Vermont committee weighs optional cash-rounding rules as pennies disappear

The House Commerce & Economic Development Committee considered H.837 on April 3, a bill that would allow merchants to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel or other agreed increment as pennies become scarce.

Business owners urged lawmakers to adopt a clear, optional standard and a near-term effective date. Shane Switzer, who identified himself as owner of Lindo Redemption and The Pizza Man, said banks have limited penny distributions and some chains are already rounding at the register. “Please make something happen in July at all humanly possible,” Switzer told the committee, arguing that optional rounding with a uniform method would reduce consumer confusion while vendors update point-of-sale systems.

Christopher Curtis, Assistant Attorney General and director of Vermont’s Consumer Assistance Program, supported a disclosure-based approach but warned that the statute should not become a shield for willful price manipulation. “If you are rounding, you’re going to disclose it,” Curtis said, and he told lawmakers that persistent one-way rounding that harms consumers could be investigated under existing consumer-protection and antitrust laws. Curtis also recommended a clear-and-conspicuous signage requirement and suggested coordinating with weights-and-measures inspectors for price-scanning enforcement.

Deputy Commissioner Aaron Paris of the Department of Financial Regulation said his office generally supports the bill and noted DFR was preparing guidance for merchants. Paris recommended permitting consumers to tender exact cash where practicable and discussed how banks and POS vendors might implement Treasury-style guidance.

Committee members pressed witnesses on operational details: whether registers can distinguish exact-change tenders, how mixed POS setups (for example, separate state liquor and store systems) complicate implementation, and whether vendors could adjust posted prices to systematically favor rounding up. Witnesses said sophisticated manipulation would be difficult to sustain, and Curtis reiterated that willful schemes remain subject to enforcement.

Lawmakers also debated and agreed to remove a draft subdivision that would have required businesses to accept exact cash in certain circumstances, concluding that adding conditional exceptions would create operational complexity for merchants and cashiers. The committee asked staff to develop a template signage option and to move refined rounding language into broader economic development legislation for further drafting.

The committee did not take a final vote on H.837 at the session; it directed staff to post related reports and follow up with stakeholders.