[H]ouse lawmakers this week will vote on a water quality bill that puts in place new pollution control measures to restore Vermont waterways and raises $8 million in new revenue to pay for it. The package, H.35, is expected to be taken up Wednesday.
Lawmakers have given preliminary approval to $9.1 million in new revenue for water quality improvement. This includes $2.3 million in fee increases, $5.7 million through a surcharge on the property transfer tax and a $1.13 million increase in the capital budget for the Ecosystem Restoration Fund.
The House Ways and Means Committee came up with the largest single source of revenue this year when it passed a 0.2 percent surcharge on the property transfer tax, which is paid by buyers.
House Republican leaders have suggested instead that the distribution of those tax receipts to other programs be frozen at 2015 levels — the majority of the revenue goes to the Housing Conservation Trust Fund. Any additional money raised through the transfer tax would be used to leverage bonds for water quality improvements. That proposal is projected to raise $4.2 million, GOP leaders say.
Water quality advocates say there should be stronger measures to reduce pollution runoff from farms and more money to support the statewide cleanup. The money in the bill would be used to reduce runoff from farms, roads and developed areas across the state.
Estimates by the Shumlin administration still do not include the full cost of the cleanup. A 2013 report prepared by the Department of Environmental Conservation pegged the total cost to restore all Vermont’s impaired waterways at an additional $156 million per year for 10 years.
The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee is expected to vote on its version of a water quality bill Friday.
Money matters
At the start of the session, lawmakers set out to close a $113.2 million budget gap for fiscal year 2016, which starts July 1. Since then, the House approved $35 million in new revenues and $53 million in cuts or funding changes, including a $6 million cut to the state’s supplement to a federal low-income heating assistance program known as LIHEAP.
Despite the cuts, spending will rise by $68 million next year, or about 4.8 percent, bringing the total general fund budget to $1.47 billion.
Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled take up the capital bill, H.492, which raises money for state infrastructure projects. The House Corrections and Institutions Committee last week unanimously approved a two-year, $158.7 million expenditure plan, a slight decrease over the previous two-year package of $159.9 million.
The full House is expected to vote on the bill by the end of the week.
The budget bill will now be taken up by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the revenue bills will be taken up by the Senate Finance Committee.
Education
Lawmakers on Wednesday will resume work on the education governance bill, H.361, which is designed to rein in state education spending and improve student opportunities.
The bill would mandate the consolidation of the state’s nearly 300 school districts into so-called education systems of at least 1,100 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. If consolidation increases the state’s average 4.7 pupil-to-staff ratio to between 4.8 and 4.9, education spending could be reduced by $32 million to $54 million, according to estimates by the Joint Fiscal Office.
Lawmakers are likely to propose amendments due to concerns over a provision that would phase out grants for small schools over three years.
Health care reform
The House Ways and Means Committee will return to the drawing board to find money for health care initiatives this session.
House Speaker Shap Smith, Health Care Committee Chair Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Janet Ancel, D-Calais, have agreed to raise about $20 million to fund a health care package.
The revenue comes up short of the original proposal sent over from the Health Care Committee that raised $52 million through a 2-cents per ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and a 0.3 percent payroll tax.
The Senate on Tuesday takes up S.20, which would license dental practitioners after a similar proposal died in committee last year. Vermont would become the third state in the country to create such a license. Advocates say it will increase access to dental care.The legislation is opposed by the Vermont Dental Society because dentists are concerned about the adequacy of training for the proposed license.
The Senate may also take up postponed action on an omnibus health care bill, S.139, as soon as Wednesday.
The bill includes tougher regulations for pharmacy benefits managers, requires hospitals to notify patients when they are placed on observation status, which can determine whether services can be covered by Medicare, and puts in place new chemical safety regulations on children’s products.
Correction: An error in this story was corrected at 9:50 a.m., March 31. Senate Appropriations takes up the budget bill and Senate Finance takes up the revenue bills. They were switched in the original version.
