Vermont

Vermont Access Network (VAN) Recognition on the House Floor.

On Friday, VAN set up a display and maintained a presence in the Card Room at the State House for engaging with legislators about its work, its budget ask, and S.181. Rep. Headrick gave a brief speech about local access television on the House Floor, and the House as a body recognized the Vermont Access Network.

Review of VAN FY25 Request at the House Committee on Appropriations.

On Thursday, the base appropriation for VAN briefly came up in House Appropriations during JFO’s presentation of the Senate’s changes to the budget.

From the Office of Senator Welch:

Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) convenes leaders from Vermont’s nonprofit theaters under the marquee of The Flynn in Burlington to celebrate the introduction of the Supporting Theater and the Arts to Galvanize the Economy (STAGE) Act. The STAGE Act establishes a new Professional Nonprofit Theater Grant Program to support the theater arts industry and workforce through a lagging recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featuring Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.); Vermont Secretary of Commerce Lindsay Kurrle; Jay Wahl, Executive Director of the Flynn Center; Susan Evans McClure, Executive Director of the Vermont Arts Council; Carol Dunne, Producing Artistic Director of Northern Stage.

Testimony of H.657 a bill meant to modernize Vermont's communications taxes and fees at the Senate Committee on Finance.

On Tuesday, Senate Finance discussed and took testimony on H.657, the Telecommunications Modernization bill. First they walked through a new version of the bill with Legislative Counsel Maria Royle. Senate Finance has amended the bill so that it essentially now does not include fees on communications property or on the use of the State’s right-of-ways, but instead, commissions studies and inventories on those issues. Rob White from the Agency of Transportation testified and noted his appreciation for this move, as an inventory of the poles in the right of way is a significant undertaking. Following all of this discussion, David Healy, a retired GIS consultant who works with the CUDs, and in his past was instrumental in establishing the State’s GIS agency office, testified that the State already had access to most if not all of this data. The Cmte then decided to ask the State’s GIS office to come in to testify about this.

H.657 draft 2.1 (as amended by Senate Finance in draft) :
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/WorkGroups/Senate%20Finance/Bills/H.657/Drafts,%20Amendments,%20Other%20Legal%20Documents/H.657~Maria%20Royle~%20Draft%201.2,%204-23-2024~4-23-2024.pdf