Vermont Democrats 2025 Legislative Wins

H.493 - Reducing Property Taxes: Vermont Democrats took action to moderate tax rates. Property taxes will remain stable, with a modest 1% adjustment, keeping Vermont well below the national trend.
 

S.51 - Tax Credits: A new tax relief package will return about $13.5 million a year to Vermonters by expanding the Child Tax Credit, boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without kids, raising income limits for retirement exemptions, and delivering new tax breaks for veterans — including a $250 credit for those earning under $25,000.

S.127 - Housing Development: The housing crisis is still making it hard for many Vermonters to stay, work, and raise families here. After major investments in affordable housing last year, lawmakers took more steps in 2025 to keep that momentum going. This bill is the largest infrastructure investment in Vermont history: a $2 billion package to build more housing and upgrade roads and water systems. This new law expands access to financing for low and middle income Vermonters to buy or rent homes, and offers grants to help landlords bring more units — including mobile homes — up to code. It also strengthens protections against housing discrimination for immigrant workers, helping support the farms, job sites, and small businesses that rely on them. It launches a new program to help towns and developers build the infrastructure needed to support up to 3,750 new homes per year across both rural and urban communities.

S.27 - Medical Debt Relief: Up to $100 million in medical debt is being erased through a nonprofit partnership. It will provide life-changing relief to tens of thousands of Vermonters with existing debt while preventing future medical daebt from affecting Vermonters’ credit scores, improving access to health care for everyone. No cost to taxpayers — just real, immediate help.
 

S.126 - Reference Based Pricing: Vermont’s main health insurer, BCBS is struggling and most Vermont hospitals are losing money. This bill gives Vermont’s health regulator tools like reference-based pricing to better set hospital rates. It also improves transparency in contracts, creates a statewide health resource plan to match resources with needs, strengthens primary care planning, and holds agencies accountable for hospital sustainability efforts.
 

H.35 - Stabilizing Individual and Small Group Premiums: To keep insurance affordable, this law requires insurers to keep individual and small group markets separate. This prevents the merging of risk pools that could lead to higher premiums, which helps workers and small businesses access stable, quality health coverage.
 

H.266 - 340B Drug Pricing: Vermont has some of the highest drug costs in the nation. This bill caps what hospitals can charge for certain medications at 120% of Medicare’s average price starting in 2026 — a major cut from previous markups that sometimes hit 600%.
 

S.63 - Administrative Intervention: This bill empowers Vermont’s hospital regulator to step in when hospital budget reports seem misleading. It also allows appointing a neutral observer to review and address issues, promoting accountability in how hospitals manage their finances.

Proposal 3 - A Constitutional Right to Unionize: Vermont is one step closer to guaranteeing the right of every worker to join a union and bargain for better pay, safer conditions, and respect on the job. A proposed amendment to the state constitution — known as Proposal 3 — has now passed the House and Senate in back-to-back sessions. That means it’s headed to Vermont voters in November 2026. If approved, Vermont would become one of the few states to explicitly protect the right to unionize in its constitution — a big win for working families and economic fairness.