable’ natural gas as they are ineffective at reducing GHGs but rather further institutionalize unlimited growth - in a green umbrella - at the cost of converting forests and agricultural lands to industrial scale fuel production, further threatening biodiversity and clean water.
Rulemaking and implementation planning will provide opportunities for public engagement.
H. 126 (now Act 59) - Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.126
Final Status: Passed into law without the Governor’s signature on June 12.
Key Takeaways:
Mandates conservation goals for Vermont in alignment with federal and international “30 by 30” initiatives with a goal to conserve 30% of Vermont by 2030, and 50% by 2050.
The conservation vision for Vermont is inclusive of working farms and forests and is articulated as follows: “The vision of the State of Vermont is to maintain an ecologically functional landscape that sustains biodiversity, maintains landscape connectivity, supports watershed health, promotes climate resilience, supports working farms and forests, provides opportunities for recreation and appreciation of the natural world, and supports the historic settlement pattern of compact villages surrounded by rural lands and natural areas.”
Defines “sustainable land management” as “the stewardship and use of forests and forestlands, grasslands, wetlands, riparian areas, and other lands, including the types of agricultural lands that support biodiversity, in a way, and at a rate, that maintains or restores their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality, and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic, and social functions at local, State, and regional levels, and that does not degrade ecosystem function.”
Includes a review of conservation categories and how they apply to agriculture in a to be developed Conservation Plan by VHCB and the Secretary of Natural Resources
Agricultural goals include to inform a comprehensive strategy towards conserving agricultural land that would “enhancing the State of Vermont’s current investments and commitments to working lands enterprises, rural landowners, and the broad conservation mission implemented by the Secretary and VHCB, including conservation of agricultural land, working forests, historic properties, recreational lands, and surface waters.”
Types of agricultural lands that will qualify as supporting and restoring biodiversity will be determined to count towards the Natural Resource Management Area category.
Deadlines: the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board is developing a review of conservation categories as part of an inventory by July 1, 2024 and is developing a plan to implement the conservation goals by December 31, 2025. The act includes the mandate to conduct 12 or more public meetings on the plan development between July 2023 and December 2025.
The inventory should also include an analysis of how existing programs will be used to meet the conservation goals and if new programs will be needed.
Part of the conservation goals is also to prioritize ecological reserve areas to protect priority natural communities and maintain or restore old forests.
Includes an appropriation of $150K for the development of the related statewide conservation plan. The conservation plan development is led by the Secretary of Natural Resources; involvement of the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets is not a formal part of the legislation.
S. 100 (Act 47) Development bill, so-called Home Act
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/Docs/ACTS/ACT047/ACT047%20As%20Enacted.pdf
Final Status: signed into law June 5, 2023
Key Takeaways: this bill modernizes zoning and land use regulation in Act 250 to allow for higher density development like the new construction of duplexes or the rehabilitation of housing units to address the housing crisis with a prioritization of the development of areas that already have sewer and water services. Changes include:
Statewide Housing Needs Assessment - Regional planning commissions will inform the Department of Housing and Community Developments estimates on housing needs with a goal to establish statewide and regional housing targets. Their plans should use data on year-round and seasonal dwellings and include specific actions to address the housing needs of persons with low income and persons with moderate income.
Rural Vermont recommends planning commissions to understand the Home Act in concert with the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act that expresses support for “the historic settlement pattern of compact villages surrounded by rural lands and natural areas” as part of the conservation vision for Vermont that also expressly envisions support for working lands businesses. Given the impairments that the housing crisis, development of price inflation, and lack of economic viability in agriculture impose on land access for farmers and farmworkers these pieces of legislation should inspire to seek policies that would facilitate land access as part of this development and conservation agenda. We are going to stress this position as part of the Farm to Plate Land Access and Land Use Topic Exchange, in public engagement processes and in dialogue with stakeholders.
Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming efforts of the “Vermont Association of Planning and Development Agencies that shall consider new methods of public engagement that promote equity and expand opportunity for meaningful participation by impacted communities in the decisions affecting their physical and social environment.” With that public participation they will craft a report on statutory recommendations by December 15, 2023 (see Section 15).
A new prohibited effect of municipal rules might benefit farms who want to develop accessory dwelling units: “criteria for conversion of an existing detached nonresidential building to habitable space for an accessory dwelling unit shall not be more restrictive than the criteria used for a single-family dwelling without an accessory dwelling unit.” (p.2)
New definition of “accessory dwelling unit”: means a distinct unit that is clearly subordinate to a single-family dwelling and has facilities and provisions for independent living, including sleeping, food preparation, and sanitation, provided there is compliance with all the following:
(A) the property has sufficient wastewater capacity; and
(B) the unit does not exceed 30 percent of the total habitable floor area of the single-family dwelling or 900 square feet, whichever is greater.
Review of potable water and wastewater connection permitting with a goal to identify approaches to reduce administrative burdens and costs, simplify and expedite permitting processes for permit applicants and municipalities (more in Section 25). Recommendations will be presented to the legislature in January 2025.
Includes the new middle-income homeownership development program that aims to provide subsidies for new construction or acquisition and substantial rehabilitation of affordable owner-occupied housing for purchase by income-eligible homebuyers.
Allows duplexes for year-round residential housing with changes to the definition of “development” and other tweaks to Act 250
One parking lot required per residential dwelling unit
Efforts to increase compliance with energy codes
Without any specifics or deliverables the act includes an expressed intent of the legislature towards the Department of Housing and Community Development to use some of their close to $24M in grant funds to expand home-sharing opportunities (Section 31); $1M is appropriated for their first generation homebuyer program outlined in Section 34.
H. 217 - Childcare
Final Status: Governor Scot did veto H. 217 6/6/2023 (VTDigger) and, as anticipated, the legislature voted to override the veto 6/20.
Key Takeaways:
H. 217 provides critical financial support for VT families and childcare providers
Legislators who voted against H.217 criticized the establishment of a new payroll tax that would add burdens for all Vermonters, regardless of their income status. In response those in support pointed out that for less than $1/week any family would gain access to otherwise unaffordable childcare.
H. 217 increases the bar for co-payments to $52,500 for a family of four to be eligible to receive a full subsidy from the state. It also upgrades the partial subsidies to families who earn up to 575% of the federal poverty level or $172,000 for a family of four (VT Digger).
Aims to increase access and quality of child care services
Creates a study committee to undertake a stakeholder engagement process and to make recommendations on how to expand prekindergarten education
Aims to increase funds and simplify applications to Child Care Financial Assistance Programs
Establishes subsidies for children otherwise not eligible due to citizenship status as part of the Child Care Financial Assistance program
S. 135 (now Act 35)- VT Saves Establishes Mandatory Retirement Plans for Businesses w. 5+ Employees
Final Status: VT Saves was signed into law on Jun 1, 2023.
Key Takeaways: This new law encourages Vermonters to save for retirement. Employers who don’t sponsor their own retirement savings plans for their employees will be required to set up an individual retirement account with the VT State Treasurer for every employee over 18 years of age when they have at least five employees. Employees have the option to opt out of the program. We’re at the beginning of learning how this is going to work for farms and agricultural businesses - feel free to reach out with your questions to caroline@ruralvermont.org and we’re doing our best to help you access the resources and support you need.
H. 165 (now Act 64) - Universal School Meals
LINK: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.165
Final Status: H. 165 became law without the Governor's signature (Governor’s letter; VTDigger)
Key Takeaways:
Creates a permanent statewide free meals program in perpetuity that will provide free breakfast and lunch to students that qualify
In anticipation of a possible veto override, the Governor allowed H. 165 to pass into law without his signature. In his letter, Governor Scott critiqued universal free school meals regardless of a family’s income, noting that the program will fund free meals for even wealthy students: “With H.165, the Legislature has added $20-30 million in property tax pressure to pay for school meals for all students, including those from affluent families. This will be paid for by all Vermonters, including those with low incomes. That's not progressive education funding policy, it's regressive policy that hurts the very families we are trying to help. [...] And I ask the Legislature to rethink this sincere but regressive policy in the future, so working Vermonters are not paying for the meals of families who could better afford it.”
In difference, our reading of H. 165 clearly ties eligibility of students for free meals to those meeting standards for assistance under the National School Lunch Act or Child Nutrition Act (see p. 5)
The National School Lunch Act defines children eligible for free lunch and breakfast when they are a member of a household receiving SNAP or medicaid; are part of a family that does not exceed 133 percent of the poverty line; are a migratory child as defined in law; are a foster child or homeless (p. 28, 29);
Independent schools are encouraged to opt into the program as well
Appropriation: $29M from the Education Fund to the Agency of Education for fiscal year 2024
In the previous years of 2020 and 2021 the program was paid for by federal pandemic aid funds; in 2022 VT then funded the free meal program from surpluses in the education fund.