Capital bill green lights health lab, doesn’t include new money for Vermont State Hospital

File: Vermont State Hospital

The trifecta is almost complete. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the budget and the miscellaneous tax bill. Today, lawmakers will consider the $153 million capital bill, the long list of state investments in a broad hodgepodge of projects – office building maintenance, statehouse renovations, water pollution control, school construction, park facilities, parking lots, information technology, broadband and affordable housing and conservation.

For the first time, the bill creates a two-year plan for the state’s capital investments. The House Committee on Corrections and Institutions front-loaded the expenditures in the first year ($89.9 million) and then created a plan for second year spending of $63.8 million. The objective is to make it easier for the state to complete projects in a timely way.

Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, and the chair of the committee said the bill was challenging to put together, but the long-term planning approach is advantageous. In the past, a major project couldn’t “put a shovel in the ground until all the money was in hand,” she said.

“We’re guaranteeing money for two years, and the state can start construction right away,” Emmons said.

Next year lawmakers will develop a Capital Budget Adjustment Act, similar to the Budget Adjustment Act, in which the bill that passes this year can be easily updated through new legislation to accommodate changes to the plan. A part of the second year plan, however, has already been spoken for or “fenced off,” as lawmakers put it, for a handful of must-be-completed projects. There wouldn’t be new money available in the second year — so changes would likely come from shifting funding from one existing proposal to another.

A new $29 million health lab

The biggest ticket item on the capital bill list? $29 million for a new Department of Health laboratory in Colchester. The current facility near Fletcher Allen Health Care was built in 1953 and has been on the state’s wish list since 1999, according to Mike Kuhn, project architect for the Department of Building and General Services.

Under the annual capital bill budgeting cycle, a project of that size could get delayed mid-way through if full funding wasn’t available in subsequent years.

Now the state can plan to pay for a project of that size over a two-year period. If the capital bill passes, the health lab, for example, would be guaranteed $14 million in fiscal year 2012 and $15.42 million in year 2013.

“It eases my mind,” Kuhn said. “We have enough money to proceed with the construction documents. Now with the construction funding in the capital bill. we’re going to proceed right now all the way through the project.”

Kuhn said the current building is “old and tired and too small.”

The health lab will be located on land owned by the University of Vermont, and it will be situated near the Colchester Research Facility off exit 16. A feasibility study of the project has been completed for the 58,000 to 59,000 square foot structure. The construction will cost $26 million, Kuhn said, and the building will include labs for environmental chemistry, microbiology and radiological testing. The health lab will accommodate up to 52 employees. The project will go out to bid in the late fall, and construction is expected to take 18 months, according to Kuhn.

Vermont State Hospital goes back to the drawing board, again

The Vermont State Hospital, on the other hand, is still in limbo. The capital bill sets aside $480,000 in carryover funds from the previous year to conduct for a feasibility and conceptual design study for a new hospital to be located near Central Vermont Medical Center.

There is no money set aside in the second year of the capital bill plan for construction documents. Christine Oliver, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, said she will ask lawmakers for about $3 million during the Capital Budget Adjustment Act process.

The state lost federal certification for the Vermont State Hospital in 2003. Every year the state runs the hospital without the formal blessing of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, it loses out on about $11 million in matching funds. CMS has determined that the facility is inadequate for the roughly 50 patients a day who need intensive, 24/7 mental health care.

The 40-50 bed facility that would replace the existing hospital in Waterbury would be located on a four to five acre area near CVMC and would include a basketball court, gardens and walking paths. The building would cost between $50 million and $60 million, Kuhn said.

The House Human Services committee hopes to develop a policy provision before the end of the session regarding the latest iteration of the plans to replace the Vermont State Hospital. Last year, the Douglas administration proposed a 15-bed secure facility. That plan was abandoned when Gov. Peter Shumlin took office in January.

VTA funding gets a haircut

Lawmakers didn’t give the Vermont Telecommunications Authority as much funding as recommended by the Shumlin administration, and it made second year funding contingent on the VTA meeting “performance measurements.” Instead of $13 million, Emmons said her committee decided to give VTA $8 million in fiscal year 2012 and $2 million in fiscal year 2013.

The money comes with strings attached. VTA must spend the money on infrastructure including fiber optic facilities; telecommunications towers; and broadband and cellular service equipment. In addition to awarding grants to companies for broadband deployment, the VTA must adhere to a competitive bidding process. VTA must also present lawmakers with quarterly reports over the next two years.

Emmons said the VTA needs to comply with the telecom outcomes of the Challenges for Change targets set last year in order to be eligible to receive the $2 million for fiscal year 2013. “This is a way we can ensure the money given out is spent the way the state wants it to be spent,” Emmons said.

The VTA is authorized to bond for an additional $40 million for projects. This money has not yet been tapped.

Energy efficiency for state buildings a high priority

Lawmakers have also set energy efficiency targets for state buildings. The objective is for the state to reduce energy consumption by 5 percent a year on a three year, rolling average. The Department of Buildings and General Services will be charged with measuring results. In addition, the state will ask employees to lower their fuel use for transportation by the same amount over the next three years. Emmons said the Vermont State Employees Association is comfortable with the targets.

“We’re going to do everything we can to conserve fuel and use renewable, and hopefully save money,” Rep. Linda Myers, a member of the committee who presented the capital bill to the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

Michael Obuchowski, the commissioner of the Department of Buildings and General Services said his department’s commitment to conduct energy audits will bring an “analytical perspective to our conversation about energy savings.” Obuchowski said his employees are “fired up” because the governor and House Speaker Shap Smith have made building efficiency a priority.

The capital bill also includes the following items:

• Lawmakers have set aside $100,000 for the renovation of two to three Statehouse committee rooms. The House Speaker will decide which rooms will get a facelift. Last year, House Corrections and Institutions and a small conference room got a facelift.
• The state is looking to overhaul 120 State St., where the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Education are now located. Some members of the DOE staff are now working at a satellite office on the Barre-Montpelier Road, and the administration wants to bring all those employees back to 120 State St. Lawmakers have set aside $250,000 to renovate historic restrooms on the ground floor of the building and $250,000 for plans to retrofit the whole structure.
• The Secretary of State’s office will be moving this spring to the newly renovated 128 State St. (where Shumlin’s transition team was briefly housed. The Redstone Building where the offices are currently located will be mothballed for the time being. Emmons said they don’t want to let go of state-owned property until they know for sure the space isn’t needed.
• The Department of Corrections has asked for $1.4 million for renovations in order to move inmates to new locations. It will cost $454,000 to renovate the Chittenden County Correctional Facility to accommodate women from the all-female St. Albans facility. The state wants to spend $800,000 in retrofits for the St. Albans prison, which will be leased to U.S. Marshals for use as a detention center.
• Lawmakers have set aside $2.5 million for the consolidation of the Rockingham and Brattleboro barracks and construction of one public safety field station.
• The Department of Information and Innovation is to receive $5.78 million for the upgrade of the human resources computer system.
• Vermont Public Television will receive $805,750 in fiscal year 2012. There is no money budgeted for VPT in fiscal year 2013. The money is to be spent on field production equipment, energy conservation retrofitting at the Colchester studio and a fixed satellite uplink. Ann Curran, the communications director for VPT said the funding is part of a three-phase plan to upgrade the studio’s digital television infrastructure.
• The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board would receive $4 million, with a provision that the board make affordable housing preservation and infill projects in or near downtowns or village centers a priority. In addition, $500,000 of the funding must go toward the creation of public inebriate beds and transitional housing for inmates. Up to 20 percent of the total appropriation is to be allocated for conservation awards that maximize the drawdown of federal and private matching funds.

Editor’s note: A write-thru of this story was posted at 8:30 a.m. March 30, 2011.