House and Senate lawmakers are now reconciling their differences on an expansive workforce and economic development package — but members of both chambers appear poised to hold firm on cuts to budget proposals that Gov. Phil Scott has identified as high priorities.
Senators on Wednesday passed S.11, a bill that’s become a vehicle for a range of programs aimed at getting more Vermonters in the workforce and stimulating economic development around the state.
“This is a big bill,” Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, said as she explained its provisions on the Senate floor. “It is one of our priorities this session.”
The Senate bill appropriates $84 million to workforce and economic development programs, which is $6 million less than the bill the House passed last week. Both chambers designated $27 million for workforce development programs, but the Senate bill includes $57 million for economic development programs, compared to $63 million passed by the House.
At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Scott repeated his pitch to lawmakers to restore funding to his economic development proposals, calling it “a line in the sand.”
Vermont’s shrinking workforce is having a “devastating effect” on communities, the governor said. “If we’re going to reverse these trends that have plagued us for decades, we simply can’t let this once in a lifetime opportunity slip through our fingers.”
Lindsay Kurrle, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said the governor’s budget proposal calls for $100 million in economic development money.
“And as we wade through the final days of the session, we’re asking that budget committees restore the majority of that ask,” she said.
It’s now up to a six-member committee of conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill — and decide how much of Scott’s economic development package to fund.
“We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry, chairperson of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, said on Thursday. “It’s too early now to tell what we might agree on.”
The Senate bill passed on Wednesday represents significant changes to the House version, including a range of cuts and additions that shake out to the overall $6 million reduction.
The upper chamber restored funding for a pilot program eliminated by the House that would station employees of the Vermont Department of Labor around the state to get people into the workforce.
The Senate also increased funding for scholarships for students in the trades, adding $500,000 to the $3 million the House appropriated.
But it cut funding — from the House’s $15 million down to $10 million — for a new program for students in Career and Technical Education programs. That program would create a revolving loan fund to pay for projects where students rehab municipal buildings, school facilities and housing that is not up to code.
The Senate also cut funding for several programs meant to encourage more people to enter health care professions.
The House appropriated $3 million in grants to nursing schools. The Senate cut that to $1 million.
The House appropriated $2.4 million for a program to increase the hourly wage for preceptors, who are nurses who mentor nursing students, by $5. The Senate reduced that figure to $1.4 million.
The Senate also cut grants to health care employers to create nursing pipeline or apprenticeship programs. The House appropriated $3 million; the Senate $2 million.
The Senate’s increases included additional funding — from the House’s $2 million up to $3 million — to forgive student loans for health care professionals. The professionals would have to be in a field where there is a shortage, such as nursing or EMTs. They would be able to have one year’s student loans forgiven for each year they work in Vermont.
The Senate also appropriated another $500,000 for a student loan forgiveness program for nursing faculty, $1.5 million to forgive loans for mental health professionals and $1.25 million for grants to pay for additional mental health and substance abuse staff at service agencies.
Last week, the House eliminated several proposals favored by the Senate. Among them was a program that pays people to move to Vermont, plus money to market Vermont to people who might want to move here.
Joan Goldstein, the state’s commissioner of economic development, pushed back against those cuts in committee testimony last week.
“We all know we’ve got a worker shortage,” she said. “What is the plan? How do we get new people to come in? Employers need new people right now.”
The House commerce committee moved the $10.2 million for the program that pays people to move to Vermont to another priority project for the administration, the capital investment program. Scott had requested $50 million to fund the program, which provides grants to businesses and nonprofits for projects that would encourage investment and create jobs in each region of Vermont.
The Senate has not appropriated any money for the grants.
The House also modified the Covid relief fund that businesses asked for to help them keep employees on the payroll when they have to stay home because of Covid-19.
The Senate version of the fund would help businesses through 2022. The House version would help them from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2023.
The House removed $25 a week in extra unemployment compensation that the Senate had proposed.
It also eliminated a raise in the minimum wage that the Senate had proposed, from the current $12.55 an hour to $13.75 as of Jan. 1 and to $15 as of 2024.
Without the increase, under current law, the minimum wage would increase with the Consumer Price Index or by 5%, whichever is greater, every year.
“On all but a few issues we are already close and on the others there are clear middle grounds,” Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, the chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, wrote in an email to VTDigger on Thursday.
“I am looking forward to hearing from the House on their reasoning for being opposed to raising the minimum wage to 15 (dollars an hour) … and not honoring the commitment we made last year of helping those who were laid off through no fault of their own with a small unemployment benefit increase,” he said.
