Committee reviews fiscal priorities for economic development/housing and advances S.230 amendment on victim self-attestation

The Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee shifted midmeeting to the economic development and housing package, reviewing an interim fiscal note and debating how to prioritize funding under a constrained budget.

Patrick (Joint Fiscal/Office) walked the committee through the table of program requests and noted the bill does not itself appropriate dollars but signals priorities and requests to appropriations. Members discussed moving smaller, targeted items out of the general-fund list (for example, directing funding for a Small Business Law Center to cannabis excise revenue rather than general funds), reducing the downtown/village tax credit proposal from $5 million to $4 million, and cutting brownfields funding in half to lower the package total.

Committee members emphasized the need to show both what the committee is requesting and what was funded last year so they can set realistic priorities. The committee asked Patrick to add last year's funded amounts and the prior-year ask to the materials so members can compare requests, funding and demand.

Later the committee considered draft 3.1 of S.230, presented by Sophie of Legislative Counsel, which would add explicit "self-attestation" language allowing victims of sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence to use a signed statement to support FEPA protections. Charlie Lutheran (policy director, Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence) said the language was acceptable to advocates. A motion was made to approve favorably with amendment (draft 3.1); the committee discussed reporters and next steps and chose a senator to carry the bill forward for reporting to the next stage.

Committee leaders scheduled follow-up work on housing and cannabis bills, requested additional fiscal matrices and historical funding numbers, and asked staff to prepare materials for the next meeting cycle.