Today is the start of a one week break in the session. A lot has happened but even more remains to be done. The week started with a public hearing on the retention of Judges Carroll and Pearson and Magistrate Peterson. A number of Lamoille County lawyers recommended to the committee that Judge Pearson be retained. Two also spoke to the acting judge work of Magistrate Peterson. Vernon representative Mike Hebert testified in favor of Judge Carroll but no lawyers from either Windham or Bennington Counties made the trip north. The meeting was short lived and, after consulting a bit further with each candidate for retention, the committee adjourned. I expect they will vote unanimously to approve all three when they next meet on March 14th. The joint assembly vote will be held on Thursday, March 22nd.
This week I focused on the Senate Natural Resources Committee which was attempting to finalize its work on three bills of interest to most of you. The permit reform bills (S.28 and H.513) have generated much testimony, mostly contradictory. Those bills don’t have committee support to move forward. However, the committee will have one more week to find consensus on the “modified on the record” approach; this could be in the form of a pilot project in a district environmental commission.
They also tackled the energy disclosure bills. They began with S.143 as introduced. It would set up a voluntary disclosure and then replaced it with the house version, the mandatory disclosure. Well after a week of back and forth, it’s now back to the voluntary version. But it’s not over. The bill will contain a mandatory provision requiring a seller to provide the disclosure if a buyer requests it. The bill still contains the database of energy reports. I testified in opposition to the bill and its effects on transfers of title as well as the possibility to stigmatize a property with a negative report. There’s a long way to go with this one.
S. 179 may be ready to move out of committee; it’s the bill concerning amending perpetual conservation easements. The original bill calling for a panel and a lot of process has been scaled way back. There will be a working group on conservation easements that the VBA will have a seat on. I’ll report more on this when the session resumes. Since what I’m referring to is still in draft form and has not been voted on as of this writing if you want to see its present form I’ll have to send it or fax it.
The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday voted out a committee bill by a vote of 6-5; H.763 proposes to have the department of taxes collect the education tax! Calm down; it’s not set to begin until 2015 and there are some steps that need to be taken before that happens. The bill is controversial as you see in the vote. The problem for us is that the bill also contains the exemption from privacy of the net tax bill for lawyers, their paralegals or assistants in connection with real estate transactions. If this bill is in trouble we’ll need a vehicle to attach that language to in order to enact it. The bill calls upon working groups to weigh in on technical areas affected by the Department’s billing. I will present this to the Board of Managers at its meeting at the Mid Year in three weeks for their input on whether to form our own working group or join with another.
Finally, foreclosure mediation is back on the radar as the House Judiciary Committee wants the VBA to do another training. I’ve reserved June 28th at the Capitol Plaza here in Montpelier for a follow up CLE for mediators. The bill requires a change in the way mediators are appointed. Again, a study committee is created to work on changes in law and policy because of the anticipated repeal of HAMP on December 31, 2013.
Well that wraps up my half time report. The session will resume on Tuesday, March 13th. Unfortunately I will be en route to an ABA event with the next two Presidents of the VBA and out of the building that week. As always, thanks for reading.
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