Bruce Lisman, a Republican candidate for governor, took Gov. Peter Shumlin to task last week in two separate critiques of the state budget.
Lisman says the governor’s proposal to raise $30 million in revenues by taxing dentists and independent doctors and doubling fees on mutual funds will be passed on to Vermonters.
“Among the steps that we need to take are capping the growth of spending, auditing Medicaid, expanding the competitiveness of state contracts, and integrating programs across state government,” Lisman said in a statement.
The Wall Street executive last week issued 10 recommendations to curb state expenditures.
Lisman wants to limit state spending increases to 2 percent for the next three to four years and end the use of reserve funds and one-time funds to fill budget gaps. Inter-agency collaboration, he says, would deliver 1.5 percent in government efficiencies.
He recommends an audit of the Medicaid program, which has mushroomed under the Affordable Care Act, in order to ensure Vermonters on the program are eligible for the government subsidized benefit. Lisman would also scrap Vermont Health Connect and move the state to the federal health care exchange.
“For years the state has been spending more than it takes in, tapping reserve funds, exhausting one-time funds and loading on new fiscal obligations with disregard for budgetary consequences,” Lisman said. “Ending these practices and putting the state on a sound fiscal footing will not be easy but it must be done. Households and businesses do the hard work each and every day to achieve sensible budgeting and so should our state government.”
Lisman’s political rival, Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, outlined his priorities in a livestream roundtable with business owners last week.
In a statement, Scott said his approach would differ from Shumlin’s.
“For the last six years, our economy has been growing at about 2 percent each year,” Scott said. “Meanwhile, state spending has been growing at a rate of about 5 percent each year. Last year alone, the Legislature passed a budget that raised over $50 million in new taxes and still they faced a deficit when they returned to the session two weeks ago.”
Scott chastised the governor for “acknowledging taxes are too high” and then scolding the Legislature for nixing his plan to implement a 0.7 percent payroll tax to increase Medicaid payments for doctors.
“As legislators evaluate the governor’s new budget proposal, they need to consider the state’s present fiscal challenges — and the challenges working Vermonters face every day — keeping in mind all of the taxes and fees they’ve raised in previous fiscal years,” Scott said. “Six years of new taxes, higher fees and new programs have made Vermont unaffordable for far too many. Working families cannot sustain these increases year after year. We need to give them a break.”
Like Lisman, Scott would keep state spending at 2 percent, which is about the rate at which he says the economy is growing. Scott said he would not “propose, or sign, a state budget that grows faster than growth in average wages or the underlying economy.” He would stop using one-time money for budget gaps and “stop borrowing money to pay salaries and fund short term projects.”
Matt Dunne, a Democrat who also faces a primary race, says the governor’s spending priorities “make sense.” Dunne said spending in the areas Shumlin outlined — health care, education, poverty, mental health and the opioid epidemic “are important factors in ensuring Vermont’s future and building an economy that works for all of Vermont.” It was “heartening,” he said, to see Shumlin continue to focus on the opioid epidemic and suicide prevention.
Dunne supports the governor’s adoption of an all-payer model that would shift the health care system from a fee for service payment system to a payment system based on population health will “deliver on the promise of universal access at affordable costs.”
The governor’s plan to end family homelessness by 2020 is also a laudable, “audacious” goal, Dunne said. Shumlin proposes to set aside 15 percent of taxpayer funded housing for homeless families. “We need strategies that will empower people out of poverty as well as strategies for increasing the amount of actual capital going towards building and improving affordable housing in Vermont,” Dunne said.
Sue Minter, a Democratic candidate for governor and the former secretary of the Agency of Transportation, sent an email to VTDigger about Shumlin’s budget address on Monday morning.
Minter said the budget keeps spending in line with revenues “while addressing the many pressing challenges our state faces.”
“Working families need access to health care and childcare, state employees need safety and protection in their work place, and all Vermont kids need the promise of a strong start,” Minter said.
Minter supports the governor’s ongoing battle to end the opiate crisis, and she said the Child Savings Account will give young people the training they need to obtain livable wage jobs.
