The panel passed the budget in an 11-0 vote Monday. The full House will vote on the Big Bill this Thursday and Friday, after the chamber votes on a pot legalization bill Tuesday and Wednesday.
The budget closes the gap between projected state tax receipts and state spending on government programs.
A unanimous vote is a remarkable achievement for first time House Appropriations Committee chair Kitty Toll, a Democrat from Danville.
“An 11-0 vote never went too far from the back of my mind, but if it had not happened I would have understood why some couldn’t have gotten to it,” Toll said. “We got there together. Party goes out the window.”
Toll said her first goal “was to get a good budget out that is sustainable and that closes the alligator jaw.”
The “alligator jaw” is the graph that shows the gap between state spending and state tax receipts. That gap has been running between $50 million and $70 million since the Great Recession. Lawmakers have long sought to eliminate the ongoing discrepancy between revenues and expenditures. Over the past eight years, legislators have boosted fees and taxes to help make up the difference.
Rep. Matt Trieber, D-Rockingham, said the committee has diverse opinions about the budget, and he praised Toll for including “all voices in the discussion.”
The process has, as usual, been arduous. Each member is responsible for a section of the budget, and as Rep. Peter Fagan, R-Rutland, “it’s with you all the time.”
Four Republicans on the House panel support the budget proposal, even though it rejects GOP Gov. Phil Scott’s plan to tap money from the Education Fund. Scott has said the state has to find a way to reduce school spending and reduce the education property tax burden. The governor insists that the Legislature’s budget must not raise taxes or fees.
Instead of shifting money from one fund to another, the House chose to make cuts to the budget, many of which were suggested by the Scott administration.
In the end, the House budget-writers could not agree to language in the Big Bill that would have directed the Legislature to look at school size or address the state’s exceptionally low student to teacher ratio in public schools.
The House panel has worked in the shadow of sweeping cuts to state programs proposed by President Donald Trump. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been concerned about maintaining capacity for both tax increases and future reductions to the state budget should Republicans in Congress adopt Trump’s plan to significantly reduce state monies for education, agricultural programs, environmental protection, workplace safety and economic development. The president’s budget would eliminate funding for Community Development Block Grants, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Meals on Wheels, the Vermont Arts Council, among many other programs.
Lawmakers have said they may schedule a special session in October to address federal budget cuts.
In the meantime, the House panel attempted to tighten up as many state programs as they could in this year’s cutting exercise.
The budget reduces fund for the so-called “cold weather exemption” that gave motel vouchers to all homeless people. The program will continue to offer the vouchers for the elderly and pregnant women, but all others would be directed to homeless shelters. The House panel wants to invest $200,000 in savings in two shelters, to be located in Rutland and Barre, that would provide housing and services for homeless people.
The model for the shelters in Rutland and Barre would be Harbor Place, a motel on Shelburne Road that was converted by the Champlain Housing Trust into an emergency housing facility. Harbor Place offers 30 rooms, at a savings of approximately 40 percent from the cost of motel rooms. The facility provides services that have proven effective in helping homeless families find better financial footing.
The House Appropriations budget shifts $7.4 million from hospitals for charity care to community mental health. The provision mirrors a Senate proposal that funnels $30 million into higher wages for workers at local mental health agencies.
Lawmakers will allow the Vermont State Colleges to take $2 million from a scholarship fund to pay for operating expenses this year.
“They have a great need right now and there is no other option,” Toll said.
The money will come from the Higher Education Trust Fund, which will be split between three entities — VSAC, VSC and UVM. The state colleges will use one-fifth of the $10 million allocated for scholarships to stay afloat this year. The Vermont State Colleges System is running a $4 million operating deficit, according to the House panel.
Rep. Marty Feltus, R-Lyndonville, said House Appropriations made cuts in proportion to spending and “tried to avoid cuts to programs for really vulnerable people.”
“There is still room for cuts,” Feltus said.
“I’m pleased we came out with a budget that did not raise taxes and did not raise fees,” she said.
The budget process, she said, highlighted the segregation between the General Fund, the Education Fund and the Transportation Fund. In future, Feltus said, she hoped the there would be more fluidity between the three pots of state spending “so that we can capitalize on opportunities as they come along in a more flexible manner.”
