Kristi Morris - Representative

I am honored to have received the endorsement from "Let's Grow Kids". Having raised two children and supported the upbringing of seven grandchildren, we know the difficulties in finding reliable childcare. It takes a village to raise children, and Let's Grow Kids provides the opportunity for parents to seek employment in the workforce.

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Legislative Week in Review
June 12, 2026

Over the past week, the Governor has signed several bills into law. Most were appropriately compromised between the two major parties into an agreeable result, or were widely accepted by all. One such bill was S.193, a bill to address and build a forensic facility. This would serve the population determined to be criminally insane and not competent to stand trial. The forensic facility should have the necessary services to treat this population. In my opinion, when the Waterbury mental health facility was destroyed by flood during tropical storm Irene in 2011, the State opted out of mental health treatment. Sure, there were a number of beds opened throughout Vermont in various hospital locations and other treatment areas, but that was inconsistent, not properly funded or included adequate security. However, there was never any appropriate funding for this effort and the costs shifted to the facilities and/or communities. This evolved over time with some adjustments made for security, but did not result in appropriate mental health treatment. The Woodside juvenile facility was also closed. This facility was obsolete and needed vast improvements and programming to treat this population, and had a history of improprieties. A small facility was opened in Berlin to treat a limited number of patients for mental health issues. Currently, there isn’t a facility to hold those found to be criminally insane. This population is currently incarcerated in correctional facilities and monitored by correction officers. However, the types of treatments needed to support those charged and found to be criminally insane, is absent. The new forensic facility would support the necessary services until such time those held are determined to be competent to stand trial. It is a much-needed facility and a step in the process for the State to address mental health.

As the primary election approaches this August 11, the political ads are starting to ramp up. Locally, candidate filing with the Secretary of States office concluded at the end of May for the two major parties. Over the next few weeks, candidates will have public forums, print rack cards for handouts, postcards for mailings, and post social media articles in support of their candidacy. This is the informational campaign season that each distributes to earn your support and gain your vote. This is the civil side of the campaign season. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop with these efforts. The part of running for office, that is disconcerting, will follow. As seen with national campaigns on the news. They quickly take a negative tone. Each side attempts to accuse the other of faults, bad policy, or an attempt to discredit the other person. Why would a person choose to run for office just to have others criticize those who oppose? The answer is simple. Each believes they can offer practical common-sense reasoning and support sound legislation and conservative spending. Some even propose to lower taxes. At the local and state level, this promise is nearly impossible to obtain. Cutting taxes means cutting programs. Local and statewide programs were created over decades and deemed to be necessary for support of infrastructure, employee wages and benefits, and other programs for those most in need.

This is where politics kicks in between the right and the left. I have stated before that it is easy to target a specific topic of choice and make the point to cut it, suspend it or delete it. However, what consequences would develop if a particular program disappears. Some consequences can be intentional, while others result in unintentional results. Think of it as the whack-a-mole game. Solve for one issue and another will raise its head. Pick almost any topic and this analogy exists. For example, on the local level cut paving budgets and the roads worsen. Cut emergency services such as police, fire or EMS and responses delay or the caller waits until personnel and equipment can respond. Don’t invest in infrastructure and water and wastewater service lines break and need repair. Many of these same services exists at the state level and have the same results.

What a credible candidate will tell you is they will spend budget money as if it was their own. They will advocate for conservative spending and living within you’re the revenues. With 150 representatives, 30 senators and an administration, conservative spending is the best we can truthfully advocate for. Now consider an emergency weather event and where does that revenue come from to address the impact. Secondarily, emergency spending is often taken from budget revenue that ultimately wipes out its’ original intent. Some funds are incombered for a specific planned future project to lessen the cost in a single year. Those would now take additional years to fund if it was spent on emergency expenditures. Another option is capital spending over a number of years.

What can you do, as a voter? Get out to vote for the primary and general elections. If voting in person proves to be difficult, for any reason, absentee ballots are available. Plan ahead, contact the Town Clerk and sign up for absentee ballot and perform your civil duty. Your vote is important. Your vote does matter. Please consider voting to support your candidate of choice by casting your vote.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris

Legislative Week in Review
June 5, 2026

With the conclusion of the 2026 Legislative session, the summer starts and we have more time to spend at home with family and work, for those that are employed. This affords legislators time to refocus on home projects, property maintenance, gardening, and time to just catch up. However, just because the session has ended, your legislators continue to work meeting with various agencies, informational events, report on session activities and prepare for the upcoming primary and general elections. It is reported that upward of 30-legislators are not running for re-election, including five House committee chairs, the Speaker and the Senate Pro Tem. The list includes many good legislators, who have dedicated many hours and years for their constituents. The reasons are many, and include; frustration, affordability, burnout, and family concerns.

Many voters believe your legislature is fairly compensated for their work in Montpelier. The reality is that younger legislators struggle to serve and adequately support themselves, or families. Several work other jobs to make ends meet. This drastically increases their number of hours worked each week in support of their efforts. This leads to burnout, or the realization that they become overworked. The result is, Vermont’s citizens legislature is composed of average citizens who have the means to support themselves, are retired or own businesses with other employees who can carry on their workload.

New legislators, or those with the desire and energy to serve, quickly learn that personal goals, initiatives, and efforts to make changes meet a process that is historically slow and has multiple points of influence that can be seen as obstructions. There are 150 House members that are divided into committees made up of nine to eleven representatives each. Committee members are made up of both major parties. Each party has political platforms and agendas. A single legislator will need to work with counsel to develop a bill that can include other legislators, who sign on because of interest in supporting the bill. The bill gets introduced and assigned to a committee of jurisdiction. The legislator, who introduced the bill, must then convince the committee chairs to take up the bill, and convince other legislators to vote to support the bill. While in committee, testimony is taken on the bill, and other legislators can offer amendments that can change the original initiative. Finally, if the bill passes out of committee, it will need to pass out of both chambers, and the Governor will need to sign the bill into law.

What seems like a complicated process is by design. It is intentionally slow in nature and is intended for a bill to be well investigated, reviewed, and thought out. A bill should not be a “hip shot” reaction or pass without attempting to understand any consequences, whether intentional or unintentional. This past biennium, the House had 957 bills, and the Senate had 329 bills. Only 236 bills total were passed within the two years. Yes, there are some bills that are simple, uncomplicated, and make sense to most people. These generally pass without debate or party objection. Even when a bill is passed, it can be brought back in another year with changes or amendments. It is very difficult to easily pass a complicated bill, a bill containing significant changes, or those that contain new ideas or approaches. The House could have 150 different opinions, and the Senate can have thirty.

If a House bill is passed, the legislator must then convince the Senate of the bills’ purpose and intentions. Senators will then need to be convinced to support the bill. The process takes planning and time to complete. This all happens while the legislator is involved with other committee bills and the process to pass them out. The legislator should be aware of other community interest bills, or bills of state impact, such as budgets. Now complicate the process with the goals of party leadership, and you should see a picture of the difficulty and time needed in completing a bill. Many bills reside in other committees that will need your attention. Your only voice can be in a caucus meeting or your vote on the floor. Your current incumbent legislators worked diligently as a team, to understand bills of interest, and others that could impact Springfield.

As previously reported, I am running again for the next biennium and would appreciate your support. It is important to get out to vote, either way. The August primary can be voted in person, or absentee by contacting the Town Clerks Office and requesting your ballot. General election vote in November is expected to be mailed to each registered voter.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris

Legislative Week in Review
May 29, 2026

The 2026 Legislative session ended in spectacular fashion last Friday. With the educational transformation, state budget and the school spending Yield bills all in play on the last day. It is kind of cool to see how each played out following negotiations between the two chambers and the administration. All three were in Committee of Conferences to create a final version to be voted by both chambers. No amendments are allowed prior to the vote. Fortunately, the threats of budget veto and required forced mergers went away and were replaced by compromise and voluntary district mergers. The results were truly an impressive process, as legislation should be. The level of bipartisan and administrative compromise, at the eleventh hour, was much appreciated. This enabled the legislature to adjourn by 7:30 PM, when we were estimated to have gone late into the evening. Adjournment was originally thought to happen around 1:30 in the morning.

I would advise the readers that no bill is perfect, not all parties get their preferences, and the legislation is considered to benefit the most for Vermonters at the time. Of course, this is a matter of perception by individual readers. There is an enormous number of hours that go into creating these bills by taking witness and agency testimony, hearing various amendments, caucus presentations and informational meetings to get to the final version. The budget will have an adjustment amendment, and various reports on the effects of the education bill will be returned in January. The educational bill is expected to have revisions over the next one to three years as the components become reality. Because of process timing and requirement to have legislation completed before adjournment, these bills have to be rolled out. It is expected that the interpretations of legislation will drive further amendments before they are finalized.

The education bill, for example, is expected to be fully in effect by 2029 for the 2030 budget year. Districts will need to review future budgets and expenses before considering the possibility of merging. If done to quickly, voters will not have time to understand the legislation, the potential effects nor have time to provide input.

We had a ceremony at a local restaurant recently, to honor those that have announced they will not be returning next year. This past week, the Speaker announced she will not seek reelection and my Environment Committee Chair also announced she is not running. Some believe that we should have term limits. I believe we need a balance of legislators that have experience and others that are new. To understand protocol and the process, experience is necessary.

Many constituents have contacted me during the session on specific bills. I have heard from both pro and con relative to several of the controversial bills. I have fully appreciated the voters for affording me the opportunity to serve Springfield. As reported last week, I will be running for another term in the Vermont House of Representatives.

We are witnessing much political divisiveness both locally and nationally. Some legislators have received personal threats and the leaders of the majority parties issued a joint statement denouncing harmful statements. The State House adjusted to a single point-of-entry, this year that is controlled by security and has a metal detector and scanner for bag checks. Vermont is not used to this level of security, and I have come to believe this is the new normal in the world of politics. When I ran for office, I thought the world was in a good place and I wanted to be part of the process. Having been involved with manufacturing and various product processes, I entered into the representative race. I believed it would be easier than where we are now, and I am willing to work with all parties. I have fully appreciated the voters for affording me the opportunity to serve Springfield. As reported last week, I will be running for another term in the Vermont House of Representatives.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris

Legislative Week in Review
May 22, 2026

Your Vermont Legislature is in overtime, as we approach the end of session. Typically, sessions are finished by mid-May. We still have several key bills in play that have consumed a large number of hours this spring. Educational transformation is by far the leading driver for our time. The “Big Bill” state budget is still in play along with the “Yield Bill.” These bills, and others, are interdependent upon the other. The budget can not be finalized until others are completed. Think of it as a puzzle that needs individual pieces put together before it can be completed. Each piece is interconnected with others to finish the puzzle. Because of the must pass bills, many others were delayed pending available time afforded to work on them. Committees and legislative counsel can only work on a handful of bills at any one time. The good news is, we were able to finish a large number of bills last week and the session is closer to winding down. We expect this week will be the last.

Our legislative leadership has been communicating with the Administration, and Senate, to find common ground for negotiating compromise with the larger bills that remain in play. Many other bills have entered into a Committee of Conference to find compromise between the House and Senate. Several of the CoC bills have found their way back to the floor of each chamber for an up or down vote.

I traveled out of town the past two weekends and was not able to put forth a weekly article. We traveled to Pennsylvania for a grandson’s college graduation and a Shriners function last weekend at Jay Peak resort. The good news with that is, many of the bills remained open over the two weeks with several amendments being offered. To summarize, there has not been a large amount of new information to report to the readers. Last week, we were in a mode of hurry up and wait, with floor action mixed with several recesses to enable various committees to take testimony on offered amendments. We experienced several days with floor sessions going into the early evening before we could adjourn for the day. This is typical and usual at the end of each biennium, as legislators strive to have their opinions heard on specific points within a particular bill.

As this biennium ends, the next step is to plan for the 2026 primary and general elections. I have submitted my signature petition and paperwork and announced my intentions to run again as your Representative in Montpelier in the next biennium. With specific bills, it is my belief to first cause no harm to Vermonters with legislation. We have many topics that effect Vermonters. Education costs, healthcare costs, housing and infrastructure replacement that all impact property taxes. I collaborated with many other legislators and committees to offer my opinion on various bills. As drafted, I found it hard to support several, but after amendments soften the impact, I found them more toward my liking in support of my constituents and I was able to vote in support. Each session, bills can contain good ideas. However, they require work to compromise, negotiate and collaborate to find an agreeable result. I know disagreements exist, but it is my opinion that Vermonter’s are better off this year than they were last year through the efforts of the 2026 legislature. Remember, it will be a year or two before bills take effect, and most legislators agree that no bill is perfect. There is strength in a 150-member House, two separate chambers and Administration. Collaboration and compromise of differing opinions can make for a better bill, but perfection is a perception by the individual.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris

Legislative Week in Review
May 1, 2026

Last week my Environment Committee voted out the S.325 amendment to repeal the “Road Rule” and “Tier 3” sections of Act 181. It passed on a unanimous vote of 11 – 0. Likewise, the Ways & Means Committee passed it out on a 10 – 0 – 1 vote. It will be on the House floor this week. It is expected to pass in response to the large number of Vermont land owners who messaged asking for the repeal. The original bill stood up the Land Use Review Board (LURB), which was then charged with creating the rules to define the road rule and Tier 3 areas. The rules have not been created yet and S.325 will repeal that requirement. Unfortunately, the LURB created and released a premature draft map of their interpretation of the area to be included. It is my opinion that this is what caused the conflict with Vermont land owners concerned they would lose freedom to develop their properties.

Some have called for the repeal of Act 181 in its entirety. If the entire Act is repealed, development permits would revert back to the current Act 250 laws. We have heard, and taken much testimony that Act 250 has caused angst for some developers, and coupled with other permits, can cause delays and expense for development. Also, without the LURB, we would return to the single member Natural Resource Board having just the Director. Additionally, the District Coordinators, and District Commissions, would return to their interpretation of Act 250 criteria. We have heard many complaints about current Act 250 decisions. Act 181 stands up the five member LURB and charges them with educating and coordinating with the districts to provide like and consistent approaches to permit decisions throughout Vermont. Act 181 would remove the duplicate permitting requirement from the process should municipalities have zoning bylaws and staff to administer the permits. The so-called Tier 1 area designations will likely disappear and governing municipalities will issue development permits providing they have adequate staffing. The goal is to reduce costs for development and enable housing to be built more easily in areas where water and wastewater infrastructure is available.

The Educational Transformation Bill H.955 will pass out of the Senate with amendments. This bill will come back to the House and likely will have a Committee of Conference assigned to negotiate a compromise between the House and Senate. The Governor continues to threaten to not sign the budget, “The Big Bill”, should education transformation not meet his expectations. Coupled with the “Yield Bill”, that pays for education, all three will likely see CoC’s. We have been advised that a compromise means neither chamber will end up with what they passed out. As previously reported, there is not a wide range of support for H.955. It passed out of the House on a vote of 79 -62. The Senate version does allocate the entire $105M reserves to buy down property taxes. The House version split the reserves into two years to help stabilize property taxes. Like last year, I supported returning all the reserves back to the taxpayers to reduce property taxes.

The Governor is also advocating for forced mergers of school districts. H.955 makes consolidation voluntary by each community. This puts the consolidation efforts directly on the wishes of each community. Mergers are advertised as a prerequisite to reducing the cost of education. Though this is a possibility, there are some that believe any savings will only be temporary if we do not address the cost drivers of education. Additionally, school construction will need to be considered and would add to the overall cost.

Springfields school budget revote is happening this Tuesday, May 5th. I hope voters came out in large numbers to provide Springfield with a larger number of voter opinions. Thanks to all those that made the effort to vote and thank you to all voting yes.

Thanks to all who came out in support of Green Up Day. I can only hope everyone will recognize, and applaud the efforts and refrain from disposing of trash on our roadsides, trails, parking lots and other areas outside of trash containers. It takes very little effort to retain trash inside your vehicles until arriving home or an area that has receptacles.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris

Legislative Week in Review
April 24, 2026

Last week my Environment Committee worked to amend S.325. This bill will repeal the Act 181 road rule and the Tier 3 natural resource areas and mapping. Within the original bill, the Land Use Review Board (LURB) was charged with standing up the rules to define Tier 3. Since the LURB was created late in 2025, and because they have an enormous amount of work to complete, they are behind in the rule making. We heard from hundreds of Vermonters who opposed Tier 3 and reached out expressing their opposition. With the partial repeal, the so-called Tier 1 areas are proposed to remain in effect, as several projects are under consideration or under way for housing development in downtown districts, village centers or neighborhood development areas. I anticipate this bill passing out of committee this week. With the biennium winding down the committee chairs of Environment and Senate Natural Resources have discussed the changes in anticipation of it being passed out of the House within the next week or two. With the enormous number of emails and messages received from Vermonters to repeal these sections, we have listened. It is a bipartisan effort contributing to the S.325 amendments and I anticipate it will pass out of the House. If not, Act 181 will remain in effect.

H.955, the Educational Transformation bill is in the Senate Education Committee for their review. As previously reported, there is not a wide range of support for this bill, as it passed out of the House on a vote of 79 -62. The bill contains enough controversy that most everyone is not happy with the results. It divides the state into seven district administrations and relies on voluntary school mergers for any consolidation. The foundation formula for school funding is still a year out at the least. The formula establishes what the state will pay to each district per student. There will be much more to report on within the next couple of weeks as this bill progresses. The Senate is expected to make revisions that will have to come back to the House for concurrence, or a Committee of Conference will be created to negotiate a compromise.

My article last week caused a large amount of controversy. At the request of the Lieutenant Governor, we met to explain each of our opinions of Act 181’s intentions. It was a good meeting and we agreed on some of the components and that it became very political. I also communicated with several other legislator's asked me of my position. Though not all agreed, they were understanding of my explanation. I mentioned in my previous article that Act 181 became political and most of those I talked with agreed. Coming from a selectboard approach, we don’t have party affiliation and the Montpelier experience can take one out of a comfort zone. Act 181 became a very political bill.

Another bill that passed out of the House was S.89. This Senate bill will provide a death benefit to family survivors from a line of duty death for law enforcement personnel, department of correction and DCF employees. The bill adds these employees to a similar benefit that is provided for firefighters. The House had a similar bill that I was advocating for that was not taken up. The Senate did and it is now headed to the Governor. The bill provides an $80K benefit to the family for the designated employees who experience a LODD. We all hope it never happens.

This coming weekend is Vermont’s traditional Green Up Day. Many within our community will support this event by coming out in large numbers to volunteer. There are several local agencies whose members participate annually for this event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. The more people that volunteer will help make the task easier and shorten the day for all. If you are around this coming Saturday May 2nd, think about coming down to lend a hand. Collection bags will be available at the Coop parking lot Saturday morning. I am always impressed with the number of green bags lining the road post pickup and the large pile that grows in the Coop parking lot following the volunteers returning their collections

The school budget revote will be May 5th. I hope voters will get out to fill in the ovals with their vote. Regardless of your opinion, please get out and vote. A small turnout is not beneficial to our community would provide a minimum understanding of the community’s intentions. If that day is not a good day for you to get out to vote, you can visit the Town Hall and vote absentee. Since I am in Montpelier on May 5th, I have already voted and it was all of less than 10-minutes. We need to hear from you.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at home by calling 802-885-2949. My legislative email is [email protected] or my personal email is [email protected]

Representative Kristi Morris