Commerce committee amendment adds agricultural loans to sustainable jobs strategy and creates VEDA disaster recovery loan fund

The House Commerce Committee’s recommended amendment to H.398 would place the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Strategy into statute, explicitly include loans to agricultural enterprises administered under the Vermont Agricultural Credit Program, and create a new Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) disaster recovery loan fund to support businesses and agricultural enterprises after disasters.

Cameron Wood of the Office of Legislative Council walked the committee through the Commerce Committee’s recommended draft. He said the sustainable jobs strategy has not been updated since the Howard Dean administration (1999) and the amendment moves the strategy’s criteria into statute so projects that meet the criteria are clearly eligible for VEDA financing. Wood said the change “takes the current strategy that exists, putting it in statute.”

The amendment also adds language explicitly allowing agricultural loans administered…