Governor’s Vetoes Current Use Bill, No Override Planned
House and Senate leaders have decided not to try to override Governor Douglas’ veto of H.485, but vow to make the legislation a priority for action early in the 2011 term. (Updated 6/2/2010)

Citing the expense of bringing 180 legislators back to Montpelier to vote on a veto override, House Speaker Shap Smith and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin have decided not to call the Legislature back into session. Instead, the leadership will make the Current Use legislation a top priority for action when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Despite strong majorities in both the House and Senate during the floor debates and outspoken support for H.485 from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, Vermont Assessors and Listers Association, Vermont Farm Bureau, Rural Vermont, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Audubon Vermont, Vermont Nature Conservancy, Vermont Land Trust, and many farmers and foresters, Governor Douglas decided to veto legislation which would have made some important reforms to the 30-year old law.

A detailed Summary and Explanation of H.485 can be found in a link on the right, along with the Governor’s veto message and the Valley News editorial. Because the “development penalty” had been weakened in the 1990s, towns have seen a significant number of landowners enroll land in Current Use which they plan to develop in a few years, because the penalty for withdrawal is significantly less than the saved taxes. H.485 would have curbed this “parking” problem by returning the penalty to where it existed when Current Use was enacted in 1978.

The legislative would have also removed the preferential Property Transfer Tax rate for sales of Current Use lands, because the buyers are under no obligation to keep the land enrolled. The additional revenue would have been used to convert the files and maps on 16,000 enrolled parcels from paper to an electronic format, which would greatly improve the accuracy and flow of information, as well as analysis of trends or developing problems. A number of problems identified by the study group would have been examined by a study committee set up by the bill.

The groups that supported H.485 are determined to bring the legislation back for consideration in 2011. They believe strongly that although Current Use has been enormously successful and is a fundamental policy which helps keep Vermont’s working landscape in tact, some problems have emerged over 30 years which, if not corrected, could eventually undermine public support for the law.

The Vermont Land Trust and its many partners in this effort want to thank the following people for their many contributions over the past year: Deb Brighton and the Joint Fiscal Office for their fiscal analysis of the many proposals proposed by the study group and legislators; House Speaker Shap Smith, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Obuchowski, House Appropriations Committee Chair Martha Heath and of Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ann Cummings and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Bartlett for making the Current Use legislation a priority; Representative Janet Ancel and Senator Diane Snelling for underscoring this issue for the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee; and especially Representative Alison Clarkson of Woodstock and Senator Claire Ayer of Addison County, who carried the heaviest burdens when H.485 was being reported and debated on the floor of the House and Senate.

Finally, we appreciate everybody who supported our efforts in the Legislature through testimony, letters, e-mails and phone calls. A lot of good groundwork has been accomplished over the past year. As Speaker Shap Smith told us, “You got the bill right.” We look forward to renewing the effort next January.

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