The Legislature is bogged down in funding, or lack of funding, on many issues this year. One of the big issues in the Legislature this year is education funding and as part of that, changes to Tech Center funding and ‘governance’.
Career Technical Education Improvements
The Senate Education Committee has the lead on Tech Center issues this year. They have introduced a bill very similar to the previously discussed H.716. The Senate bill, S.304, has received testimony in committee from many CTE educators.
This week, they also heard from VRLDA’s own Tim Comes of Goodro Lumber and Ed Druke of WW Building Supply.
Tim and Ed bring decades of experience of interaction with their local Tech Centers; the Senators told me afterward that they were impressed with their passion and knowledge. And more importantly, they will be passing this bill out of committee in a few weeks. S-0304 As Introduced.pdf (vermont.gov).
Municipal Overweight Permitting
In February we met with the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Wanda Minoli, and also with the Fuel Dealers and the Associated General Contractors, to discuss next steps to address the difficulty of getting municipal permits to each March. The Commissioner asked us to work with them to ensure the electronic permitting system they are building works for our members—both for state permits and for municipal permits. What does this mean? DMV is hiring a computer system contractor right now and expects to sign a contract in March. System implementation is planned for late summer, 2025. That system will have the capacity to apply for municipal permits as well as state permits.
Building Bright Futures 2024
In March, as you know we will have the Bright Futures event at the Randolph campus of the Technical College—now called Vermont State University. Legislators are interested in attending, particularly as they are working on CTE improvements this session. We are coordinating with the House and Senate Education Committees regarding their attendance at the event. Stay tuned.