SmartTranscript of HWM 2025-1-10 9:15AM

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[Chair ]: Good morning, everyone. [Martin Malone ]: Good morning. Good morning. [Chair ]: It is nine fifteen ish on January tenth. This is the Wait and Means Committee. I'm glad to be here with you today. Thank you for your patience in us already adjusting the schedule on our second day together. Bill and I had to be set together. And as will be our tradition, we spend our Friday mornings hearing preliminary walk throughs of bills that have arrived in our committee room and are on the wall. And then we'll later make a decision about if we're gonna take further testimony on them. Bit of little housekeeping. Sorsha sends a group text about scheduling. Generally, we shouldn't reply all. If you wanna text with Sorsha about it, send a start a separate thread. And that goes for your emails too. And with that, chair Lalonde, would you like to join us? Thank you so much for your flexibility this morning. I really appreciate [Martin Malone ]: it. Absolutely. I I don't have my committee in yet, on the first Friday. Guys are very inefficient. I'd like to see that. [Chair ]: Apparently not because we're starting late. [Martin Malone ]: So but thank you for your I didn't wanna wanna mention that. So, [Chair ]: yes. [Martin Malone ]: My name is Martin Malone, representative from South Burlington, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and the bill h six has a direct impact on on the issues that we deal with in the House Judiciary Committee. It is a straightforward bill. There's no such thing as a simple bill, but it is straightforward in that it removes a sunset. So because a couple years ago, we passed a bill passed a law that increased marriage fee marriage license fee to help fund the domestic and sexual violence fund. So just to give you some background, you know, the domestic and sexual violence special fund was established in two thousand eight. It's set forth in thirteen BSA section fifty three sixty. And the fund is administered by the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, and it supports a community based domestic and sexual violence services in Vermont. So the revenues for the fund were really primarily compromised are are comprised of really two different revenue sources, A surcharge on criminal and civil judgments and then a portion of the surcharge on marriage licenses. The this particular fund, it supports about seven hundred and eighty four thousand dollars, in expenses annually, and those funds are dispersed among the Vermont's fifteen community based domestic and sexual violence service providers. So the the revenues have been declining over the years. Yeah. And in part, this the increase in the marriage fee and the increase going to this fund was to help make up for the lost revenues elsewhere. So personally, stepping back, I think that we should be funding this through the general fund. But until we get to that point, I think we really need to continue the marriage license fee. When it passed out a year, we did not have a sunset. But to get it through the senate, somebody down there in finance, added a sunset so we would take a look and see how it's going. I can tell you that it's been very important. I don't have the actual numbers of how much money that has brought in. You can get that from, other witnesses from the network. But but it has been an important source to help to continue to fund these really important services for for victims of domestic concession violence. And I'm happy to take questions. I'm not sure I'll be able to answer them, but I'll try my best to point you to the right people if necessary. Thank you. [Chair ]: Do you have any questions? Yes. Representative Saltez. Has the seven hundred and eighty four thousand dollars decreased annually over recent years, or that's kind of a stable amount, please? [Martin Malone ]: I you can get that more detail from from from the network. I'm assuming that it has increased as far oh, you mean the amount of money in the fund that we need? The amount of money in the fund, I believe, has been going down. The the needs have been going up. I understand. Right. Right. [Chair ]: That probably but I but I'm wondering about the source of the fund. You said it was a search if number one, it was a search charge on the marriage license as well as a fee on certain crimes or [Martin Malone ]: certain Yes. Correct. Correct. So a certain court fee is a portion of that. And the the courts have been collecting less and less of that money just because the people involved in the criminal justice system don't have that money. Exactly. They don't have that. So Okay. Just a clarification on that seven hundred and eighty four thousand. Is that the amount that's going to the sector of the special fund now from the marriage license only? No. Not from that. That's it's it's supports that fund supports the seven hundred and eighty four thousand. So that's the amount of in the in that fund total. And and I don't have the breakdown of what financial was, and and you can definitely get that from [Speaker 2 ]: If we use when we work on this [Chair ]: a little bit more, we can have, both JFO come in and the network come in and talk to us more about the numbers. One piece that I think was sort of helpful context for me when we were talking about this when we passed it previously without the sunset was that a lot of marriage license fees in Vermont are paid by we have a huge marriage tourism industry, and so it's not just Vermonters getting married. It's a lot of folks coming and spending, you know, some extra million dollars, like, to have a Vermont wedding who are paying [Speaker 2 ]: the fee. [Martin Malone ]: Yeah. And and I guess the key from for me is that the services that the network provides the victims are critical, and they do an amazing job on the on the money that we do give them and support them. Victims, whether they're into the criminal justice system or not, they they're help folks through steps to end domestic violence is the one I'm familiar with in in Chittenden County. They help individuals who are seeking RFAs at any time night, any time of the week. They they help find housing. They really are helping really a focus on domestic violence, but also sexual violence, and they really do excellent work, and and it's really critical that we fund them. That's why I wish that we would book to the general fund and just have this much easier for them. But [Chair ]: That's a conversation for downstairs. But Yeah. [Speaker 2 ]: Well, I can [Chair ]: Yeah. Branson Brannigan. [Speaker 2 ]: I'll I'll try to be brief. But, yes, downstairs, whatever. Just so you know where I'm at, I've never liked this fee. I did fees on the floor for a long time. I think when you were doing those things at the end of fee days when we had a big presentation of the fees. And there there is supposed to be a connection between the fee and and where we get it. Right. And it always bothered me that there seems with this fee, this particular fee, to be an assumption that all the purchase are gonna end in violence, and they certainly don't. Right. In some marriages, that would be the last thing they would think of, and they're insulted that their son is something that it's going to end with one month. And so it just seems I'm just somehow meaning to need to take it out of a marriage license fee. So I absolutely agree with you, Aditi, from the general fund. I understand how important those services are, and the people who receive them are in, you know, bad position. They've been abused, and, it's terrible if a way to the the government should should step in public safety or something like that. But my opinion is not the. But I keep losing it. I lost this argument. [Martin Malone ]: We we can also think about it instead shifting to a feat on the sale of ammunition and firearms. That's another you know, there there is a there is a nexus in violence there as well, but I guess that might be a little bit of a hot topic. So maybe we stay with Mary [Speaker 2 ]: Chi. There are no good [Martin Malone ]: choices here. Right, Martin. [Chair ]: I don't think you're the only one who feels that way. I it it is an uncomfortable nexus. Absolutely. And it's an it's something that absolutely has to be funded. Right? Crucial service. I agree with that. And it's one of the funny things I think about special funds is that they're a little bit of a farce and that they're all fungible. We have money going in. We have money going out, and it really doesn't matter, like, what the money is that's coming in. It doesn't really matter, like, what label the money going out necessarily has on it. But this was sort of a nexus that someone created. You know? And For my Yes. And certainly before my time. And so it's how people feel good about putting money into this fund. And so but I agree with you. It's very uncomfortable. [Martin Malone ]: May I ask you [Speaker 2 ]: the question? Yes. Absolutely. [Martin Malone ]: You're increasing from thirty five to fifty and from ten to fifteen. And that's up to sixty five. Where's the extra fifteen? I believe I'm trying to reflect. Yeah. The clerks. It goes to municipal clerks. No. That's the fifteen. Oh. We have ten to fifteen dollars I could see. So you're starting to get me into math. Sure. And and with the reason that they don't put me anywhere near money for this. So that's a question you could ask KFO and other things. [Chair ]: Take it. Okay. I think we are going to wrap up. Go to the floor. Thank you very much, Robert. Thank you. [Martin Malone ]: Thank you for listening to me. [Chair ]: Absolutely. Thanks. So we are going to be back here at ten thirty AM to do our first sort of overview from JFO and legislative council about how the tax system works. The floor might end well before that, so we'll still just start at ten thirty.
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