[G]ov. Phil Scott’s chief budget writer will leave his post at the end of June to take a job as the director of health system finances for the Green Mountain Care Board.
Andy Pallito will succeed Mike Davis, a longtime hospital budget guru who has regulated Vermont’s 14 hospital budgets under the board and its regulatory predecessors, including the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration. Davis is retiring.
Pallito, an accountant by training, has been the commissioner of the Department of Finance and Management since 2015. Before that he was the commissioner of the Department of Corrections. His service in state government totals 25 years.
Pallito said he has considered the position with the board for a while but decided to stay on with the Scott administration through the end of the legislative session and to help close out the current fiscal year.
He said he “absolutely” felt welcome to stay on with the Scott administration. “This was my call,” he said. He called the new position “an opportunity to work in an industry that’s kind of a big part of Vermont’s economy.”
Pallito said he is ready for a change after more than a decade as an exempt employee, and putting in the long hours associated with budget work during the legislative session. “This job is really hard,” he said of his current position.
Rebecca Kelley, the governor’s spokesperson, said Pallito will stay through the end of the fiscal year, which ends in June. She said the timing “will allow for ample transition to not only get the budget wound up but work through a transition and be supportive for the Agency of Administration through that time.”
Davis leaves the Green Mountain Care Board with 40 years of experience in state government. He has consistently analyzed and overseen hospital budgets in various positions and regulatory agencies.
Susan Barrett, the executive director of the board, called Davis “an institution of his own.” She added: “While I’m very sad to see him go, I’m happy that he’s had a full career and he can enjoy his retirement. He’s been an incredible public servant.”
Davis is scheduled to retire June 2. Barrett said Davis has done a tremendous job, including last week when he suggested enforcement mechanisms for hospitals that went over their regulated budgets.
She said she is “very excited” for Pallito to join the staff. Pallito comes aboard at a time when the Green Mountain Care Board is setting up new regulations for accountable care organizations, administrative entities that are larger than hospitals and are central to health care reform efforts, including the all-payer model.
“His incredible integrity and his experience at the state level, at the commissioner level, his work with the legislators, that’s going to be key,” Barrett said. “The policy knowledge he has as well as the keen sense he has around budgets.”
“I can’t imagine anybody better than Andy Pallito,” Barrett said. “We are just very fortunate that this worked out.”
