Vermont Senate deletes baby-bond sections from economic, workforce development bill

The Vermont Senate on the floor took up S.122, an act relating to economic and workforce development, and agreed to concur with the House on the bill’s main provisions while striking the provisions that would have authorized a baby-bonds pilot program.

Senators voted to remove sections 8, 9 and 10 — the portions of the bill that would have authorized a baby-bonds pilot and related administrative mechanisms — after members raised concerns about the timing of the House amendment, the geographic design and the state’s role in administering the program.

Senator from Windsor, the bill’s floor presenter, told colleagues S.122 had been “our big economic development bill” and summarized the provisions retained from the House: support for technical assistance for small businesses, creation of or changes to several trade and development bodies, and the statutory delineation of roles for the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development. The presenter noted some original small-business supports in the Senate bill were reduced or were taken up instead in the enacted budget, including a downtown tax credit increase that was handled in the budget process.

The Senate agreed to concur with the House on sections 1–7 and 11, which include items such as an international trade office expansion planning (with continued funding for Quebec work at $150,000 for the year) and a task force to study development of a convention center. Section 7 incorporates language from H.34 that clarifies statutory roles and responsibilities for the commissioner of labor and the executive director of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development; the bill text places those role clarifications into…