This
is the part of the legislative session that becomes the most politically contentious
and, for me, the most perplexing because we are dealing with very large sums of
money. Of the three money bills that are
must-pass in every session of the legislature, the Transportation bill, the
Miscellaneous Tax bill, and the Budget bill, the latter two were debated and
passed during this last week in March.
Now they will be considered by the Senate, probably changed, and sent
back to the House in the next couple of weeks.
The
revenues raised by the Miscellaneous Tax Bill presented by the Ways and Means
Committee must balance with the expenditures in the Budget Bill presented by
the Appropriations Committee. These
committees work very hard for three months with input from state government
employees, legislators and citizens to craft bills that make investments in
strategies that will reduce future costs, address poverty, tackle opiate addiction,
spur job growth, fund needed programs for the elderly and the disabled, and
drastically reduce Vermont’s reliance on one-time funds. Not one legislator wants to spend money
unnecessarily and everyone wants the money that is spent to benefit Vermont and
its citizens. The problem comes in
trying to decide how to accomplish those competing goals.
When
these bills get to the floor they invariably divide the legislature along party
lines. While one side focuses on the
size of the budget, the other focuses on what the budget can accomplish with
the available resources. Compounding the
problem have been the federal cutbacks to food stamps and low income heating
assistance. When the available resources are not sufficient to address the
needs, a decision must be made to either find additional revenues or to ignore
the needs. Increasing taxes is always
seen as a solution to be avoided unless the need is perceived to be great
enough. This, however, can be a subjective judgment colored by political
philosophies.
Representative
Martha Heath, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, stated what her committee
tried to accomplish. At the beginning of
the session Governor Shumlin proposed a budget to support his goal of providing
more effective intervention and treatment for opiate addicts. He asked for $14M in revenue based on taxing
health insurance claims. This was
unacceptable to the legislature because it would drive up health care costs at
a time when we are trying to reduce them.
Instead, by making cuts to proposed
expenditures and employing alternate funding strategies, the additional revenue
needed was reduced to $3.3M.
This year’s budget addresses
the issue of homeless Vermonters by doubling the rental subsidy program,
increasing funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and
increasing grants for homeless shelters.
It helps those who are living in poverty by increasing support to make high
quality child care affordable and available so that parents can go to work. In addition, substance abuse and mental health
issues have been identified as the number one barrier to obtaining jobs for
those served by the state’s Reach Up program.
Over $1M is appropriated to address this important issue.
The highly publicized opiate
addiction problem facing our state and the toll it takes on our communities and
our safety is also addressed. The budget invests over $10M in additional
treatment and recovery capacity and expands statewide the successful rapid
intervention program that moves addicted offenders into treatment prior to
arraignment under certain circumstances because treatment is much more
productive than imprisonment. The need is great, and these strategies, along
with the efforts of our local communities, will reduce the number of Vermonters
struggling with addiction.
While Vermont continues to do
relatively well as we come out of the Great Recession, investment in job growth
remains critical. The budget increases funding for Regional Development
Corporations and Planning Commissions, invests in further capacity for the
Employee Ownership Center, increases investments in our transportation
infrastructure, and increases funding for the Working Lands Initiative to
further spur this rapidly growing part of Vermont’s economy.
One of government’s most
important roles is to insure that the disabled and the elderly are able to live
with dignity and with as much independence as possible. This budget fully funds
the caseload increases in Developmental Services and continues our investment
in serving elderly Vermonters in their homes as they age through the Choices in
Care program.
This
budget provides less funding than I would prefer for programs like low income
weatherization and it fails to make whole the federal cuts to the food stamp
program. There is also a smaller
increase in payments to home health care providers and to health care providers
for Medicaid patients. But I support this budget because it is the best that
could be accomplished at this time.
