[G]ov. Phil Scott is asking senators to find additional savings in the budget and fund economic initiatives House lawmakers did not include in their spending package.
In a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, the Scott administration encouraged senators to reduce the House’s $6.1 billion budget — which exceeds the governor’s budget by about $10 million.
The administration also asked lawmakers to fund roughly $4 million in additional economic development proposals that the governor announced in his January budget address, but which weren’t included in the House budget.
In general, House legislators and the governor have said that the budgeting process this session has been more collaborative compared to past years, when disagreements over property taxes and the administration’s proposed cuts to human services programs generated tension on both sides.
In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee chair Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, Secretary of Administration Susanne Young said the House’s budget reflected “bipartisan support for investments in programs that grow the economy, make Vermont more affordable, and protect the most vulnerable.”
But just before before the Senate committee planned to make changes to the budget this month, the administration took the opportunity to lobby for its funding priorities.
Young said that she hoped the Senate would fund the governor’s $2.5 million proposal for a new program to attract, recruit and retain new residents, one of the governor’s signature economic development plans, ThinkVermont Move.
The governor’s proposal includes funding for targeted marketing and recruiting, and “relocation agents” at the state Department of Labor who would help out-of-staters find jobs, housing and amenities in Vermont.
The House’s budget only included $500,000 for a portion of the program.
Scott is also asking the Senate to fund his $1 million plan to give property owners small grants to renovate and repair blighted properties, a program Young said “will help create more housing options at a time when another major housing bond is not feasible.”
According to the letter, the governor hopes the Senate will boost funding for Vermont Student Assistance Corp.’s non-degree grant program, which helps students who aren’t attending college pay for jobs or skills training.
The House gave the program an additional $500,000 in funding for one year but the governor wants it to see more: $1 million in ongoing funding.
The Scott administration also suggests that the Senate reduce the amount the House has proposed spending on child care subsidies.
House lawmakers proposed spending about $8 million more on child care next year — largely to fund new benefits for low- and middle-income families, and to boost workforce development in the industry. The governor proposed slightly less in additional spending: $7 million.
“This level of support is heartening; however, in FY20 it comes at the expense of other proposals with the same goal to attract working families to Vermont,” Young wrote of the House child care proposal.
In her letter, Young suggested that in general, the governor would like Senate budget writers to find more efficiencies savings in the budget than the House.
Young wrote that new revenue raised in a tax bill the House passed last month would be “unnecessary” if lawmakers worked with the governor to “identify the same level of savings contained in the proposed budget.”
That legislation includes a provision that would expand the capital gains tax, a move which would generate $5 million more in revenue in coming years, and which the governor has signaled he opposes.
In an interview Wednesday, Kitchel said that the Senate Appropriations Committee doesn’t plan on cutting spending levels in the budget.
“I really am thinking that we’re going to be building the budget starting with the same revenue as the House had available,” Kitchel said.
“It’s easy to say that you’re spending more money, but then you say, where do you want me to take it away from, and that becomes a very different discussion.”
Kitchel said that the committee and has yet to finalize decisions on any spending proposals in particular.
But she reiterated that the Senate’s budget will place a priority on boosting funding for social services that haven’t seen increased funding in years.
“I think this committee’s got a lot of sensitivity to the condition of our basic safety net programs,” she said.
“That’s really not in the House budget, and it’s not in the governor’s budget at all.”
She has singled out ReachUp, which provides benefits to low income children and families, and a Medicaid benefit that provides financial assistance to seniors living in residential care facilities, as programs that could use additional funding next year.
