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Gov. Phil Scott is asking lawmakers to give him more authority to spend federal Covid-19 funding on an emergency basis without their approval.
But legislators on Monday rejected an initial request to increase the amount the governor can spend unilaterally from $60 million to $200 million, retaining oversight over the vast majority of the dollars.
Lawmakers on the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee have been working to write guidelines about how the $1.25 billion the state has received from the federal CARES Act can be spent in the coming months.
According to those guidelines, which lawmakers approved Monday, $60 million can be used to cover expenses that the state is incurring because of the governor’s immediate actions to address the pandemic.
The governor has the ability to spend another $150 million on pressing health, safety and emergency response needs, as long as lawmakers on the Joint Fiscal Committee approve how the money is spent.
The rest of the $1.25 billion, however, would go through the typical legislative appropriations process.
But Vermont’s Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin told the fiscal committee Monday that the numbers proposed by lawmakers gave the Scott administration “pause.”
“Starting out with $60 million and $150 million might be a bit lower than we anticipated, might end up removing some of the flexibility that the governor has to respond,” Greshin said.
The finance commissioner said that the state has already spent, or committed to spending about $60 million in response to the pandemic, and should increase the amount Scott can spend without their approval to about $200 million.
“We all know that the legislative process takes a little while and I’m just worried about restricting his ability to navigate,” Greshin said.
The governor has also authorized the state to spend an additional $27 million to cover unemployment benefits for people that have struggled to get them through the Vermont Department of Labor.
Ten million of that was spent last week, when the state cut $1200, checks to more than 8,000 Vermonters. But Greshin says that he expects that the federal government will reimburse those costs separately, once those people begin to receive benefits through the system.
Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, said that lawmakers were concerned that “in the name of wanting to move quickly” with spending, the governor is also “boxing out the intuition the legislative branch brings” to meeting the needs of Vermonters.
“There needs to be a joint fiscal role in some of the decisions moving forward, especially the ones that aren’t life or death, because the administrative branch does not have the sole custody of knowledge about the best ways to meet people’s needs,” Ashe said.
Ashe said legislators wouldn’t be an impediment to the governor, and are “willing partners” in working with the administration to respond swiftly to the crisis.
Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, the chair of the Joint Fiscal Committee, echoed Ashe’s comments.
“We’re trying to work as partners, not as obstacles in this process,” Cummings said.
Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier, said under what legislators have proposed, the governor would still have the authority to spend more than $100 million in the coming weeks without going through the typical appropriations process.
Plus, lawmakers and the Scott administration will soon be working together on a budget adjustment to address plummeting revenues, and new priorities, she noted.
“It’s still well over $100 million that could be spent in the next X weeks, and surely we will have a budget adjustment out within a six-week period,” Hooper said.
“So I need to understand better the ‘pause’ for this isn’t enough money.”
In an interview Monday, Greshin said the administration is requesting more control over the federal funds because the governor needs “the maximum amount of flexibility to respond to a crisis.”
“We don’t know the length of the crisis, we as of yet don’t know the severity of the crisis and it makes little sense to limit his flexibility,” he said.
“Vermonters depend on the governor first to address the crisis, and to do that he needs the flexibility to make investments in critical needs.”
Greshin said that the governor needs the latitude to act as quickly as possible to address health care needs of Vermonters as well as the financial struggles of health care providers, as they emerge.
And he told lawmakers that while Vermont appears to be flattening the curve of cases, flexibility would be particularly important if the state sees a new spike in infections.
The state’s spending on Covid-19 so far has included stocking up on personal protective equipment and medical supplies for health care workers, and building hospital surge sites.
The state has committed $8 million to increase pay for nearly 3,000 workers in Vermont’s specialized service agencies and designated agencies for three months. These workers provide mental health and substance abuse treatment and provide services to those with disabilities.
The state has also provided help to health care providers struggling to stay afloat during the Covid-19 crisis. So far, the state has given $7.3 million to the Brattleboro Retreat, and $1.3 million to Springfield Hospital.
Greshin said that a more precise account of the state’s spending on Covid-19 would be released in the coming days.
During his press conference Monday, Scott noted that in other states, governors have not included lawmakers in deliberations over how to spend federal CARES Act dollars.
In New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, was sued by Democratic lawmakers for seeking to spend its $1.25 billion grant without any legislative oversight whatsoever.
Last week, a judge dismissed their lawsuit, arguing that delaying Sununu’s ability to release funds to state residents during a state of emergency would be against the public interest.
But Scott said that he has made it clear that he wants to work with the Legislature to spend the federal dollars.
“We want their involvement, we want to work together and we’re in this crisis together and we’ll work our way out of it together,” Scott said.
“Unlike other states we’re not going to have any court battles over this. … I think that they will be flexible in adhering to what our needs are in a short period of time and we’ll continue to work together.”
