Committee advances S.232 edits to allow library staff training and explores cannabis-fund allocation

Legislative staff walked the Education Committee through proposed, line‑by‑line amendments to S.232 that would add public library staff training to the list of allowable uses for voluntary early‑education grant funds and replace several statutory sections to remove obsolete language.

The amendment packet presented by staff describes three principal changes: adding public library staff to the subsection of permitted training recipients; striking and replacing Section 5 to simplify a set of granular edits; and rewriting Section 6 to resolve ambiguities about how municipal bodies may or may not appoint trustees of privately established but municipally supported libraries.

Catherine Delnao, State Librarian and commissioner of the Department of Libraries, told the committee that the department has for decades run a noncompetitive summer reading/grant program that currently offers $350 per eligible public library. "We have been granting funds since at least 2000," Delnao said, noting roughly 150 libraries apply and receive the modest award intended to support summer literacy activities.

Committee members pressed whether the bill would address practical barriers to libraries securing other after‑school or summer funds. Several members cited an Agency of Education (AOE) application the committee had reviewed earlier; speakers said that process can take 10–20 hours and therefore discourages smaller libraries from applying. Delnao said the Department of Libraries has been learning the administrative pathways and that some constraints come from how federal requirements shape state grant processes.

Cal Hale, testifying for the Vermont Library Association, said federal standards help explain why some grant applications are complex and urged state solutions to increase access. He suggested that routing a portion of state cannabis sales‑tax revenue to libraries could make small, simpler awards possible. "If 5% of those funds went into this funding stream to the Department of Libraries, that money could really make a big impact in programming that supports early literacy," Hale said, offering the figure as an illustrative starting point for discussion.

Committee members and witnesses clarified that currently no cannabis sales‑tax revenue is being allocated to the Department of Libraries; the draft language in S.232 would require that a reasonable portion be allocated to the department, which could then distribute it to libraries through a simple application mechanism. Lawmakers asked the department and stakeholders to return with concrete dollar estimates and sample language for how funds would be allocated and administered.

Next steps: the committee asked staff to produce a new draft with the proposed amendments and to repost the amendment packet to the committee information page for public review before further consideration. No formal votes were recorded in the transcript.