Gov. Peter Shumlin Thursday proposed cutting $22 million from programs and services that help low-income Vermonters, including $6 million from fuel assistance, according to budget documents released Thursday.
The governor briefly mentioned the cuts during his Statehouse speech Thursday afternoon but details of where the pain will come were buried deep inside supplemental documents posted on a state website during the speech.
The cuts are part of a larger plan the governor described Thursday to plug a $93 million hole in next year’s budget.
Although the cuts to the Agency of Human Services total $21.7 million, the actual dent to state services would be $29.5 million, according to the documents, because in many cases state funds are matched by federal dollars.
The cuts include $6 million to the program that helps low-income Vermonters heat their homes in the winter and another $15 million of cuts spread across the six departments within AHS.
The $15 million includes many cuts to small grant-funded programs that include aid to children, the blind, the mentally ill and the poor. Shumlin said his proposed cuts still allow the state to provide “core state services.”
“Change is always hard,” he said.
The child protection services within the Department of Children and Families would survive cuts under the governor’s plan, state finance officials said Thursday morning in a briefing about the budget ahead of the governor’s speech.
DCF added 37 new positions mid-year, paid for by savings elsewhere, and those positions would continue to be funded under the governor’s plan.
“My budget does not cut one dime from child protection services,” Shumlin said in his speech.
Shumlin said his budget also increases by 16 percent overall spending on drug treatment.
AHS represents about half of the state budget and oversees the Department of Corrections, Department of Children and Families, Department of Vermont Health Access, Department of Health, Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and the Department of Mental Health.
In addition to the AHS cuts, the governor’s budget proposal includes another $22 million in cuts to non-AHS programs.
“We tried to do a balance,” Reardon said.
Shumlin’s proposal eliminates a state supplement for the federal fuel assistance program that was implemented in 2014. The state will still receive $17.5 million of federal tax dollars, according to state budget officials.
The other cuts primarily include cuts to contracts and grants with third-party service providers.
The AHS central office would cut $47,000 from its contract with Vermont Legal Aid, eliminate the Tobacco Review Board for a savings of $200,000 and reduce other service coordination grants by $207,000, according to budget documents.
The Legal Aid contract provides for attorneys to represent the lowest income Vermonters who are seeking to access public benefit provided through AHS.
Department of Health proposed cuts include raising X-ray inspection fees, license fees for food and lodging establishments and eliminating a number of grants including the Aids Community grants and the CHAMPPS Program, a healthy living and disease prevention program.
It also includes eliminating a $200,000 substance abuse offender re-entry program run by the health department and the corrections department, which officials in the health department said is now covered by other programs.
The Department of Mental Health would cut $225,000 from its housing voucher program and other money from children’s services and the Sparrow project in Windsor County, a community-based mental health and substance abuse program, according to budget documents.
At DCF, the budget proposal would save $1.7 million by counting $125 of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) of low-income Vermonters when calculating Reach Up benefits.
The budget also proposes to modify the cold weather exception program, which provides motel vouchers for the homeless on cold nights, for a savings of $300,000.
DCF plans to save money by reducing the use of the cold weather exception and motels by increasing and expanding the use of warming shelters, according to DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz.
The Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living would cut grants for adult day care programs and reduce grants to help blind Vermonters under the governor’s budget proposal.
The Department of Corrections would save money by mandating that people charged with nonviolent misdemeanor and felony crimes be detained at home instead of in state prisons, for an estimated savings of $1.2 million.
In another section of the budget, the U.S. Marshals Service has requested more beds in Vermont prisons and will receive 60 beds, resulting in $1.7 million in revenue for DOC but a new cost of $886,000, Reardon said, because more Vermont prisoners would have to be shipped to out of state prisons.
The AHS in fiscal year 2016 would also need an extra $22 million because of an increase in caseloads and use of services, according to the governor’s budget proposal.
As with the cuts, the $22 million increased state spending would actually yield $51.5 million because of federal match money.
The caseload increases includes DCF child and family services cases, food stamp cases, adoption cases and opiate addiction treatment cases, budget documents show.
Chris Curtis, an attorney at Vermont Legal Aid and co-chairman of the governor’s Pathways from Poverty Council, said he is concerned about the cuts to fuel assistance and hopes lawmakers will fund that program fully or add money in next year’s budget adjustment act if necessary.
“I think the governor took some lemons and made some lemonade and the trick will be to make sure that low income people don’t get stuck with the seeds,” Curtis said.
Curtis said he is also concerned about the $125 of SSI counted toward calculating Reach Up benefits.
That money will go to fund legislation passed last year to will ease the so-called “benefits cliff,” when low-income Vermonters transition off welfare into jobs.
Savings from a declining Reach Up caseload were intended to pay for the benefits cliff legislation but the money this year was used instead to fund more DCF positions.
This new suggestion, to reduce Reach Up benefits instead, is the wrong way to find more money, he said.
“Our hope is that lawmakers will find another way to pay for that initiative,” Curtis said.
Curtis praised the governor’s proposed 0.7 percent payroll tax because it would increase Medicaid reimbursement rates. That increase is intended to encourage more doctors to treat Medicaid patients and therefore make it easier for low-income Vermonters to find doctors.
