Legislators field questions on housing and education funding

July 20, 2024  |  By Tracy Brannstrom  |  The Valley Reporter 

Lawmakers representing the Mad River Valley held a community forum at the Village Meeting House in Waitsfield recently where they shared their legislative priorities and fielded questions from the audience – with the housing crisis as a critical topic. 

Moderator Willie Docto from Duxbury (left) with legislators at a June forum in Waitsfield: Sens. Anne Watson, D/P-Washington, Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington, Ann Cummings, D-Washington, Reps. Dara Torre, D-Moretown, and Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield. Screenshot

The June 21 panel included Washington County state Reps. Dara Torre, D-Moretown, and Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield, and Sens. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, Anne Watson, D/P-Washington, and Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington. Moose Meadow Lodge owner Willie Docto moderated.  

Cummings pointed to the need for increased housing development across the state. She said that while it currently costs well over $300,000 to construct a simple two-bedroom home – due to material and labor costs – middle-class Vermont residents can afford building costs of up to $250,000. “We need the private sector to really come in and work with us,” she said. 

Cummings said she would like to downsize from her current three-bedroom home for retirement, but can’t find a smaller home on the market that’s affordable. 

Watson talked about her work on the recently enacted bill H.687. Now called Act 181, it aims to drastically reform the land use and development-review law Act 250, which has been seen to impede the construction of affordable housing across the state. The law calls for permitting based on the location of a proposed development – rather than by projects meeting thresholds for density or timelines. In the next few years, the Agency of Natural Resources will be working with regional planning districts and others to create maps showing where development can happen, as well as locations where the environment will require additional protections.  

Torre said there have been concerns coming from Gov. Phil Scott’s office and the public about whether this legislation would “put a stranglehold” on towns that have mountainous terrain and other environmental features that will prohibit development. She said there will be a study conducted about the development needs of smaller towns. 

“The land use piece is the long haul. It’s going to make us build in the right places. But we have a short-term problem,” she said. Torre’s said her hope is that property owners will participate in home-sharing programs, or create rental housing units on their land by utilizing grants through the Vermont Housing Improvement Program – both ways that property owners can house others while also bringing in more revenue that would help them to afford their property tax bills.   

The state recently put $187 million into housing – through programs that tackle housing construction and rehab, emergency housing and shelter, housing for people in recovery and transitional housing for refugees, Dolan said.  

Watson talked about the Flood Safety Act, which aims to prevent future flooding through funding dam safety, changing how dams are regulated, and shifting responsibility for regulating river corridors from municipalities to the state, which she said many towns are grateful for.  

She also mentioned the recently passed Vermont Climate Superfund Act, which demands that the largest fossil fuel companies pay damages for the effects of climate change to the state. 

Perchlik spoke about legislation that will allow more vehicles with rusted rotors to pass state inspection and a host of flood relief funding – including cash payments to all Washington County towns.

The panel also talked at length about what’s gone wrong with the state’s education funding formula and the implications for property tax rates. Community members can watch a recording of the legislative forum on Mad River Valley Television.