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Committee drops voter-approval trigger for long energy performance contracts
Summary
The committee agreed to remove a voter-approval requirement for energy performance contracts when the statute already limits contract length to 20 years; members noted longer payback periods on some projects (for example, geothermal) may warrant future review.
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Senate Education Committee on May 6 reviewed and approved a technical change to the law governing school energy performance contracts, removing a redundant voter-approval threshold.
Beth (Legislative Council staff) explained the existing statute already limits performance contracts to a maximum of 20 years. Previously, the draft required voter approval for contracts longer than 10 years; the committee struck that voter-approval requirement because the statute already caps contracts at 20 years.
Some senators asked whether a 20-year cap might be too short for certain investments with long payback periods — geothermal systems were cited as an example — but the committee did not extend the statutory limit during the hearing. Committee members noted the issue could be revisited in future sessions if stakeholders demonstrate that longer terms are necessary to finance specific technologies.
The committee checked off the section during the meeting and will proceed to collect any additional fiscal or legal clarifications as needed.
