Legislative updates
Public Assets Institute Those who keep a close eye on the State House know that this week is “money crossover”—the deadline for bills requiring significant financial appropriations to move from one chamber to the other. Any bills that don’t cross over by close of business Friday are on hold until next year.
We’ve been watching to see whether the Fair Share for Vermont proposal, championed by Public Assets and the other members of the Fund Vermont's Future coalition, to add a 3 percent surcharge on annual incomes above $500,000 moves on to the Senate. The revenue proposal was added to a housing bill (H. 829), and was voted out of both House Ways and Means and House Appropriations yesterday, so it officially made crossover.
But we’re not the only ones monitoring that bill. Earlier this week, 30 wealthy and high-income Vermonters sent an open letter to the legislature urging them to move forward with the proposal. The letter was picked up by news outlets including WCAX, Seven Days, and VermontBiz.
Public Assets staff and board on the air
Policy analyst Julie Lowell continues to spread the word about the expanded Vermont Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. Catch her and board member Janet Ancel discussing the credits on WDEV’s Vermont Viewpoint this week. And if you haven’t already, please pitch our new tax resource website, TaxCreditsVT.org, to everyone who might be interested.
Steph Yu, our ED, was on WCAX, Montpelier Happy Hour and CCTV discussing this year’s State of Working Vermont. Take a look and, if you’ve got questions or feedback, drop us a line.
FY25 school budgets
School budget builders faced a lot of challenges this year: increased costs, the loss of Covid-era federal funding, and the impact of changes in pupil weighting, which adjusts spending to increase educational equity, based on factors like poverty and school size. All that led to big tax increases in many districts, and about a third of FY25 budgets were voted down on Town Meeting Day. We’re working to understand how this happened, what’s driving spending, and whether the policy changes will get more resources to kids who need them. And we’re talking to our partners about what to do next. Stay tuned.
Jobs reports
We publish two Jobs Reports every March. The first of this month’s reports showed that employment is finally back to pre-pandemic levels, but the mix of jobs has changed. Professional and business-related jobs have increased by nearly 4,000. But the numbers in private education, health services, and leisure and hospitality are stuck below their January 2020 levels.
And here’s today’s Jobs report which reports that in the first two months of 2024 Vermont continues to see mostly positive news on the labor front and Vermont saw a more than 20 percent increase in the number of workers represented by unions in 2023, one of the biggest in the country.
The labor market—and Labor—start 2024 on the upswing
Vermont saw more than a 20 percent increase in the number of workers represented by unions in 2023. Union representation—meaning both union members and nonmembers covered by union contracts—rose to 46,000 in 2023 from 38,000 the previous year, the biggest increase in at least a decade.
From 2018 through 2023, the share of Vermont workers covered by union contracts rose to 15.4 percent from 11.6 percent. That moved Vermont into seventh place among the states, by percentage of coverage. Hawaii leads the country, with more than a quarter of workers represented, while the U.S. as a whole comes in at 11.2 percent, about 16 million workers.
THIS MONTH
In the first two months of 2024 Vermont continued to see mostly positive news on the labor front. The workforce grew in January and February, and employers added 500 jobs in February. The number of Vermonters looking for work was essentially unchanged—down by 11 people from January. One weakness in the job market continued to be a shortage of workers. In January, Vermont had one of the lowest ratios of unemployed people to job openings.
The Vermont unemployment rate is third lowest in the US at 2.3%.
Public Assets Institute. Montpelier. 3.22.2024.