The Vermont Senate on Friday approved a $104 million coronavirus relief package, adding $20 million in spending to the version passed by the House of Representatives last month.
The main difference between the two versions of the legislation, H.315, is that lawmakers have decided to use $63 million of the $1.3 billion coming to the state via the federal American Rescue Plan Act to fund various initiatives.
Under the Senate’s proposal, federal money would cover $10 million worth of grants for businesses that missed out on any aid last year. The House-passed bill had used general fund money for those grants.
The Senate also added $14 million to the bill to clean up properties around the state that are contaminated with hazardous waste and pollutants. Gov. Phil Scott had pitched that proposal at the beginning of the legislative session, but the House did not include it in its version of the bill.
The upper chamber also decided to use American Rescue Plan funding for education programs, including courses at the Vermont State Colleges and University of Vermont for unemployed workers, and offering high school seniors two free Community College of Vermont courses.
The Senate proposal also included $3 million for a literacy initiative to improve reading proficiency of Vermont students and $4 million for summer and afterschool programs in an effort to ensure students do not fall behind.
Scott and his administration have expressed concern about lawmakers using federal money for programs before guidelines are issued to the state, but on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, said she was confident about how the money had been allocated.
“Our joint fiscal staff has been very diligent in getting information and looking at that legislation and has advised us where we believe that the ability to use the ARPA money is a permissible use,” said Kitchel, who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is expected to issue official guidelines for how states can use the money in the coming week, then Scott is expected to release his own plan for how the money should be spent.
All this means that the legislative session, already half done, might just be getting started.
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