IN MAY 5’S FINAL READING:
— The Scott administration on Monday laid out a plan to House Appropriations Committee members that would close a nearly $200 million hole in this year’s state budget caused by the coronavirus crisis.
The budget adjustment proposal would use excess Medicaid dollars, additional revenue from alcohol sales, and reserve funds to balance this year’s budget, which ends June 30. “Here we are taking advantage of kind of a bizarre side effect of the Covid-19 crisis,” Greshin told House Appropriations.
“And that is despite the fact that we’re in a full blown health care crisis, the usage of health care you might say is down sharply,” he said. Greshin also said “for better or worse,” tax receipts from liquor sales during the Covid-19 crisis were up by $4.6 million. – Xander Landen
— A bill that would establish a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the Covid-19 crisis is now headed to Gov. Phil Scott’s desk after being voted out of the Senate chamber Tuesday morning.
Senators needed to approve the bill again after it was amended by the House last week. The House changed the bill so that it would protect mobile home residents, and allow courts to sign off on foreclosures in cases where homes are unoccupied. – Xander Landen
— Senate Econ lawmakers are eying Airbnb rentals as a potential solution to a looming problem with the way Vermont is isolating its homeless population to keep them safe from the coronavirus. About 1,600 people who otherwise would be without shelter or in congregate shelters are temporarily being housed in motels.
Hilary Melton, executive director of Pathways Vermont, imagined a potential program the state could stand up, which would subsidize Airbnb or accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rentals, while they’re sitting unused, for the homeless, who need transitional housing as more permanent affordable housing solutions are being sought by the state.
“If the governor merely mentioned that if people had ADUs they would be willing to have rented for x time frame, my guess is … you could probably within a short period of time have some units,” Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor said. – Grace Elletson
— State Treasurer Beth Pearce met with House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees Tuesday to discuss the ed fund’s immediate cash-flow problem. Municipalities are responsible for remitting education property tax dollars to the state, even if their own collections come up short. Their next payment, worth nearly $89 million, is due by June 1.
Pearce is recommending that, if they need to, towns and cities take out short-term loans with local lenders in order to make those ed fund payments. The state would promise to pay the interest on those loans, and likely use federal CARES Act dollars to do so.
The treasurer said she was relatively confident Vermont would be able to use the federal package to pay the borrowing costs. “There is a risk, but I think it’s a risk that has some fair to good probability associated with reimbursement. And I think it’s the right thing to do for the municipalities,” she said. – Lola Duffort
— Michael Snyder, commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, told the House Ag committee that he has decided to grant extensions for landowners who have properties in current use.
There are currently around 16,000 landowners and 2 million acres enrolled in the forest land category of current use throughout the state. Snyder said the deadline for management plan updates was April 1, but because of Covid-19, he decided to relax restrictions on extensions to give people more time to submit them.
“In a good year it’s a bottleneck. Right now people couldn’t get to them,” Snyder said. “If you don’t get your plan in on April 1, your update, you get removed from the program, you go back to ad valorem taxation you can’t come back in for five years.” – Kit Norton
