This commentary is by Rep. Doug Bishop, D-Colchester.
On April 1, hundreds of Vermonters will be left unsheltered as the “winter rules” governing the state’s motel voucher system expire. These vouchers, available before Covid but expanded since, provide essential support for roughly 2,300 Vermonters.
The Legislature is aware of the voucher system’s shortcomings and has sought an alternative from the governor for five years. None has been offered. So, the House Committee on Human Services approved H.91, which builds a more coordinated and comprehensive program to address Vermont’s homelessness crisis. While a Legislature-led effort, the bill reflects significant input from the governor’s administration.
The overhaul envisioned by H.91 can’t happen overnight. That’s why the House has included provisions in both the first and second versions of the budget adjustment bill to extend the winter rules, ensuring that vulnerable populations — seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities and others — continue to have shelter.
Initially, $1.8 million in new money was thought necessary to maintain these winter rules for 90 days. Now, the Agency of Human Services acknowledges that funds are available within their current budget. The House’s updated bill asks only that these existing funds be used to maintain the winter rules for the additional 90 days, no additional funds are necessary.
Without offering a viable alternative — one that doesn’t either throw the problem in the laps of municipalities or leave veterans, those with disabilities, and others out in the cold — the governor says he intends to veto the bill again. This is perplexing. In his January budget address, the governor urged the state to fix, not just fund, our problems. H.91 offers that fix, and we can use funds already budgeted — with no new funds to be appropriated in the bill — to meet our urgent sheltering needs. This is the very definition of fixing, while not funding.
The governor also claims that extending the winter rules is a policy decision and, therefore, is out of bounds for the budget adjustment bill process. I am only three months into my first term as a legislator, but even I can recognize that the governor’s surprise to see alleged policy in the bill is akin to Captain Louis Renault’s famous line in Casablanca when he exclaims, “I’m shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,” while ironically receiving his winnings from the croupier.
The governor himself makes policy decisions with other parts of the budget adjustment bill, like $18 million to soften the blow of rising health care costs for state employees and spending over $20 million to prop up failing nursing homes. As one colleague has accurately pointed out, every spending decision is, in fact, a policy decision.
Using existing funds from the Agency of Human Services’ current budget is also a sound fiscal choice. Last fall, when nearly 1,500 Vermonters were “exited” from the voucher program, the resulting chaos and danger showed that the approach was wrong. The governor then threw $3 million at an ill-conceived sheltering effort at the eleventh hour — one in which we saw an out-of-state vendor charge Vermont $107.50 per hour for “shelter team workers” and as much as $325 per hour for “program managers.” We can avoid putting ourselves in that position again this spring by simply utilizing the funds we have available right now to keep the winter rules in place in the short term.
For these reasons, I hope we’ll see the governor drop his veto threats. I hope we can move past politics and make the morally and fiscally responsible choice to shelter our most vulnerable neighbors.
