Lawmakers weigh mandates on private equity in health care, tax code changes, appropriations and housing investor rules across multiple committees
The Legislature’s committees on Thursday debated a slate of proposals touching on healthcare governance and private investment, tax and revenue changes, budget appropriations, housing investor regulation, natural resources and school attendance policy. Key hearings reviewed statutory mandates limiting nonlicensed investors’ control of clinical decision-making, multiple tax-code and fund-shifting provisions, appropriations for programs and agencies, rules for institutional home investors, and updates to environmental and education statutes.
Health Care
The House Health Care Committee reviewed draft statutory language described as a “corporate practice of medicine” provision titled Limitations on Control Over Clinical Decision Making by Private Equity Group or Hedge Fund. The proposal would specify that clinical decision-making and treatment decisions are reserved to licensed healthcare providers and would prohibit private equity groups or hedge funds involved with healthcare facilities from exercising certain types of control over a facility. Committee discussion included definitions for hedge funds and healthcare staffing companies, questions about bylaws and board composition, and references to enforcement and penalties. The department and legal staff discussed the rationale for the proposal and distinguished the statutory approach from other regulatory or nonstatutory avenues already in use.
Ways & Means (tax provisions and fund shifts)
Members of the House Ways & Means Committee reviewed a comprehensive section-by-section draft with tax and revenue changes. Discussion covered decoupling Vermont from certain federal deductions for foreign-source income and bonus depreciation; clarifications to apportionment; an increase in the research and development tax credit and an increase in the downtown and Miller Center tax credit annual award cap from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000; and changes moving revenue shares between funds to hold property taxpayers “harmless,” including a permanent percentage shift intended to deliver roughly $10,000,000 to the transportation fund. Committee staff also described multiple technical clarifications to municipal and property tax provisions, updates to education finance inflators, extensions of certain fund sunsets such as the Health IT fund, and a ten-year tax study provision for the Joint Fiscal Office.
Appropriations (state spending and bill-level appropriations)
House and Senate Appropriations hearings summarized fiscal impacts tied to numerous bills. The House Appropriations presentation identified H.55 (the Treasurer’s omnibus bill) as containing a $75,000 general fund appropriation for an actuarial task force and other non‑general fund impacts preliminarily estimated at $626,000. Committee staff provided line-item notes for multiple bills, including proposed appropriations of $50,000 for parole board training, a $500,000 appropriation to ANR in H.740, and fiscal details on bills with multi-million-dollar totals and prior spreadsheeted allocations. The Senate Appropriations review covered departmental budgets and programmatic base adjustments across developmental disabilities, adult services and other divisions, including aggregate recommended totals and funding splits between general fund, federal and other sources.
Finance (wealth, investment and other tax proposals)
The Senate Finance Committee examined proposals to impose a state tax on certain investment income at a 4% rate, aligned in part with the federal net investment income concept, with threshold and base differences under consideration. Committee discussion included options to exclude capital gains, differing threshold scenarios that would affect estimated revenue and taxpayer counts, and a possible SALT deduction workaround. Staff noted administrative and implementation timing challenges for adding a new tax type to the state integrated tax system and described revenue and base considerations tied to alternative constructs.
Natural Resources & Energy (energy financing, PACE, forestry, permits)
The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee reviewed a draft addressing commercial property-assessed clean energy (CPACE) districts, including program administration, municipality designation and lien and prepayment rules tied to special assessments. The draft would require program administrator approval by the Department of Financial Regulation and set notice, disclosure and foreclosure-related conditions for assessments. Committee members also considered amendments clarifying Act 250 jurisdiction and exemptions for logging, forestry and farming activities, treatment of priority housing projects in floodplains and river corridors, and groundwater and surface-water withdrawal thresholds for large facilities; several sections contemplated new permitting or monitoring requirements and enforcement mechanisms.
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General & Housing (institutional investors and housing)
The House General & Housing Committee continued hearings on measures addressing institutional and corporate investors in single- and two-family housing. Proposals and testimony examined definitions for “institutional real estate investor,” suggested thresholds (including ownership of 10 or more residences, management of pooled funds, and a $30,000,000 assets threshold), exemptions for nonprofit entities and creditors, and policy options such as disclosure, waiting periods before resale and tax-treatment changes. Witnesses and committee members discussed differentiating Vermont’s rural housing context from urban examples cited in other states and flagged issues for threshold calibration and implementation.
Environment (PFAS, forestry and data centers)
The House Environment Committee reviewed draft language amending Act 250 provisions related to forestry and logging exemptions, criteria for limiting Act 250 jurisdiction to development portions of parcels devoted to forestry, and coordination between agencies for regional plan adoption. Committee members discussed groundwater withdrawal permit thresholds, monitoring and disclosure requirements for PFAS intentionally added or present in operations, and alignment of river corridor and floodplain language with housing exemptions for priority projects. The draft incorporated recommendations from the Land Use Regulation Board and the Agency of Natural Resources.
Education (truancy, chronic absenteeism and model policy)
The House Education Committee considered a package of changes addressing chronic absenteeism and truancy. The draft would require that principals notify superintendents when a student between ages six and 16 accumulates 20 or more unexcused absences within the same school year or within the prior 175 consecutive student attendance days. The bill would direct the Agency of Education, in consultation with education associations, to develop a model policy on prevention of chronic absenteeism and truancy and templates for documentation and parent or guardian notices. School districts would be required to adopt policies at least as stringent as the model and provide alternative education access for suspensions of three or more days; the draft included reporting and implementation timelines for the agency’s work on a model policy.
Committee actions noted
Committee staff and counsel referenced multiple bill numbers across hearings and provided fiscal notes and draft amendments. Appropriations and Ways & Means schedules and totals were cited for an array of bills, and committees signaled further deliberation on implementation details, revenue estimates, administrative feasibility and statutory drafting across the subjects above.
Conclusion
This article covers committee hearings held March 12, 2026, in multiple legislative panels including House Health Care, House and Senate Ways & Means/Finance, House and Senate Appropriations, House General & Housing, House Environment, and House Education. The discussions addressed proposed mandates and restrictions on private equity involvement in healthcare governance, tax-code changes and fund shifts, appropriations and fiscal notes for numerous bills, regulatory and permitting proposals for energy and land use, and measures concerning institutional investors in housing and school attendance policy.
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