More state Covid-19 relief funding looks to be on its way.
The House Committee on Appropriations is aiming to finish up work on a mini-coronavirus stimulus bill no later than Friday afternoon.
The turnaround for this legislation appeared to be tight as policy committees were still flooding the appropriations panel late Thursday afternoon with spending memos.
Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier, who chairs House Approps, said she hopes to schedule a vote on what she’s calling the “working families relief bill” within 24 hours.
The bill’s total price tag is still unknown but is likely to include $10 million worth of economic recovery grants to businesses that did not receive aid throughout the past year — an amount Gov. Phil Scott originally included in this year’s budget adjustment proposal.
The bill would be funded with a combination of General Fund dollars and leftover money from last year’s federal Coronavirus Relief Fund appropriation.
“Congress is working on another stimulus package that hopefully comes out in May,” said Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry, who chairs the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. “Here we’re talking $10 million, and it’s General Fund dollars, and it’s not going to take long to go through that.”
“Without more federal help I don’t know what we can do,” Marcotte added in testimony to the Appropriations Committee.
Hooper said the language submitted by the Commerce Committee could expose the state to liability for damages that businesses may have sustained due to Gov. Phil Scott’s stay-at-home mandate last year.
“I don’t want us to become or imply that we think we could be financially responsible for debt incurred by businesses who were closed down because of the governor’s order,” she said.
Rep. Charlie Kimbell, D-Woodstock, vice chair of the commerce committee, said the panel carefully worded the grant criteria language to guard against that possibility.
The House Human Services Committee is recommending that $1.3 million go to the Reach Up program, with funds to be distributed directly to families. That committee is also asking that $350,000 go to both the Association of Africans Living in Vermont and the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program.
The House Committee on Health Care came to Appropriations with an ask of $10.5 million to address health care disparities, expand the health care workforce and respond to urgent mental health needs. The panel said the recommendation could be part of the fiscal year 2022 budget instead of the mini coronavirus bill.
The appropriations panel gave committee leaders about 20 minutes to outline spending memos that had taken weeks to craft. Hooper apologized for the time crunch.
“We were very ambitious in our desire to cover two or three hours’ worth of conversation in a matter of minutes, and forgive us for rushing you through such thoughtful work,” Hooper said to fellow lawmakers.
Hooper hopes to vote out a committee bill Friday and asked policy committees to stand by for answer questions in the next 24 hours.
A mini-budget crunch in the middle of February? Only in the coronavirus era.
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