More hazard pay is on the way.
On Wednesday, the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee approved a Scott administration plan to direct $2.1 million to the state’s hazard pay program, which needs just that amount to meet its obligation to all of the applicants who have been approved.
The program, conceived of last summer, is designed to reward workers who stayed on the job in the early weeks of the pandemic and worked with the public, putting them at higher risk of being exposed to the Covid-19 virus.
About 30,000 Vermonters who work in health care, grocery stores and other sectors are expected to receive checks of $1,200 or $2,000 through the $61 million allocated for the hazard pay program, including the latest $2.1 million.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said people who work in corrections facilities should also be eligible for hazard pay. Sears, chair of the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee, noted that the Department of Corrections has been having difficulty maintaining its staffing levels.
“Nationwide, the largest groups that have had problems with Covid in corrections are officers and inmates,” Sears said. “We have been very fortunate that the good work of the corrections administration and staff kept our numbers really low as compared to the rest of the nation. I just think that, given the high rate of turnover in staff, I hope that the administration will consider that as they continue the bargaining (with workers).”
Earlier this year, Vermont lawmakers allocated Vermont’s $1.25 billion in CARES Act money authorized by Congress in the early weeks of the U.S. pandemic. After asking agencies for unspent money from grant programs and other sources, the state has just under $25 million that can be reallocated to programs before the end of the year, said Adam Greshin, commissioner of the state’s Department of Finance & Management.
On Wednesday, the committee rejected several of the administration’s spending proposals, including $10 million for additional business grants offered through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and the Department of Taxes, and $1.75 million that the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets requested to give 35 grants of about $50,000 to businesses that applied to the working lands program.
As they have in previous meetings this fall, committee members said they hadn’t been given enough time to think through the spending proposal. Committee Chair Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, asked Greshin to resubmit the proposal later.
“I am not prepared to make decisions on those requests now,” said Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia.
“I don’t want to be on the record saying to these things, ‘Absolutely never,’” said Sen. Richard Westman, R-Lamoille. “I think there is merit to each of these.”
The business grants program is set up to meet 100% of the need shown by hospitality and food businesses — which are generally acknowledged to have been hit the hardest by the pandemic-related shutdowns — but only about a third of the need shown by businesses in other sectors. The $10 million would raise the average grant award for the latter by about $5,000, Greshin said.
Rep. Peter Fagan, R-Rutland, was the only panel member who voted to support the business grants proposal, based on his experience as a former small business owner.
“The next three months are going to be the hardest of this coronavirus time frame,” he said. “We as a body don’t know when individual businesses reach the ‘It’s hopeless, let’s close the door’ point.”
At that point, he said, business owners feel hopeless, knowing that they have put people out of work and contributed to the state’s problems.
“I can’t tell you how hopeless they as an individual feel,” Fagan said, urging his fellow committee members to support the $10 million. “It’s dire, and if we can help, we should.”
The application deadline for the hazard pay program passed in mid-November. The Department of Financial Regulation, which administered the program, faced a barrage of complaints this fall from workers whose large employers had declined to apply; state officials then called and persuaded many of those companies, such as Walmart and Dollar General, to fill out applications.
The Department of Financial Regulation now publishes two lists showing the companies that were approved in the two rounds of the program to receive hazard pay grants for their employees.
Commissioner Mike Pieciak said Wednesday that about 350 applicants were rejected.
Among them were several day care centers, automobile servicing businesses, United Ways of Vermont, housing authorities, breweries, construction companies, fuel dealers, Piedmont Airlines, the Humane Society of Chittenden County, and the Addison County Sheriff’s Department.
Most were denied because they didn’t fall within the designated employment sectors that were covered, such as nursing homes, home health agencies, medical offices, grocery stores and dental offices. The list excludes 37 sole proprietors who weren’t eligible, and also some employees who applied on behalf of their employers, which was not permitted.
Some restaurant workers have protested, saying that their jobs also put them in contact with the public.
“Unfortunately, restaurants and other food service establishments such as doughnut shops, fast food organizations, delis, were not included in the legislation,” Pieciak said. “The only exception was for food establishments that provided meals to residents or patients of long-term care facilities and/or hospitals.” He noted that most restaurants were closed during the eligibility period of March 13 to May 15.
