Committee reviews H.397: statewide emergency-management changes, voluntary buyouts and municipal reimbursements

Senate Government Operations committee members on April 8 discussed H.397, the bill described by staff as “an act relating to miscellaneous amendments to the statutes governing emergency management and flood response,” with state emergency management officials, legislative counsel and fiscal staff walking the panel through new reporting requirements, a voluntary buyout program and a municipal reimbursement plan tied to the state’s pilot special fund.

The bill would require the Division of Emergency Management to provide annual presentations about all-action items from the state hazard mitigation plan and to collaborate with specified recovery and planning partners to assist municipalities in developing elements of the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP). It also creates a statutory voluntary buyout program for flood-prone properties and a municipal grand-list stabilization program that would reimburse towns for lost property-tax revenue when municipalities acquire flood-prone properties and preserve them as open space.

Why it matters: committee members, sponsors and agency witnesses said the bill aims to improve coordination on mitigation and recovery after flooding while providing a predictable funding path for buyouts and short-term municipal fiscal relief after disasters.

Division duties and local vs. state planning

Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, told the committee that Section 1 would add an annual presentation requirement to the committee and the House’s Government Operations committee on the all-hazards mitigation plan. Anderson said the bill also requires the division to provide assistance to municipalities to develop and implement components of the SEMP, and lists items the state plan must include, such as templates for municipal emergency-parking plans, systems for contacting vulnerable residents and provisions for notification systems and training.

Eric Clarkson, a Division of Emergency Management official, explained the agency already presents hazard-mitigation updates to its mitigation planning and policy committee every five years and questioned whether duplicative presentations to the Legislature were efficient. "We already give that presentation every year to our mitigation planning and policy committee," Clarkson said. "If legislators want us to give it, we can, or we can forward the report — whatever is most efficient." Clarkson also recommended placing highly local items, such as emergency parking plans, into the local emergency management plan statute rather than embedding them in a state-level section, saying operational details are often more appropriate at the municipal level.

Vulnerable populations, notification and training

Witnesses discussed an existing statewide system — CARES (a confidential registry accessed via 2-1-1) — that permits municipalities to receive lists of residents who identify themselves as vulnerable and who may need wellness checks during an event. Clarkson emphasized the registry exists but that gaps remain in local capacity to conduct outreach and checks: "The system is there. It's the ability to actually use the system, and there's probably also an education portion of it," he said. The bill would require municipalities’ plans and the state plan to address outreach and training, while the division would be asked to report a needs assessment identifying resources required to implement the act.

Committee members and Clarkson also discussed notification options already available to towns and residents: Vermont Alerts, reverse 911, Wireless Emergency Alerts and National Weather Service warnings. Clarkson said the state can push emergency messages statewide or target local areas and that the tools exist, but some residents and municipalities may be unaware or lack the subscription/account setup.

Voluntary buyout program and municipal reimbursement ("Muggles program")

Section 3 creates a statutory voluntary buyout program for flood-prone properties and requires municipal acquisition of a purchased property to hold it as open space with a deed restriction prohibiting redevelopment — a condition tied to FEMA eligibility in existing practice. "The program allows a municipality, at the request of the owner of a flood-prone property, to apply for funding to cover the purchase price of the property, which shall be the full fair market value," Anderson said.

Section 5 establishes a municipal grand-list stabilization program within the Department of Taxes to reimburse municipalities for lost property tax revenue when eligible properties are acquired under the buyout program. Under the proposal described by legislative counsel, eligible properties would be certified to the tax commissioner each September; municipalities would receive annual payments equal to the grand-list value times the municipal rate for five consecutive years, then a reduced payment of half that amount for subsequent eligible years, with a per-property limit of reimbursement payments for no more than 10 years in total.

Fiscal staff estimated initial costs tied to the pilot special fund at roughly $550,000 a year for the early cohort of buyouts and reimbursements; fiscal analysts and the sponsor said the House-passed budget included a $1 million pilot-fund appropriation intended to seed the program and that the pilot fund currently carries a multi-year operating surplus. Joint Fiscal Office staff warned that if the pilot special fund balance is insufficient to meet all authorized payments in a given year, payments would be reduced proportionately across recipients.

Questions raised in committee

Committee members pressed agency witnesses on three recurring themes: (1) whether language is too prescriptive at the state level for items that are operationally local, (2) whether listing specific external partners in statute might unintentionally limit future collaboration if entities change, and (3) how new duties would be resourced. Clarkson and other agency witnesses urged flexible statutory drafting that sets a floor for required consultation and collaboration while avoiding lists of permanently named actors that could narrow future practice.

Next steps and implementation

Legislative counsel and agency witnesses told the committee the bill’s effective date language varies by section; several fiscal and program elements would phase in on July 1, 2025, while other reporting and investigatory provisions carry different dates. Staff offered to provide a follow-up memo with timeline examples (for example, the sequence that triggers grand-list certification and municipal payments after a buyout) to clarify implementation sequences.

Clarifying details (from testimony): - Voluntary buyout program: purchases to be made at full fair market value; acquired properties must be preserved as open space with restricting covenant (referenced by Tucker Anderson and Eric Clarkson). - Municipal grand-list stabilization payments: computed from the grand-list value in the year the property was damaged or identified as flood-prone multiplied by the municipality’s tax rate; payments scheduled annually on or before Jan. 1 for five years and then reduced to half for subsequent years up to a 10‑year limit (explained by legislative counsel and fiscal staff). - Fiscal estimate: Joint Fiscal Office estimated about $550,000 per year in early years for the program cohort; the House-passed budget included a $1 million pilot-fund appropriation to seed initial payments (JFO testimony).

No formal votes were recorded during the committee’s walkthrough—the session focused on agency presentations, clarifying questions and requests for follow-up detail.

Ending

Committee members asked staff and agency witnesses for written materials and a follow-up timeline memo explaining how certification, buyout closings and municipal reimbursements would flow across fiscal years. Members also signaled interest in revising statutory placement for highly local operational items (for example, emergency parking plans) so the state SEMP sets standards and templates while leaving implementation details to local emergency management plans.