[T]he draft budget coming out of the House Appropriations Committee prioritizes funding for services to vulnerable Vermonters, including a number of health and home care programs that faced deep cuts.
After spending weeks vetting a proposal from Gov. Phil Scott’s administration, the committee gave unanimous preliminary approval to a budget that would continue funding many programs the governor recommended reducing or eliminating altogether.
“As far as what we have in front of us now, we have a balanced budget. We have not spent 100 percent of the revenues,” Rep. Kitty Toll, D-Danville, told the committee on Friday. “We have brought back some critical services to the Vermonters.”
The bill will now be analyzed by the Joint Fiscal Office. On Monday, after a final review and revisions to the proposal, the committee will likely vote it out.
The panel’s budget proposal would provide $2 million in funding to a waiver program that gives developmentally disabled Vermonters residential support by providing employment aid to family caregivers. More than 3,000 people who rely on the program risked losing services under the Scott administration’s proposal, which would have cut the funding.
The committee’s budget also partially restores funding to the attendant services program, a roughly $1.4 million service that risked elimination under the administration’s budget.
The program has been frozen since fiscal year 2015 and participation has decreased over time. But 42 severely disabled Vermonters who require in-home care still use the program. The committee’s proposal would fund the program with $750,000 in fiscal year 2019, while the state helps some of those 42 people transition to other services.
The House committee’s bill would also keep a loan repayment program for doctors alive by restoring its funding to about $308,000.
Rep. David Yacovone, D-Morrisville, a member of the committee, said offering to pay off doctors’ loans is critical in drawing them to the state. “In rural Vermont, our wages don’t compete,” he said in an interview.
The committee’s budget will restore half of the primary care subsidy and payments to hospitals for medical treatment of uninsured Vermonters.
The state spends more than $1.5 million a year to pay doctors $2.50 a month for each of their Medicaid patients. The state’s contribution is matched by federal dollars — doctors use the funds to coordinate care for Medicaid patients.
The administration proposed eliminating the subsidy payments this year, but the committee has proposed restoring the funding at $768,814, half of what the state pays now.
“Taking $3.2 million out of revenue for physicians is hurtful at a time when we’re barely able to have enough to give access to Vermonters to see their primary care doc,” Yacavone said of the subsidy.
Although the state is restoring funding the administration proposed reducing, committee members said their budget won’t lead to new taxes and fees, which will be crucial in getting Scott’s approval.
“This budget is a responsible budget that lives within the means of what we have,” the committee’s clerk, Rep. Matt Trieber, D-Bellows Falls, said in an interview.
In his budget address earlier this year, Scott said his plan would increase spending by $82 million this year and he didn’t want to see costs go up any higher.
The administration’s budget proposal would grow the state general fund by 2.33 percent, from $1.49 billion to $1.56 billion in fiscal year 2019.
Many of the administration’s proposed cuts survived in the committee’s budget, including a $2 million reduction to a $198 million grant program overseen by the Agency of Human Services that funds 686 nonprofit programs.
A $600,000 reduction in funding to a program that provides child care transportation for low-income families also factored in, but the savings comes from a cheaper contract the state procured and won’t lead to a loss of services.
The committee also decided not to give the University of Vermont $1 million for the Morgan Horse Farm. Nor did they approve $1.5 million for scholarships to low-income Vermonters.
Some last-minute changes were made after the Attorney General’s Office announced on Thursday that it had settled 14 years of legal disputes with the tobacco industry, adding $28 million to state coffers. Half of the money will be spent on efforts to fight opioid addiction in Vermont.
The House plans to use the remaining $14 million in one-time tobacco settlement monies to fund general fund obligations and budget cuts. Lawmakers have set aside $10 million for the teachers’ retirement system, and will give $500,000 to the University of Vermont and $1 million to the Vermont State Colleges System.
By the time the committee started making big budget decisions this week, some of the administration’s spending proposals were already off the table.
Scott’s plan to give a $2.7 million tax exemption for those with military pensions never made it to the House Appropriations Committee, according to committee member Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes.
The administration’s $1.9 million plan to provide tax exemptions for Social Security beneficiaries would now be funded through the tax reform bill, H.911, and doesn’t rely on a budget appropriation, Lanpher said.
Speaking to the committee, Toll said the best investment the panel made in crafting its budget was a $168,000 proposal to expand the state’s peer warm line program, a free emergency support line for Vermonters dealing with mental health issues.
“It keeps people out of the emergency room and it’s the best kind of support we can give to somebody who’s in crisis that may be able to come out of it,” she said.
The budget proposal will likely reach the House floor for debate late next week.
