During the 2025-2026 legislative session I introduced a number of bills. These include:
•H.519. This bill, which was signed by the governor and is now Act 95, changes the state pension group that the officers of the Randolph Police Department belong. It means that they can now retire with benefits after 20 years, which is standard for law enforcement in Vermont. This will make recruitment of new officers much easier for the Town.
•H.231, which is now Act 47, made multiple changes to our fish and wildlife statutes including enhanced protections for amphibians and reptiles, and threatened or endangered species.
I'm very proud of my work on this bill, which was featured on the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators website. They did a great job of explaining what's in the bill and why it matters for Vermont.
•H.793, the corporate power reset bill, that would help get corporate money out of politics.
•H.732, a bill that would increase income taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters to help lower property taxes for a majority of Vermonters.
•H.242, a bill that would regulate short-term rental properties to help keep home occupied by working Vermonters.
•H.646, a bill that would encourage the owners of derelict residential properties to make these houses inhabitable.
•H.743 to raise the minimum wage of Vermonters to a livable wage, calculated to be $18.60 on January 1, 2027.
•H.326, which would further restrict the use of certain rodenticides. These chemicals poison tens of thousands of people and pets in the US every year and they are often used unnecessarily.
I think, however, in the long term, the most important legislation I've been working on may be that to create a permanent, state-wide citizens' assembly (CA) in Vermont. H.920 outlines what such an assembly could look like and is intended to help elevate the conversation about CAs in the state. This bill is the first of its kind in the US. CAs have been used all over the world in recent years to tackle problems that our ordinary political processes have difficulty with - perhaps most famously in Ireland, where they took on the issue of abortion, among others. There is a recently established permanent CA in Paris, France. CAs bring people together rather than push them apart, support and encourage civil dialogue, and engage ordinary folks in the workings of democracy. The members of CAs are randomly chosen like juries (but participation is optional), and so they are not boxed in by party affiliation, can work on policy without worrying about being re-elected, and are very difficult for special interests to influence. It's not hard to imagine our society with CAs at all levels of government and that such a society that would function much better than ours does now. This would be a natural evolution of our current system, building upon what we already have.
These are the bills that I've introduced this current legislative term. I worked directly with the attorneys employed by the Legislature to write these (with the exception of H.231, which was largely written by legislative staff at the Agency of Natural Resources, and H.519, which was largely re-written by staff at the Treasurer's office). To see a complete list of bills that I've sponsored or co-sponsored you can visit my legislative page.
I will continue to work on these issues!