House and Senate lawmakers slotted into place a key piece of the legislative puzzle Monday as they hurry to finish their work for the year: Vermont’s more than $8 billion budget.
The budget bill, H.740, must still receive an up or down vote from the full House and Senate, and secure Gov. Phil Scott’s signature (or overcome yet another gubernatorial veto) before becoming law. But a joint committee of House and Senate lawmakers tasked with reconciling differences between the chambers on the state’s annual spending plan has officially hashed out a deal.
“I feel very strongly that we have honored the commitment that we made to Vermonters at the beginning of the pandemic — that we would support the most vulnerable Vermonters through the pandemic and to help Vermont recover strongly and to grow stronger at the end of the pandemic,” said Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier, who chairs the House’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
Lawmakers had nearly half a billion dollars in one-time money left over from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to spend in this budget. Both Hooper and her counterpart in the upper chamber, Senate Appropriations Committee chair Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, highlighted federally funded investments in climate, clean water and broadband as landmark achievements. Broadband buildout is slated to receive $96 million, according to Hooper, while water quality would get $104 million and climate initiatives would get $130 million.
But federal stimulus spending has also boosted the economy and the state’s tax receipts, and lawmakers have taken advantage of a higher baseline in revenues to boost spending in long-neglected areas of state government.
The private nonprofit mental health agencies that provide services on behalf of the state, for example, are set to receive an 8% reimbursement rate increase, as are home health care aides.
“Those are ongoing commitments to stabilize and strengthen those systems,” Kitchel said.
The Vermont State Colleges, which nearly faced financial ruin at the start of the pandemic, also would get a $10 million bump to their base appropriation — the money they can expect year after year — as would the University of Vermont. The state colleges also would receive nearly $15 million in extra one-time help in the budget as they put in place several reforms, including the unification of the system’s four-year schools.
House and Senate leaders hope to adjourn this week, perhaps even before Friday. But the timing of when lawmakers get to gavel out for good depends in large part on what Scott decides to do. The Republican and the Democratic-controlled Legislature are still quite far apart on key line items, including housing, economic development and taxes.
Though the governor has suggested he very well could veto this year’s budget, when it comes to matters of contention between the legislative and executive branches, the thorniest line items are largely not in the budget. Instead, lawmakers left placeholders in the annual spending bill to fund appropriations being carried in separate policy bills.
And left outstanding early Monday evening were legislative deals between the two chambers on precisely those items — housing, taxes and economic development — most closely watched by the Scott administration.
S.226, an omnibus housing bill that carries $15 million for a “missing middle” program the governor wants to subsidize building middle-class starter homes (and a contractor registry he does not), was not quite at the finish line Monday. Nor had legislators ironed out their differences on the “yield” bill, which sets education property taxes — and because of a large surplus, is being eyed to fund PCB remediation in schools and universal school meals. A tax cut package that includes a new Vermont child tax credit (on which the House wanted to spend nearly $50 million, and the Senate just $22.5 million) was entirely unsettled Monday.
Another joint House and Senate committee worked into Monday night to try to hammer out a deal on economic development. A key demand from Scott has been $50 million in one-time money for the state’s Capital Investment Program.
As Senate and House lawmakers on that panel informally agreed to give a re-named Community Recover and Revitalization Grant Program $40 million, Senate Majority Leader Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, wondered out loud to her colleagues: “Does this mean no more vetoes?”
That committee was set to reconvene at 9 p.m. on Monday to attempt to finish its work.
Fred Thys contributed reporting.
