[A]s concerns over the growing threat of a government shutdown swirl among state employees, heads of state agencies and departments are attempting to quell their fears.
Top officials in Gov. Phil Scott’s administration who oversee thousands of employees are telling workers that an agreement on a spending package will be reached before a government shutdown would take effect on July 1.
But state workers’ worries continue to mount because a resolution to the budget impasse in Montpelier remains elusive with just eight days before the end of the state’s fiscal year, and the Scott administration has not released a contingency plan detailing what would happen if government operations stopped next month.
Employees don’t know whether they would receive pay and benefits or be able to show up to work if a July shutdown kicked in.
“I think the administration is doing everything they can to not talk about the governor’s shutdown plan,” said Steve Howard, the executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, a union that represents more than 6,500 employees.
Hoping to alleviate anxiety among workers in the Department of Taxes, Commissioner Kaj Samsom sent out an email to employees Tuesday, stating that it’s “extremely unlikely” that the state will see a shutdown scenario next month.
“It may be ugly in the next 10 days, and there may be last minute deals, but I am confident that we will have a budget that allows us all to come to work on Monday July 2nd,” Samsom wrote. “because nobody wins politically or otherwise if the government isn’t operating on July 1.”
Samsom said that shutdown rhetoric has been used as a “political tool” and said it is a shame that the media “gobbles it up and amplifies it.”
He told employees that if the July 1 deadline approaches and it appears that a budget deal will not be reached, he will send them more information.
“Until then, I encourage you to be skeptical of the political and media noise about a shutdown,” he wrote.
Joe Flynn, the secretary of the Agency of Transportation, which includes the Department of Motor Vehicles, and employs more than 1,300 people, also said he’s confident that a government shutdown isn’t in the cards.
Flynn said that he understands employees’ anxieties, but he has reassured workers that a budget deal is close at hand.
With a large amount of surplus money on the table and no appetite for a government shutdown, it won’t take the parties long to reach an agreement in the coming days, he said.
“Everyone has Vermont’s best interest at heart and in the end I really believe there will be a way to avoid to avoid the shutdown,” Flynn said.
However, the latest movement from budget writers will likely fail to inspire a deal with the governor. Their newest budget proposal, which passed unanimously in the Senate Thursday afternoon, harnesses $20 million in one-time money to buy down tax rates.
While the spending package would level residential property tax rates, it would lead to a 4.5 cent hike in the nonresidential rate — unacceptable to Scott who has pledged prevent any increase in average property tax rates next year.
Howard said that if Scott was serious about preventing a shutdown, he would have signed the last budget bill lawmakers passed. Instead, the governor vetoed the bill last week.
Howard also criticized the line from administration officials suggesting that state workers should simply expect that a shutdown isn’t on the table.
“Unfortunately for the people for whom this game is being played, whether or not they get a paycheck on July 5 is not something they can’t worry about,” Howard said.
Other than Samsom’s letter to tax department employees, Howard said he wasn’t aware of any other official communications from agency or department leaders to state workers regarding the possible shutdown.
Both Flynn and Al Gobeille, the secretary of the Agency of Human Services, have said they have been addressing employee concerns directly.
On Thursday, Gobeille shared a written response he sent to an agency employee who expressed worries about a shutdown.
“I know Gov. Scott very well, and I trust him. He has no interest in a shutdown as do neither Senator Ashe or Speaker Johnson. We are very close to a financial agreement, yet far away on policy,” he wrote. “I have found the legislature, the governor and union leadership to be a tremendous group of caring people. We will resolve as we did last year.”
