Tackling Reimbursements for EMS and Animal Welfare issues
Last week, the Legislature spent time in the House chamber for a joint assembly to elect two legislative trustees to the Vermont State College System Board of Trustees and elect the adjutant general for the Vermont National Guard.
The much-needed accumulation of snow came just in time last Friday for the inaugural Vermont Outdoor Recreation Day at the Statehouse. Non-profit trail stewards, outdoor business owners, ski area managers and municipal leaders came to Montpelier to advocate for investments in the future of outdoor recreation in Vermont.
The House ways and means, education and government operations committees have recently spent time on H.850, which in short removes the 5 percent spending cap from Act 127 enacted in 2022, implements a cent discount for those districts most impacted by a loss in tax capacity and allows for districts to re-warn a revised budget and postpone their votes.
H.850 was supported by the House on a voice vote and will be taken up by the Senate this week. Looking forward, the Legislature needs to examine Vermont’s education spending and the impact on taxpayers, all while considering how to equitably support rural Vermont school districts that serve more low-income families.
This week the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs will be diving into H.622, an act relating to emergency medical services. This bill proposes to expand the circumstances under which ambulance service providers are reimbursed for delivering services to Medicaid beneficiaries.
Additionally, it would turn the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee into a board and revise its duties to include developing and maintaining a five-year statewide emergency medical services plan for Vermont. As a co-sponsor of this bill, I look forward to discussing and working with the committee and experts on how emergency medical service providers can be further supported, especially in rural areas.
H.626, an act relating to animal welfare, is another bill I’ve co-sponsored that we’re working on as a committee. The goals of this bill are to create a division of animal welfare within the Department of Public Safety, create licensing and oversight guidelines for animal rescue operations and clarify which departments and agencies are responsible for guidance, investigation and enforcement regarding animal welfare and animal cruelty cases.
Currently, the state’s handling of animal abuse complaints operates in a fragmented system with no clear entity in charge. As a result, cases of animal abuse often fall through the cracks or are taken on by private rescue operations that do not have adequate resources. Legislative counsel informed the committee that this has been an issue the Legislature has been trying to solve for over 20 years.
One issue the committee faces with this bill is that the Department of Public Safety does not have the capacity to take on the development of this division. The Fish & Wildlife Department, which has recently begun to take on some of these cases in certain areas, also expressed this concern. So, the 20-year-old question currently remains: Who is in charge of oversight and enforcement regarding animal welfare and cruelty cases?
