Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rep. Tom Stevens, a Democrat who represents Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington, and Buels Gore in the Vermont House and is chair of the General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee.
On Friday afternoon, I received an email from the Scott administration that contained a letter from the governor. The governor took the House and Senate to task for presenting an economic development plan that did not match his, and he restated a belief that has been shared by other organizations that we were shortchanging Vermonters who are struggling during the Covid-19. This could not be further than the truth, and the unfortunate thing is, to me, that by misrepresenting our work and our goals, the administration has chosen to leave behind the cooperative work we have achieved and has chosen politics over the necessary prudence expected of us as we try to get help to Vermonters in an expeditious and efficient way.
Here’s a fact check: the $400 million proposal put forward by the Scott administration was well-intended, but was devoid of the statutory language needed to make it law. A slide deck is not a bill. Further, both the executive and legislative branches are constantly learning about the eligible uses for the Coronavirus Relief Fund. Most of the basic proposals put forward were, in the end, skating the edge of eligibility, requiring the Legislature to dive more deeply into the proposal and the guidelines written by the U.S. Treasury to find eligible ways to distribute this money across the many sectors that need assistance. Further, the administration has worked closely with us on the proposals, and has had representatives testify in every committee, and was fully aware of our overall strategies in getting this money out.
The $93 million appropriated in S.350 will get into the economy quickly, and the General Assembly was able to confidently put these funds into the first of what will be up to three bills over the next several months that will get over $950 million into the economy, and will make investments that are far greater and have a longer living impact on Vermonters than the $400 million proposed by the administration. The second bill, expected to be finished this coming week, will pump over $450 million more into the economy in areas such as rehousing the 2,000 Vermonters experiencing homelessness, including 300 children, who were not part of the governor’s plan, more business grants to those small businesses that are struggling, as well as most of what the administration asked for in their proposal.
It is the responsibility of the Legislature to make sure the Coronavirus Relief Fund is distributed in a way that is prudent, legal, eligible and expeditious. This requires coordination between our legal and financial staff, legislators, the administration, and the many advocates who were educating us on the many needs of Vermonters, from child care centers to restaurants, breweries to lodging places, the homeless to the elderly, and, quite frankly, every Vermont-owned business and every Vermonter who have experienced financial pain during this unprecedented crisis.
It is truly a shame that this administration has left thousands of Vermonters without unemployment or PUA benefits for nearly three months and required the volunteer help of legislators to provide help to thousands more. It needs to look in the mirror before criticizing the Legislature for their due diligence and fiscal prudence while getting these funds to those in need.
I sincerely hope the tact and tenor of future communications will return to the spirit of nonpartisanship we experienced for the first two and a half months of this unprecedented crisis. On behalf of all legislators who are working overtime to get relief to Vermonters, I expect an apology from the governor and from all who support this erroneous perception of our current work to those of us addressed in this letter, and to the General Assembly as a whole. Otherwise, I will be left to assume that politics has overcome the prudence expected of us as we try to get help to Vermonters in an expeditious and efficient way.
This is hard for me to share, because it illustrates “that thing” that happens sometimes. Given the incredible amount of work we have accomplished as a unified government since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, it’s not too late to realign priorities over politics.
