Bridget Burkhardt

Dear South Burlington and Williston, 

Thank you for allowing me to represent you in Montpelier. We are now eight weeks into the new biennium. After spending several weeks getting 50 new members of the House (including me!) up to speed, the pace of work has increased dramatically in the last few weeks. Your legislature remains committed to the priorities we laid out at the beginning of the session: 

• Education - improving quality and equity while designing a more sustainable funding system 

• Health Care - increasing access and affordability 

• Housing - growing our affordable housing stock and making sure all Vermonters have access to permanent housing

• Tax Relief - slowing the growth in property taxes and building a more sustainable and equitable tax system 

These priorities were set to help us build a Vermont where everyone can thrive. We are working toward a Vermont where: 

• Every child, regardless of zipcode, has access to the educational and support services they need to become active, engaged, and contributing members of our communities. 

• Everyone has access to the high-quality, affordable health care they need to stay healthy and productive.

• There is enough housing for our existing community members and the new community members we need to attract to keep our economy thriving and to provide the services we need. 

• Taxes are predictable, manageable, and equitable.

To date, the major piece of legislation that has passed from the House to the Senate is the Budget Adjustment Act. The BAA, as it is known, reviews the revenues and expenses of the state at the midpoint of the fiscal year and redirects certain funds for the remainder of the fiscal year (which ends on June 30) based on changes that have happened since the budget was passed last spring. The House version of the BAA was very close to the original proposal from the Governor’s team, with some small changes. The Senate made additional small changes last week and passed its own version. The two bodies will now have a “committee of conference” to iron out the differences between the two versions before both bodies vote on the final bill that will go back to the Governor. We hope to pass the BAA to the Governor within a week or so after town meeting break. 

EDUCATION: Designing Governance, Delivery, and Funding Systems for the Future

In Vermont, the right to a public education is enshrined in our state constitution. Public schools are one of the few places in our society where children of all backgrounds and experiences come together to learn from each other and grow side by side. Vermont’s education system, which has been a point of pride for our state throughout its history, faces many challenges including disparities in resources between school districts, declining student enrollment, aging infrastructure, increasing needs for special education services, and growing needs for mental health supports and other social services. Your legislature is dedicated to building an education system that meets the needs of today’s students and sets them on a path for success in their adult lives by providing them with high-quality education and support services funded in a way that is sustainable for our communities.

In the spirit of collaboration, the legislature has spent the last several weeks reviewing the Governor’s education proposal as it was rolled out piece by piece. This has taken time because the proposal is light on details, and details matter for our children, our communities, and our taxpayers. The administration has proposed massive changes in the way we fund, govern, and deliver education, and we owe it to our children and our taxpayers to take the time to get this right.

The governor’s proposal would replace our current education funding system with one based on a foundation formula. Instead of voting for local school budgets and requiring the state to adjust property tax rates each year to generate enough revenue to fund the budgets, the governor’s plan would assign a base funding amount to each student. Students living in low-income households, English language learners, those attending small schools, and those attending schools in sparsely populated areas would receive additional “weights” in a school’s pupil count. A school district would receive an education payment equal to the base funding amount multiplied by its weighted number of students. The state would set a uniform statewide homestead and non-homestead property tax rate to raise funds to make the education payments. Districts could choose to operate within the base funding amount or they could ask their voters to approve a small amount of additional funding by raising local property taxes.

The framework of a foundation formula has some advantages over our current system. There could be more predictability for taxpayers about their tax rates, and the system could ensure that schools are funded more equitably than in our current system. However, the details of the design of the foundation formula are critical. If we get them wrong some schools could end up with too little funding and be forced to make large cuts to important programs while others could have more funding than they can put to use efficiently.

After weeks of testimony, it has become clear that the governor’s proposed foundation formula is based on a hypothetical school system that does not reflect Vermont’s current reality. There are significant gaps in his proposal regarding funding for things like nutrition, special education, transportation, school renovations and more. The proposed formula assumes class and school sizes that do not exist in most parts of the state and would take years to replicate. At the same time, it is not clear how the governor’s proposal would save taxpayers money. 

As we review the Governor’s plan, the House has been taking an “all committee” approach to education reform. House Ways & Means is working to develop an education funding system that is fair, sustainable, and flexible enough to adapt to future changes in our education governance and delivery systems. House Education is crafting thoughtful legislation about optimal class sizes, school governance, special education service delivery, strengthening the State Board of Education, and fully staffing the Agency of Education to support the major reforms proposed. House Commerce & Economic Development is reviewing our career technical education system to determine how it could be structured more effectively to prepare our students to be part of the workforce Vermont needs for the future. House Agriculture has taken extensive testimony regarding the Governor’s proposal to end the Universal School Meals program and is advocating that the program be maintained. House Health Care is working on slowing the growth in health care premiums for all Vermonters, which would help lower the increase in education spending, since a significant portion of spending relates to employee benefits. The careful work we are doing will take time, which we are willing to invest so that we do not break the system as we try to improve it.

HEALTH CARE: Increasing Access and Affordability

The House Committee on Health Care has taken extensive testimony and received updates from across Vermont’s Healthcare system: private and public organizations, hospitals, advocates, consumers, rate payers and insurers. These testimonies have illuminated that Vermont’s system of care is at a fragile point. We are facing major workforce shortages, provider financial strain, access issues and increasing demand for more acute services. Without swift and meaningful intervention, key parts of our system will fracture, limiting access to quality care for all Vermonters.

In response, the committee is exploring short, medium and long-term strategies to alleviate pressures and bring sustainability. Our discussions and policy action has focused on legislation (H.35, H.96) that immediately streamlines regulatory oversight, promotes accountability and financial stability. Committee members are considering mid term reform efforts that encourage innovation and ensure Vermont’s healthcare system, and residents, remain solvent and more affordable and accessible in the years ahead.

One key reform priority is H-96, a bill aimed at increasing the monetary thresholds for a Certificate of Need (CON). Current requirements often prompt the CON process, which can be expensive, stifle competition and delay the expansion of services, acquisition of new equipment, or investment in critical infrastructure. By adjusting monetary thresholds, H-96 seeks to balance oversight with efficiency and improve access.

As we move forward in the session we will be working on legislation that focuses on a long term strategy to address cost, insurer stability, affordability and access.  Vermonters deserve to receive the care they need, in the appropriate setting, at the right time, for a price they can afford. 

HOUSING: Meeting the Needs of Current and Future Vermonters

The General and Housing Committee is working across multiple committees to fight a housing crisis that underpins Vermont’s severe workforce shortage and alarming rate of homelessness. The Committee is working on two fronts: deregulation for building homes in urban and village centers and leveraging our state dollars into creative and time-tested financing of homes for lower and middle-income Vermonters. On the permitting front, we are building upon 2024’s legislation, streamlining local zoning and state permitting processes in designated regions and for pre-approved home designs, to speed up building and lower construction costs. In terms of investments, we are developing innovative financing tools to overcome municipalities’ challenges of developing housing infrastructure like water and sewer and working on rehabilitation and weatherization of our rentals and our farm worker housing. We are also working on leveraging credit to help first-generation home buyers afford down payments and lower mortgage costs, enabling members of our workforce to break generational poverty and fully participate in our state economy.

Importantly, we are committed to ensuring that Vermont’s housing strategies address the needs of all Vermonters, from working families to seniors. This includes providing affordable, accessible housing options for our workforce to ensure that they have stable housing while contributing to the state's economic growth. Additionally, we are prioritizing housing solutions for seniors, many of whom need safe, affordable homes with the necessary services and supports to age in place. Finally, to help our most vulnerable populations meet immediate needs, we are discussing funding programs that provide housing and home services for Vermonters with disabilities and for our seniors.

With these immediate and longer-term goals in mind, the House Committee on General and Housing is presenting its budget recommendations to the Appropriations Committee, and writing its omnibus Housing Bill based on joint hearings with its partner committee in the Senate, having taken testimony from stakeholders around the state, and folding in language from the Governor’s housing proposal.

TAX RELIEF: Creating a Fairer and More Sustainable Tax System

The committee on which I serve, Ways & Means, has been looking at several proposals that would make our tax system more affordable for low- and middle-income households, fairer to all taxpayers, and better structured to support education and other state responsibilities into the future. Legislation that we have been working on so far includes:

• A bill to establish a statewide system of property reappraisals that will update the state’s grand list on a more consistent and frequent basis, which is critical for a fair and equitable statewide education tax.

• Legislation that would divide the non-homestead property grand list into more categories so that different types of property within the non-homestead category could be taxed more fairly. For example, second homes could be taxed at a different rate than affordable rentals.

• Consideration of adjustments to the income and property value limits in the Property Tax Credit program that have been in statute since 1997.

• Equitable ways to use one-time surplus funds in the General Fund to “buy down” statewide property taxes for FY2026.

• Proposals to increase tax relief for low-income households by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and increasing the age limit for the Child Tax Credit. 

The committee has also spent significant time digging into the details of the Governor’s education funding proposals. We expect to devote additional time after the break creating a funding proposal that reflects the current structure of our school system and is flexible enough to adapt as reforms are implemented in the future.

I look forward to providing additional updates on Front Porch Forum, articles in The Other Paper and The Williston Observer, and drop in “office hours” on Saturdays (when my boys’ soccer schedule permits!). Please don’t hesitate to reach out any time at bburkhardt@leg.state.vt.us if you have questions, concerns, or input. 

House Ways and Means Committee Focused on Education Funding Reform

We are one month into the legislative session, and the House is hard at work on a number of issues that are critical to the future of our state. I am delighted to be serving on the House Committee on Ways and Means. For those of you who always wondered, the Committee on Appropriations is tasked with refining and approving budgets for state agencies and other organizations that are funded by the state.  Ways and Means is the committee that works on changes to the structure of taxes and fees that raise the revenue to fund those budgets.

Ways and Means will spend the vast majority of the next two years focused on education funding reform. As other articles have already mentioned, the administration’s education reform proposal includes changes to governance, funding, and education quality standards. We have seen a broad overview of the total proposal, and details about each segment are being shared each week.

The proposal for funding reform centers around a change from our current system to a foundation formula. In the most simplified terms, our current system uses sales and use taxes, a portion of rooms and meals taxes, lottery proceeds, and property taxes to generate revenue for the Education Fund. School districts around the state develop budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. Once the budgets are passed by voters in those districts, the state uses the Education Fund to fund the portion of the budgets not covered by federal or other types of funding. Property tax rates are set at a level to provide enough revenue, given estimated proceeds from the other sources of funding, for the Education Fund to meet the obligations under all of those passed budgets.  

The administration is proposing a switch to a new version of an old concept – a foundation formula in which every district receives a base amount of funding per pupil plus additional funding based on weights applied to students experiencing poverty, English language learners, and attendees of small schools and schools in sparsely populated areas. Vermont once used a foundation formula that was ruled unconstitutional by the Vermont Supreme Court in the 1997 case Brigham et al vs. State of Vermont. The court found that the system allowed towns with more property wealth to raise more education funding and provide more opportunities to their students than towns with smaller tax bases. The new proposed formula would be designed to work within the requirements of the Brigham decision. 

On Friday we received the first details of the proposed base per-pupil funding amount. The administration proposes a base amount of $13,200 per pupil plus weights for the categories mentioned above. As an example, an economically disadvantaged student, who would carry an additional weight of 0.75, would generate a total payment to his or her district of $23,100 ($13,200 plus 0.75*13,200 = $23,100). Special education would continue to be funded by categorical grants based on the number of students needing services in a district. Career and Technical Education (CTE) would be funded by per-pupil payments of $25,000 made to new Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) that would allocate those resources amongst the CTE centers. The administration proposes that the changes to the funding formula take effect for the fiscal 2028 budget.

The administration’s funding formula proposal can be found on the Ways and Means committee page on the General Assembly website under Documents and Handouts for January 31 under the testimony from the Secretary of Education. The proposal contains many more details, but there are still many questions yet to be answered. How would revenue be raised to fund the education system? What would be the impact on property taxes? Will towns or districts be allowed to raise additional funds above those provided through the foundation formula, and if so, how does that fit with the Brigham decision? We will ask these and many more questions as we continue to hear testimony from the administration over the coming weeks and months. Next week we expect to hear more about the governance portion of the administration’s proposal.

In the short term, the Governor has proposed a $77 million one-time transfer from the General Fund to the Education fund for the coming fiscal year to bring down the statewide average increase in property taxes for next year to 0%. If the Legislature approves this proposal and based on the proposed school district budget, South Burlington residents would still likely see an increase in our taxes, but it would be much lower than the original projections. The challenge with a one-time transfer is that it delays the problem by a year and creates a potential funding gap as next year’s budgets are being developed.

In addition to education funding, the committee has spent the past few weeks reviewing the Budget Adjustment Act, learning about best and current practices for different types of taxes and fees, and hearing testimony on bills that would have an impact on taxes and fees. The Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) is an annual bill that is typically passed early in the legislative session. The bill makes changes to the budget that was passed for the current fiscal year (which ends on June 30) based on changes to revenue and expenditures through the first several months of the fiscal year. This year’s BAA is expected to come to the floor for a vote this week.

Please feel free to reach out any time with questions or concerns at bburkhardt@leg.state.vt.us.

Thank you to the South Burlington and Williston communities for your support during my campaign for election to the Vermont House as the representative for Chittenden-8. I am eagerly anticipating the start of the new biennium on January 8 and look forward to serving both communities as one of your representatives. 

While all legislators vote on bills across a wide range of issues, much of a legislator’s work is done in the committee to which they are assigned where they hear testimony and help shape bills that are moved through the legislative process. New legislators only receive their committee assignments during the first week of the session, so I’ve been feeling like a kid who can see her present under the Christmas tree but cannot open it until January. In the meantime, I’ve been working to learn as much as I can about a range of issues so I can try to get a head start on the steep learning curve that awaits no matter which committee I am assigned.

As a former school board member, education and education funding are particular areas of interest for me. Act H.887, passed in May 2024, created the Commission for the Future of Public Education in Vermont. The Commission is tasked with producing a vision for the future of public education in Vermont along with recommendations for restructuring our education funding system. The Commission produced a preliminary report in mid-December and must provide final recommendations in December 2025. I have been following the Commission’s meetings, which are open to the public and available to join online, since they began in July and have learned a lot from hearing the testimony of a range of witnesses who work with different parts of our education system. In addition, a group of legislators and legislators-elect have been meeting virtually for the last several weeks to study ideas brainstormed by the Commission for possible changes to the education funding system. None of these ideas are full policy recommendations but are meant to help inform the debate about the restructuring of our education financing system that will be a high priority in the upcoming legislative session. Recordings of the Commission’s meetings and materials related to them are available on the Agency of Education website along with reports like the updated State Education Profile that the Agency produced in November.

Much like the education system, Vermont’s healthcare system is complex and facing extreme challenges regarding access and affordability. The rising cost of healthcare, which is obviously challenging for patients, is also driving increases in property taxes as premiums paid for employee benefits by Vermont’s school districts have increased by double digit percentages in the last several years. As a state we need to build a healthcare system that can provide the services needed by our aging population without unsustainable increases in costs. I’ve attended both in-person and online meetings with executives from the UVM Health Network as they attempt to explain the cuts to services they are enacting across the state. I have also watched a meeting of the Health Reform Oversight Committee, a joint committee of the House and Senate that oversees the state’s healthcare reform efforts. The meeting is available for the public to watch on YouTube. I would also encourage anyone who wants to follow the debate about our healthcare system to read a report by consultants Oliver Wyman that was produced in September and is available on the Green Mountain Care Board website. 

Throughout the series of meetings I have attended or watched over the past several months, there has been a recurring theme that affects nearly every other challenge we are facing as a state – a lack of affordable housing. We cannot recruit enough staff for our hospitals, nor attorneys to work in our State’s Attorney’s office, nor skilled employees for our businesses because people who want to move to Vermont cannot find housing. In addition, approximately 3,500 Vermonters do not have permanent housing, and many of them can no longer access the motel voucher program. Without permanent housing it is difficult for these community members to maintain jobs or access to services like healthcare or education for their children. In November I spent a day at an annual conference put on by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency to try to deepen my understanding of housing issues. I also had the opportunity to attend an annual luncheon put on by the Champlain Housing Trust and a legislative breakfast at Allard Square. The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission hosted a breakfast for legislators in December, and much of the discussion focused on housing. While I am unlikely to be assigned to the Committee on General and Housing because Representative Krasnow is already representing our interests so well on that committee, nearly every committee’s work touches housing and housing affordability in some way. 

In addition to the meetings on specific issues and introductory meetings with many state agencies and non-profits, I’ve had the chance to connect with many members of the communities both during and after the campaign. I look forward to bringing your voices to Montpelier to help shape solutions to the challenges we face and need input from as many of you as possible. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at bburkhardt@leg.state.vt.us, and join all five of your South Burlington representatives at our monthly legislative forum on Monday, January 27 at the South Burlington Public Library. 

My name is Bridget Burkhardt, and I am running as a Democrat to represent Chittenden-8 in the Vermont House of Representatives.

My family and I moved to South Burlington in 2010 and have been grateful for this wonderful community for the past 14 years. After the first chapter of my finance career, which included roles in investment banking, private equity, and community development finance, followed by several years as a stay-at-home mom, I was inspired to try to give something back to our community by running for the South Burlington School Board. My South Burlington neighbors elected me to three terms on the board, and I served from 2016-2022, eventually becoming chair of the board. In 2022 I stepped down from the board and returned to the private sector to work as a portfolio manager for a community development private equity fund where I have supported and advised our portfolio companies in the healthcare and addiction treatment sectors.

During my years on the school board, I saw firsthand how decisions in Montpelier impact our local communities and had a window into a broad range of challenges faced by Vermonters. The board’s work focused directly on educational issues – the need for improved learning outcomes across a broader range of students, our students’ rapidly growing needs for mental health, special education, and social services, the impact of growing diversity in our schools, and aging school infrastructure, to name just a few. However, as board members we also saw how a lack of affordable housing, the opioid crisis, food insecurity, domestic violence, discrimination, and many broader issues affect our children.

Some of the issues that drove me to run for the legislature include:

Education – As a district we tried to meet our children’s expanding needs while facing growing costs, particularly rapidly rising healthcare premiums, and the need to keep taxes under control. This work was complicated by a complex and changing school funding formula that made it difficult to create budgets and communicate about the impact of them effectively with voters. We need to reshape the way we fund education in Vermont to provide more predictability for districts and taxpayers. Without dictating curriculum from the state level, we need to find ways that we can support improved learning outcomes for children from all backgrounds. We must find a way to fund the necessary improvements to and, in some cases, replacement of our aging school facilities.

Affordable Housing – We need to ensure that all Vermonters have access to safe, stable, affordable housing. We need to make sure that our seniors can age in place if they choose to do so and that our children have a path to homeownership as they reach adulthood. We must make sure that there is enough housing that prospective employees of our growing businesses who want to move to Vermont can find a place to live. We need creative solutions that will allow us to increase the availability of housing while minimizing the potential negative impact of housing development on our environment.

Environment – We need to improve Vermont’s resilience in the face of climate change. We need to continue to devote resources to cleaning up our waterways that are impaired by pollution and invasive species. We need to preserve forests and agricultural land for future generations. 

Economic Development – We should support innovative companies and entrepreneurs that can bring jobs to Vermont and allow our children to chart a future for themselves here. We need to support public education and technical programs that will ensure these businesses have the skilled workforce they need to grow. We need thoughtful regulation that can provide incentives to the types of businesses that can thrive in Vermont while respecting and preserving our environment and the qualities that make Vermont unique.

To be an effective legislator, I believe one needs to be able to process a large amount of information about a wide range of topics in order to understand the challenges facing constituents and assess the potential impact of proposed solutions. A good legislator should also be able to combine empathy for people from a range of backgrounds with an understanding of data and financial information to help set priorities and make tough decisions about how to allocate limited resources. Most of all, I think a great legislator must be willing to solicit a wide range of viewpoints from constituents and use that information to help guide their work. I believe that my school board service and my private sector finance work experience have given me a strong foundation and the tools to be an effective legislator on behalf of the residents of southeast South Burlington and southwest Williston. I hope to connect with as many of you as possible over the next few months to hear your concerns, gather your input, and earn your vote.

Please reach out to me at burkhardtforvt@gmail.com with your questions and priorities for the legislature.