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1 H.273
2 Introduced by Representatives Cina of Burlington, Bluemle of Burlington,
3 Christie of Hartford, Colston of Winooski, Cordes of Lincoln,
4 Donnally of Hyde Park, Durfee of Shaftsbury, Elder of
5 Starksboro, Gannon of Wilmington, Mulvaney-Stanak of
6 Burlington, Sims of Craftsbury, Surprenant of Barnard, Toleno
7 of Brattleboro, Troiano of Stannard, Vyhovsky of Essex, Walz
8 of Barre City, White of Hartford, and Wood of Waterbury
9 Referred to Committee on
10 Date:
11 Subject: Economic; housing; social equity
12 Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to promote racial
13 and social equity in land access and property ownership by creating grant
14 programs, financial education, and other investments targeted to Vermonters
15 who have historically suffered from discrimination and who have not had equal
16 access to public or private economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex,
17 geography, language preference, immigrant or citizen status, sexual
18 orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or disability status.
19 An act relating to promoting racial and social equity in land access and
20 property ownership VT LEG #351922 v.4
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1 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
2 Sec. 1. LEGISLATIVE INTENT
3 (a) Equal opportunity is a fundamental principle of American democracy.
4 (b) Equal access to land and to wealth is a human right and a priority of the
5 State of Vermont.
6 (c) Structural racism, defined as the laws, policies, institutional practices,
7 cultural representations, and other societal norms that often work together to
8 deny equal opportunity, has resulted in wealth disparities among Vermonters.
9 Great social costs arise from these inequities, including threats to economic
10 development, democracy, and the social health of the State of Vermont.
11 (d) Wealth disparities are a function of not only access to income, but also
12 the ability to have access to the land and to property ownership, which has
13 been impacted by race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference,
14 immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic
15 status, and disability status. Wealth disparities directly and indirectly affect the
16 health and wellness of individuals and communities.
17 (e) The foundation of our current economic system was built on land that
18 was taken from Abenaki and other Indigenous persons, and the structures of
19 our economic system were constructed with the labor of enslaved persons. The
20 legacy of settler colonialism and chattel slavery has been systemic racism and
21 discrimination embedded into many aspects of our modern way of life on this VT LEG #351922 v.4
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1 land. The relationship between all persons and the land has been used to
2 oppress persons over the past several centuries. The laws and policies of our
3 State and nation severed Indigenous persons from their land while denying
4 them, Black persons, and other Persons of Color from having the opportunity
5 to access and to own land. These actions of the State led to systemic racism
6 that has impacted all Vermonters who have historically suffered from
7 discrimination and who have not had equal access to public or private
8 economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference,
9 immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic
10 status, or disability status.
11 (f) In order to offer repair for the systemic discrimination faced by many
12 persons throughout the State over the past four centuries, the State of Vermont
13 must engage in a just transition to an economic system that systemically
14 undoes racism instead of reinforcing it. Efforts to remedy wealth disparity in
15 the United States have traditionally looked to the free market economy for
16 solutions to the very problem that it has created. However, there has been
17 increased recognition that improving access to land and property ownership
18 will require broader approaches. In order to rectify this history of inequity, we
19 must create opportunities for permanent land access in every town in Vermont
20 through collective and individual land ownership options, using new systems
21 that empower and center Vermonters who have historically suffered from VT LEG #351922 v.4
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1 discrimination and who have not had equal access to public or private
2 economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference,
3 immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic
4 status, or disability status.
5 (g) It is therefore the intent of this legislature to acknowledge and address
6 wealth disparity by creating new opportunities for individual and collective
7 land access and ownership for Vermonters who have historically suffered from
8 discrimination and who have not had equal access to public or private
9 economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference,
10 immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic
11 status, or disability status by ensuring equal access to owning property,
12 woodlands, and farmland in every town across the State of Vermont.
13 (h) In addition to the actions taken by this act, the State must engage in a
14 deep process of truth and reconciliation, guided by the persons who have been
15 most impacted, to address the underlying wounds of colonization and slavery.
16 Sec. 2. FINDINGS
17 (a) Definitions. As used in this section:
18 (1) “Non-White” means Black, Indigenous, and other Persons of Color
19 (BIPOC). The term is not intended to reflect self-identity but rather how
20 persons are categorized in the racial caste system on which discrimination has
21 been historically based in the United States. This term is used in this act VT LEG #351922 v.4
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1 because currently Vermont typically disaggregates data solely by White and
2 non-White.
3 (2) “Race and ethnicity” means the categories for classifying individuals
4 that have been created by prevailing social perceptions, historical policies, and
5 practices. The term includes how individuals perceive themselves and how
6 individuals are perceived by others.
7 (b) Wealth Disparity in Vermont. Concerning the history of wealth
8 disparity in Vermont, the General Assembly finds:
9 (1) History, research, and experience demonstrate that Vermont
10 residents experience barriers to the equal enjoyment and economic benefit of
11 land access and home ownership opportunities based on race and ethnicity.
12 (2)(A) The United States was founded as a country on a triangular
13 relationship between settlers, native persons, and slaves. Tuck, E., & Yang, K.
14 W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity,
15 education & society, 1(1).
16 (B) This structure created an inequity for homeownership, land
17 access, resources, and wealth related to owning property through systemic
18 oppression and systematic racism for those who were defined as native or
19 slave.
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1 (C) This systemic oppression would continue for generations to
2 follow, including those who would immigrate later to the United States and
3 could be categorized racially or ethnically.
4 (D) Prior to Vermont self-declaring its occupation of the land in
5 1777, it is estimated that at least 10,000 Indigenous persons were living in the
6 region, specifically upwards of 4,000 Abenaki living in the Champlain Valley.
7 (E) Centuries of genocide, eugenics, broken treaties, displacement,
8 and land dispossession placed persons of the Abenaki Nations and other
9 Indigenous persons living in Vermont at a great social disadvantage.
10 (F) Although the original Vermont constitution abolished slavery in
11 the State, it would not be until 1854 that an African American would be
12 considered legally free, not being considered property, in the State and not
13 until 1863 federally recognized as free from enslavement.
14 (G) During and since these early days of colonization and slavery,
15 due to local, State, and federal policies that were intentionally developed to
16 economically, socially, and racially discriminate against members of the
17 BIPOC community, multi-generational poverty has created a disturbing
18 disproportionate wealth gap for land and home ownership in what we now
19 know as Vermont and the United States.
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1 (3)(A) Several federal policies also resulted in land being stolen from
2 Indigenous persons across North America and ultimately, led to the
3 displacement and land dispossession of Indigenous persons in Vermont.
4 (B) Between 1497 and 1795, European settlers committed genocide
5 against the Native Americans and stripped them of land ownership.
6 (C) A continuation of land dispossession happened between 1776 and
7 1887 when 1.5 billion acres of land was stolen from Indigenous Nations by the
8 U.S. federal government.
9 (D) In 1823, the U.S. Supreme Court (Johnson vs. McIntosh, 21 U.S.
10 543; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S.; Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515)
11 ruled that Indigenous persons could live within the United States but could not
12 hold property titles because European settlers’ “right to discovery” trumped
13 Indigenous persons’ “right of occupancy.” This was also known as the
14 Discovery Doctrine. Gazillo, C., Guszkowski, J., Kolesinskas, K., Swamy, L.,
15 2020. Planning for Agriculture: A guide for Connecticut Municipalities.
16 Wethersfield, CT: American Farmland Trust.
17 (4)(A) One of the most devastating policies enacted that impacted
18 Indigenous land ownership was the General Allotment Act of 1887, often
19 referred to as the Dawes Act.
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1 (B) As part of the Dawes Act, the federal government designed the
2 policy to partition communal Indigenous lands into individual parcels of 40,
3 80, or 160 acres.
4 (C) The most productive lands from reservations were identified as
5 “surplus to Indian needs” and sold to colonizers to exploit for natural
6 resources.
7 (D) Under the allotment policies, colonial settlers could purchase and
8 own land outright, but Native persons were deemed “incompetent” by the
9 federal government and had to wait 25 years to gain the legal title and rights to
10 sell the land.
11 (E) In addition to the land grab, the act aimed to “civilize” and
12 assimilate Indigenous persons in order to dissolve their connections to their
13 traditional land, culture, and identity. Gazillo, C., Guszkowski, J., Kolesinskas,
14 K., Swamy, L., 2020. Planning for Agriculture: A guide for Connecticut
15 Municipalities. Wethersfield, CT: American Farmland Trust.
16 (5)(A) After the Civil War, freed slaves and their descendants obtained
17 between 12 million to 19 million acres of land. See
18 https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46984/19353_ra174h_1_.pdf?
19 v=41056#:%7E:text=Land%20ownership%20by%20Black%20farmers,acres
20 %20owned%20by%20White%20farmers.
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1 (B) However, federal land policies and programs denied members of
2 the BIPOC community farmland ownership opportunities that were available
3 to their White counterparts.
4 (C) The federal government’s creation of early land use policies,
5 such as those adopted under President Andrew Johnson, who overturned the
6 infamous “40 acres and a mule” and implemented “states’ rights” based
7 reconstruction policies, resulted in sharecropping. Giancatarino, A. and Noor,
8 S. (2014). Building for the case of racial equity within the food system. New
9 York, New York: Center for Social Inclusion.
10 (D) Sharecropping was the federal government prohibiting Black
11 farmers from owning property and as a result they were forced to rent land
12 from White landlords.
13 (E) Many Black farmers at this time experienced unfair terms and
14 agreements. Giancatarino, A. and Noor, S. (2014). Building for the case of
15 racial equity within the food system. New York, New York: Center for Social
16 Inclusion.
17 (F) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Farm Service
18 Agency (FSA) Loan Distribution Program has made it difficult for Black and
19 other persons of color to own farmland. Carpenter, Stephen. 2002. Poverty,
20 Racial Discrimination and the Family Farm. In Challenges to Equality:
21 Poverty and Race in America, ed. C.W. Hartman. New York: Routledge.
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1 (G) The rate of “Black land-loss” can be attributed to Jim Crow,
2 racist practices conducted by the USDA and decades of farm busts. Harper,
3 B., and Holt-Giménez, E. (2016). Dismantling Racism in the Food System.
4 Oakland, CA: Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy.
5 Retrieved from: https://foodfirst.org/wp-
6 content/uploads/2016/03/DR1Final.pdf.
7 (H) In 1910, it was reported that 14 percent of all farm owner-
8 operators in the United States were Black or African American.
9 (I) By 2012, they comprised only 1.5 percent of farm owners across
10 the country. See
11 https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2016/fall/goldstein_felix-romero.
12 (6)(A) Redlining was the practice of denying bank loans for mortgages
13 to Black and other persons of color, and it was used to segregate Black and
14 other communities of color into inner city neighborhoods. Rothstein. R.
15 (2017). The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government
16 Segregated America. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
17 (B) This practice had a drastic impact on members of the BIPOC
18 community for subsequent generations and further withheld generational
19 wealth from the Black communities.
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1 (C) The practice was started in 1934 by the U.S. Department of
2 Housing and Urban Development’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)
3 program.
4 (D) The HOLC program was criticized for denying Black and brown
5 residents’ equal access to home mortgages, often offering subprime loans that
6 came with unusually severe terms. Rothstein. R. (2017). The Color of Law: A
7 Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America. New York,
8 NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
9 (E) The federal government insured private mortgages, which
10 resulted in lower interest rates and a decline in the amount owed for the down
11 payment to purchase a new home. Coates, T. (2014). The Case for
12 Reparations. The Atlantic, June 2014.
13 (7)(A) In 1944, Congress signed the “Servicemen’s Readjustment Act,”
14 which created the G.I. Bill of Rights.
15 (B) The bill was enacted to help World War II veterans with low-
16 interest mortgages and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for
17 veterans attending college or trade schools.
18 (C) Funds from the bill were only made available to White soldiers
19 returning from war and not BIPOC veterans. Rothstein. R. (2017). The Color
20 of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America.
21 New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
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