Reaction to Gov. Peter Shumlin’s budget address Thursday ranged from praise for keeping down the growth of spending to major questions about a proposal to drop some pregnant women from Medicaid and have them sign up for the state’s health care exchange instead.
House Minority Leader Don Turner, R-Milton, was among those glad to see the governor’s proposed budget go up only 3.5 percent.
“I was surprised that he has at least reduced growth in spending to 3.5 percent, which is still above where revenues are projected. I’m glad he’s reduced dependence on one-time money. We are disappointed there was not much talk about economic development,” Turner said.
He added: “He wasn’t very specific on cuts, so we have to look at what he’s talking about. I don’t even know if they’re cuts or just savings in projected growth, so those will be something we have to look at.”
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morrisville, also praised the low growth rate in the budget.
“Initially the idea that we will have a budget that leaves (fiscal year 2018) in a situation where you have no one-time monies is good. I think that’s great,” Smith said.
“I do like the investments for the higher ed, and overall I think that what I’ve heard is OK,” Smith said.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, also praised the governor’s budget but added a caveat.
“In general, 3.5 percent (growth). I’m interested to see if that’s real or if there are some things we really need to look into. If it’s the case, that’s much better than previous years,” Scheuermann said.
Extending an existing tax on hospitals and nursing homes to also cover dentists and independent doctors did not make sense to some lawmakers.
“This is not where we want to go,” Turner said. “He says health care costs are growing more than we can afford, but yet we’re going to tax the very people who do it to give them more money. It’s almost like the State of the State where he says he wants to legalize marijuana to pay for opiate addiction.”
Turner, however, loved the governor’s story — which wasn’t part of the prepared text — about how his father ran up $68,000 in medical costs for a hospital visit.
“The governor’s story about his Dad? That is the reason we need tort reform in Vermont. These doctors and hospitals have to do all these tests to make sure people aren’t injured and they’re not sued, so I’m glad the governor made a case for tort reform,” Turner said.
Rep. Jim Condon, D-Colchester, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, was more blunt than Turner on the provider tax idea.
“I think we’ll get a pretty strong reaction from the physicians and the dentists in this state on that idea,” said Condon. “There might be a bomb the dogs didn’t sniff out today.”
Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sounded more open to the idea.
“Some will see a cost increase. Some might actually see their cost go down,” Ashe said.
Identifying the core tenet of the speech, Ashe said, “It was an argument on behalf of the ‘all-payer’ model approach and an explanation in human terms of why we should do something, not nothing, to change the way we pay for health services. It was not new, but a refined way of communicating it.”
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said, “I think the speech was to a large extent more a general presentation. The committees will be looking at the more specific budgetary impacts.”
“I didn’t think today’s speech was intended or designed to get into specifics,” she said. “One thing that certainly is good is not depending on one-time expenditures.”
Republican Rep. Kurt Wright, of Burlington, noted the brevity.
“I thought it was short on details. I think that he again talked about affordability, but I have seen no solutions in regard to issues like the property tax,” Wright said. “I didn’t think there were a lot of details in that speech. A lot of people I heard were very surprised at the lack of detail and the shortness of the speech.”
Progressive Rep. Chris Pearson of Burlington also said the speech was short on details.
“First of all, were told almost no details in speech, which was noteworthy,” Pearson said. “He spoke for probably 30 minutes and we got about six details.”
To Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, the speech didn’t make sense in parts, such as taxing health care providers.
“He said some incomprehensible things,” Browning said. For example, she said the governor’s claim that savings from having fewer prisoners would go to help pre-kindergarten is ridiculous since the education fund is being tapped for the pre-K services.
“Maybe like he skipped a line or mixed up his numbers,” Browning said. “I should know better than to look for logic and a reality-based analysis in the governor’s speech. That’s not where you look for it, but this was significantly short on that.”
The governor’s idea to give Vermont families money to help with college costs, she said, made no sense.
“The $250 for the high-middle-income people — that’s a gift they do not need,” Browning said.
Pearson said he felt the same incomprehensibility on Shumlin’s proposal to have some pregnant women dropped from Medicaid and put on the state’s health care exchange.
“It’s a bit of a disingenuous budget,” Pearson said. The governor knows the Legislature will not approve that change, he said, and then “all the dirty work is left to the Legislature.”
“That’s the theme I see emerging here,” Pearson said.
