IN APRIL 14’S FINAL READING:
— Treasurer Beth Pearce briefed the Senate Finance Committee on how the $1.25 billion coming into the state through the CARES Act can be used. Pearce said that because the money cannot be used to fill in lost revenue, the Legislature and administration must “think creatively” about how to use it.
Pearce added that as of now, “we have enough money to pay our bills” through the fiscal year, but that she would like a backstop emergency plan just in case. Pearce compared the plan to her grocery shopping: recently she went out and stocked up on canned food as her “contingency plan” to make sure she would have enough to eat during the pandemic.
“But I didn’t have a can opener,” she said to an audible chuckle through Zoom. “You need a backstop that’s good because you are going to have unanticipated changes, revenues changes, that is the equivalent of a can opener in this thing,” she added. – Kit Norton
— Chris D’Elia, president of the Vermont Bankers Association, told Senate Econ lawmakers that funds in the Paycheck Protection Program — the federal program that provides loans to small businesses to pay their employees with — are drying up quickly.
He said $645 million have been claimed by Vermont businesses so far. He said $220 billion has been awarded to small businesses nationwide. D’Elia said he’s anxious that Congress is moving sluggishly to put more money into the waning program.
“Given those projections, anytime between tomorrow and Friday that program will run out of money,” D’Elia said. “So it is absolutely vital that Congress gets their act together.” – Grace Elletson
— A second public health crisis may hit Vermont after the pandemic subsides, warned social worker Dave Melnick, who works in many Vermont schools. When testifying before House Education lawmakers, he said that kids from unstable homes are being hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There are a number of students who feel terribly abandoned by the situation,” Melnick said. Students who previously found stability in school who now don’t have positive role models or safe atmospheres will be particularly affected by the pandemic, Melnick said, which schools need to prepare for when they reconvene after the health emergency ends. – Grace Elletson
— House Education Chair Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne, also brought up her concerns about child abuse reports decreasing in the state during the pandemic. “Very often child abuse is recognized when children are in school. So what are we doing for those kids?” Webb asked Laurel Omland, director of the Child, Adolescent, and Family Unit in the Vermont Department of Mental Health.
Omland said she shares Webb’s concern. Her department is ensuring that families have access to stress relief training and resources provided in the state and ensuring that mental health resources her department offers continue to be delivered remotely to students. – Grace Elletson
— Senate Government Operations voted out a bill that would authorize towns to adjust their property tax deadlines or reduce penalties. The bill would also allow towns to adjust the property tax rates for fiscal year 2020 in an effort to lessen financial strains brought on by Covid-19.
Committee Chair Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, stressed during the committee discussion that this bill would not give the Legislature the ability to adjust property tax rules at the municipal level. The bill only formally authorizes towns’ legislative bodies to make these changes.
White said the Senate plans to remotely vote out the bill Friday. The House has yet to establish a remote voting mechanism. – Grace Elletson
— In House Ag, discussion turned toward brainstorming ideas to mitigate milk dumping and how to make sure small dairy farms could continue to sell their milk even if their primary customers — cheesemakers — are no longer able to purchase the product.
One possibility lawmakers talked about with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture was having more small farms sell raw milk — which requires much less processing. The Ag Agency said that it has already had “a few” farms reach out asking how they could start to sell raw, or unpasteurized, milk — which can harbor dangerous microorganisms.
Vermont law bans raw milk from being sold in grocery stores, but farms can sell raw milk to people who come to the farm, sell it at farmers markets and do home delivery. – Kit Norton
— The Senate Education Committee heard from higher education leaders including UVM President Suresh Garimella and Jeb Spauling, the chancellor of the Vermont state colleges, about the pandemic’s impact on college budgets.
A little over $21 million in the federal CARES Act is earmarked for public and private Vermont colleges, although half of that money must go directly to students. And that federal aid is dwarfed by the revenue losses schools are reporting this fiscal year alone.
Susan Stitely, the president of the Vermont Association of Independent Colleges, said her members were projecting at least $20 million in immediate revenue losses. Garimella said UVM had spent $10 million reimbursing students their room and board fees. And Spaulding said the VSC had spent $5 million on the same. – Lola Duffort
