The Senate Appropriations Committee voted out a budget proposal Wednesday that would make new investments in the state’s mental health and criminal justice systems, while restoring funds to many programs serving vulnerable Vermonters that are facing cuts.
The committee’s budget mirrors much of the decision-making that went into the $5.84 billion proposal the House passed last month, but offers substantive changes and new cuts, including the elimination of a proposal for a tuition assistance program for Vermont National Guard members.
In crafting their proposal, Senate budget writers were able to work with $35 million in one-time spending money that came from the state’s settlement with tobacco companies — $7 million more than previously expected.
Under the proposal, $7 million from the tobacco settlement would go toward overhauling the state’s approach to addressing child welfare cases.
“It would really be to create a new way of adjudicating and protecting our children,” Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in an interview Tuesday. “How we would approach those cases, how we could make them less adversarial, how we could better use the leverage of the court for treatment and for families to address their problems.”
Another $5 million of the settlement dollars would be used to expand the state’s workforce dedicated to treating mental health and substance abuse disorders, by attracting more clinical treatment professionals, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists to the state and encouraging more Vermont students to enter those fields.
Kitchel has touted increased investment in the state’s mental health system.
The Senate’s budget, as drafted, would devote $4.3 million to increase compensation for mental health workers at Vermont’s Designated Agencies: nonprofits who contract with the state and provide mental health services. Two million dollars of this allotment would come from state funds. “It’s to make our salaries more competitive so we can attract the clinicians we need and keep them,” Kitchel said.
The bill also provides immediate assistance to the struggling Brattleboro Retreat, which will receive a million dollars in one-time funding and an expected $4 million from the capital bill to fund a dozen temporary psychiatric beds.
Some mental health programs in the House’s budget have been cut, such as the elimination of $168,000 for a 24/7 “warm line” — a free emergency support line for Vermonters dealing with mental health issues, and $276,000 to develop supportive housing in Rutland.
In addition, the committee decided to scrap a $364,000 proposal in the House budget that would have created a college tuition benefit program for members of the Vermont National Guard.
But it does increase funding for Choices for Care, a program that provides in-home services for the elderly and people with disabilities, by more than $442,000. And it funds an expansion of a program offering medically-assisted treatment to people who are incarcerated in Vermont and addicted to opioids.
“We felt that that was a higher priority than starting a new program — that we had a commitment to this vulnerable population and those providers that are critical to keeping them safe and independent,” Kitchel said.
Senators followed the House’s lead in restoring funding to the attendant services program — which provides in-home care to about 40 severely disabled Vermonters — and a waiver program that provides services to about 3,000 Vermonters with disabilities. Both programs faced deep cuts under Gov. Phil Scott’s proposed budget.
The committee’s budget also:
• Allocates $10 million of the tobacco settlement to help pay off the state’s teacher pension liability.
• Invests $5.5 million of the tobacco money into paying off a loan for retired teachers’ health care costs.
• Restores $600,000 to Vermont’s cost sharing reduction program, which provides subsidies to help low-income Vermonters with medical deductible and copay costs.
• Cuts $400,000 the House approved to fund the Scott’s ThinkVermont/Innovation proposal, aimed at accelerating small business growth.
The Joint Fiscal Office’s analysis of the Senate proposal wasn’t available online early Wednesday evening, but Kitchel said Tuesday she expected the proposal’s general fund spending would be about the same as the House’s.
The House budget came in at about $7 million more than Scott’s $1.59 billion general fund recommendation, according to JFO.
