Senate Preparations Committee amends T Bill 09-44, strips several appropriations and redirects some EV fee revenue

The Senate Preparations Committee on a procedural motion approved an amendment to T Bill 09-44 that removes several sections the committee said are already reflected in the enacted budget and adjusts how some electric-vehicle (EV) fees will be allocated.

Joint Fiscal Office staff told the committee that sections 6–10, which include pilot fund changes and appropriations to town highways, will be deleted from the bill because those items were already accounted for in the September budget. "So section 6, 7, 8, and 9 all relate to sort of changes happening with the pilot fund and then an appropriation from the pilot fund to AOT for Town Highway 8," the Joint Fiscal Office staff explained during the meeting.

The amendment also removes a proposed transfer of $10,400,000 from the general fund to the T Fund after staff said updated budget decisions and additional T Fund revenue (described in the meeting as "about 9,900,000") make that transfer unnecessary.

The committee discussed bonding language in sections 13 and 14 that would direct the Agency of Transportation (AOT) to prepare two program options—one that uses bonding and one that does not—for consideration next year. Damian Hunter of the Office of State Counsel summarized the amendment and confirmed the deletions: "Section 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 would be deleted," he said, listing the local option tax language, pilot funds, and related appropriations the amendment strikes.

Members also reviewed proposed user-fee changes. Committee staff described a mileage-based user fee proposal and a transition arrangement: a onetime road usage charge of $89 in the initial year while mileage reporting systems are set up, with subsequent assessments based on actual miles driven. Staff gave an illustrative average of about 11,000 miles a year (about $154 annually under the model) while noting the figures were illustrative.

On the allocation of existing EV-related fees, staff said section 17 would stop automatically routing the plug-in hybrid/BEV infrastructure fee to the Department of Community and Economic Development (ACCD) for EV charging and instead have the funds flow into general transportation appropriations beginning in fiscal year 2028; committee staff also noted roughly $1,000,000 in FY27 is already designated to ACCD under current practices.

The amendment retains statutory language directing how money may be used for nonemergency medical demand-response transit grants but strikes the onetime appropriation in the bill because the budget includes $300,000 in general fund support for that purpose. The Joint Fiscal Office described temporary increases to the Transformational Alternatives Grant Program for FY27 (allowing awards up to $1,200,000 that year, reverting to lower caps thereafter) and a onetime $242,000 T Fund appropriation proposed to continue a Drive Electric Vermont partnership.

An agency official warned about the state's long-term maintenance gap and cautioned that short-term bonding without clear long-range plans could affect market reception; speakers described a decades-long paving backlog and staffing cuts that have constrained operations.

The amendment was moved by a committee member and the committee conducted a roll call-style acknowledgement of senators voting in favor; members named by the clerk included Senator Veru, Senator Lyons, Senator Lawrence, Senator Watson and Senator Birchland. The motion carried.

The committee concluded its review of T Bill 09-44 and agreed the items removed by the amendment would be handled consistent with the enacted budget and in conference as appropriate.