SmartTranscript of House Appropriations - 2025-03-24 - 1:15PM

[Chair Robin Scheu]: Good afternoon. It is Monday, March twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. It's no longer Friday as I was reminded. And this is the House Appropriations Committee. We are here to, do our working on final reading. We will get some budget information. We'll get some more budget information, go away and read. We'll check-in. And before we leave today, we will have our formal vote on the budget. So we'll start with Emily handing out spreadsheets. I really like how you color coded them. So I know immediately if it's purple and blue, it's base, and if it's sage green Perfect. Coral and one time and other stuff. But if not, we also have some language details that we have to [Emily Byrne]: Yes. So, Emily Byrne, who joined Crystal Office. So what we'll start with, we're just gonna walk through all the spreadsheet. So based on everything that we remembered that you did at eleven o'clock at night on Friday, adding it into the spreadsheet, making sure it all adds up, cleaning up stuff that [Wayne Laroche]: one more of the yeah. This one? [Chair Robin Scheu]: Yeah. You can because I'm [Wayne Laroche]: not Thank [Chair Robin Scheu]: you. We [Emily Byrne]: need all of making sure it all is still balanced. So I will I'm gonna share my screen. So, yeah, so we'll go through a couple of spreadsheets to show all that information, and then [Chair Robin Scheu]: So this was us what we did Friday after you all remember everything we did fresh. I guess earlier. [Emily Byrne]: Hopefully, I can remember to call on the [Chair Robin Scheu]: specific the current specific funds. Here we go. It's [Emily Byrne]: going on at home. Okay. So stuff at the top is all of this all the same. On the appropriation changes, the so we have the ethics commission, position of those came out. Precharge administrator, that's the updated number that we talked about on Friday, the hundred and ten. And then the [Chair Robin Scheu]: AG position is down to one position just for the precharge program. [Emily Byrne]: Transport deputies, I was carrying m and d two zero five. It should be b two zero seven, so that got updated over the weekend. [Chair Robin Scheu]: I would Yeah. [Trevor Squirrell]: On b two zero one, it's just precharge diversion. I would take the administrator. [Wayne Laroche]: Okay. [Emily Byrne]: Oh, good call. Alright. I can update that. Thanks. Okay. Mine's seventeen. B two twenty five. This is the one hundred and twelve thousand dollars for the conservation districts that was added in. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Up here, achievement increase. [Emily Byrne]: One thing to note on line twenty four. So, when we go through the web report, you will notice. So, there, the community provider rate increases. Because of the way AHS pays community providers, Most of it is global commitment match. So, about five million dollars of that five point one four is global commitment match. And I have a supplemental sheet I can hand out at the end for people who want to really dig into it. But most of it isn't going to be in B301 global commitment match. There's a little bit of money in B314 and B330 with mental health and DALE or some providers who get just general fund. So, there's a little bit so there's appropriations in those two lines that are general just general fund, and those two lines add up. When you add up b three zero one, b three thirty, and b three fourteen, you get to the five point one four. So we carried it all in one spot. See the whole thing. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Okay. Sure. [Trevor Squirrell]: Yeah. B two twenty, which I don't see here, which is the four hundred and fifty thousand for center for cramping. [Chair Robin Scheu]: We'll get to that one. [Emily Byrne]: Okay. Yes. That one I should point out that one is does not show up on this base increases. It will show up later. It was moved from a appropriation to center so the general fund appropriation was moved from an appropriation to a transfer to their special fund. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Okay. And [Emily Byrne]: then there's gonna be a special fund appropriation out of for that from B220 out of the special fund. So the money goes into their special fund, and then they get appropriated out of the special fund instead of the general fund. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Okay. That was per the email we got from you over the week. [Emily Byrne]: But I'll show you that when we get to it, which is going to be actually on a monthly. Okay. So the what else has changed in terms of things you might know? I broke out on lines thirty and thirty one. We broke out the two, Department of Mental Health changes for the Howard Center and the embedded clinicians in the pediatricians offices. These are in on one line before. So they're broken out and we're showing them slightly differently. Before, we had shown them as an addition in the House budget, but they were really a reduction in the governor's budget being added back in. So now they're shown as a reduction on the Governor's budget and then sort of backfilled in the House. So they're not being taken out. Be in line thirty three, B318 for the childcare rate increases. This is the change to, it was, five point five. Now it's at four point five. No longer exchanges go over to the next page. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Thirteen years. Well, those were there before. All over there. Yeah. [Emily Byrne]: Yeah. That's everything there. The stabilization reserve that's updated based on the c sec the section c changes that were made. There is the ten million dollars is sort of set aside for emergency housing, but it's not appropriated anywhere. [Chair Robin Scheu]: What? Sixty four. Sixty four. Yeah. Thank you. The pink area. [Emily Byrne]: Pink. And then on the revenue side, our sort of conversations internally at JFO, we realized that the bills with the revenue changes haven't passed yet. So we didn't assign anything to specific revenue changes. We're just carrying the total amount sort of pending further house action. So it shows that you've accounted for thirteen point five million dollars worth of changes to revenue available, but not specifically allocating it anywhere since those decisions haven't been finalized yet. [Chair Robin Scheu]: That's fifteen million. Yep. [Emily Byrne]: So with that, there is forty eight point seven nine million dollars left to [Wayne Laroche]: Okay. [Emily Byrne]: For one time appropriations. [James Harrison]: But just to be clear, Emily and Katie, we are writing down specifically line seventy seven, seventy eight as if we're spending them, but we don't know for sure if the policy committee or the tax committee have approved those choices yet. Is that right? [Emily Byrne]: Yes. I believe there are bills with some of them in them, but they haven't, like, been they haven't passed through the whole house. [James Harrison]: The Social Security exemption, military exemption, tax exemption, and we've all heard a lot about either one of those. But where we as a committee at this time are budgeting those as if they've passed. [Emily Byrne]: Yes. Or they will if [Chair Robin Scheu]: they were accounted for. Yeah. Just, yeah, counter forward. [James Harrison]: Right. So not if if these don't pass, this isn't any more cash on the table. This is just an expenditure that we're gonna be having. [Chair Robin Scheu]: If they don't pass Yeah. We have more money. If they do pass, we have less money. [James Harrison]: Okay. Just to be clear. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Yeah. And so the difference is the two million. We had talked about the downtown and the lowest tax credit, which was a recommended increase. So, anyway, it just turned out that it was better to look at that in total and just remove the two million because we don't know where everything's maintained up. That's a kind of Yep. Have a new section. Yeah. That's it. We can then find is there one abstract? Sure. That's it. I think she has four to eight both. [Emily Byrne]: Okay. So the next spreadsheet you have in front of you again should look familiar. This is a one time spreadsheet. So we're assuming there's one hundred and thirty six million from FY twenty five that's available for appropriation. There's the reversions of two twelve, which is probably yeah. A lot of notes say C supplemental sheet. So we added, dollars two million for Commissioner of Finance Management from the to the appropriation to the AC administration for, the HFA that they're no longer using, which we reverted some money in the budget adjustment. This reverts another two million. [Chair Robin Scheu]: That was to take the place of the AHS federal excess receipts fee. Correct? [Emily Byrne]: And then there is the bottom of this one base spreadsheet had forty eight point seven nine available to cover one time appropriation. The walk through, these are all updated based on what will be in the bill as we see it. So the first one to sort of point out that should look different is b three eleven subpart on line ten, three eleven d, subpart three. This is the urban search and rescue. This is the whole seventy five for urban search and rescue at the Department of Public Safety. And then the next one and unfortunately, because of the numbering the way it was, blueprint and SASH is gonna sneak in between, b eleven hundred f one, which is the FPR fire apparatus, also for two seventy five. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Now they've been split out. It was in that was in the budget we talked about. Yeah. [Emily Byrne]: They're in the correct places. The other stuff the recovery residences, I believe, is the thing that was added on late Friday night in g three for Department of Health. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Situation Advantage. [Emily Byrne]: We have the sort of updates in on line twenty seven, twenty eight, and twenty nine. Those are the sort of housing updates that were decided late Friday night. Those updates. Line thirty is where we have VHIP funding. The two million dollars in line thirty one, this is what came over from the House for Actions and Institutions Committee for That is the Bs. Bs. Yeah. And the universal design study, that's fifteen thousand. VHCD. And in line thirty six, we have the additional five million for VHCB. These other ones we've talked a lot about. Line forty two and Agency of Agriculture is where we have half a billion for the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program. In line forty four is where we have the two point five million dollars for the freedom and unity grants that were added. And then, on line forty six, the additional fund federal match for the Arts Council and the additional one million dollars to the Agency of Transportation to begin the implementation of mileage based user fees. [Wayne Laroche]: I don't know if it [John Kascenska]: matters, but you get two forty fives. [Chair Robin Scheu]: I could break I could fix that. A line? Yep. That's forty five point one is the other one. Yes. [Emily Byrne]: I thought I caught them up. Cash. There's always one. Now So we know you're paying attention. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Sneak one [Emily Byrne]: in. You get the gold tension. [Chair Robin Scheu]: That one way. [Emily Byrne]: The medical debt came out, and I can remove that line if that makes sense. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Probably that. It works. Okay. They're not holding it. [Emily Byrne]: Yep. Remove that. The additional positions of the secretary of state's office that are currently in h four seventy two. Yeah. And then on the transfers below, the cash fund reduction we've talked about, that one time reduction. And then this is in line fifty nine where we have the crime victims restitution fund. So this is moving the money we had money appropriated. This is where we move the money to the special fund rather than appropriate the general fund and then appropriate the special funds. [Trevor Squirrell]: And the name on this should be domestic violence, sexual violence fund, not the restitution fund. [Chair Robin Scheu]: You can update that domestic. Yeah. We have those details, Trevor. Yeah. You update that, all those funds. Okay. [Emily Byrne]: When all is said and done, [Chair Robin Scheu]: there's approximately one point five million dollars for I don't know what. Hopefully that all sounds familiar to people. And I think before we go to to Jim, do we maybe talk about the language that Grainy and we were supposed to talk about Friday, and then we sort of forgot to talk about it. Yes. [Emily Byrne]: While we were working over the weekend, we found two pieces of language that we were real well, one, we had the one is a change that we thought about practically how it would be implemented, and it was [Chair Robin Scheu]: not implementable as the way it was. You have copies to give people that. [15 seconds of silence] [Wayne Laroche]: Thank you. [19 seconds of silence] [Chair Robin Scheu]: Okay. [39 seconds of silence] [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: Great. Excellent. Joint fiscal office. So on the first, three four pages of this document in front of you, you'll see various changes to a statute relating to the Office of Health Equity and the Health Equity Advisory Commission. This is language that was drafted by legislative counsel in the bill as recommended by the governor. There's a section that does some cleanup to place the Health Equity Advisory Commission in the proper, place within the administration. Ledge council reviewed that language and, found that there need to be some more extensive cleanup, so there should be several sections inserted into the bill to achieve a similar purpose as what's in governor rec, but just more thorough. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So you may recall that there was some money that was transferred that was in this office in the agency administration that really needed to go to the Department of Health. So there's no money, no new money, not nothing like that's happening. It's just five hundred thousand. It was five hundred thousand. And exactly. And so all it's doing is putting it in the right location, which is the Department of Health, not the Office of Racial Equity. And so this is the language to make sure it's there and, you know, it's associated with it. Is that kind of what we're talking about? Okay. So does anybody have any questions on that? Are we [John Kascenska]: Is there is there still any money being distributed for COVID nineteen? [Chair Robin Scheu]: Is there more money being distributed for COVID nineteen? Say COVID nineteen with you? Yeah. [James Harrison]: In the third page, I think, the five. [Chair Robin Scheu]: I think that's old. So that's not underlined, so that's not Old. That's not new language. If this establishes the office of the Department of Health and does what they consider your student. Yeah. The last thing that's outlined in yellow, d, Melissa. We haven't gotten to that yet. This is the office of health equity that we're talking about right now. The page that you've jumped to Well, that's that's an early phase section. Completely different. So all I'm talking about is the office of health equity right now. Everybody okay with that? Okay. Alrighty. Now we're going to that page. [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: On the fifth page, so you'll see this is a section c o one six that would be added to the bill. This is amending act one thirteen, the twenty five budget, as amended by the second Budget Adjustment Act that the House passed, so that's h four eighty nine. So that Budget Adjustment Act added sub d that you'll see here, mostly not underlined because, if the budget adjustment passes, then that would be in act one thirteen. So this sub d, not with stamps thirty two VSAC, which is the general fund, balance reserve and pension sweep at the end of your closeout. In the Budget Adjustment Act, it would reserve up to one million three thirty three one hundred and thirty three million five hundred thousand for permanent housing property tax relief and other public interest purposes. This language here would update that number in the budget to one hundred and thirty six million. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So in the budget adjustment, this was the construct that the administration preferred me. There's a senate construct and a house construct, and this is a house construct. And all we're doing is updating the number now that we have better information. Any questions on that? Okay. [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: On the final page of the document, this is a section b eleven o one relating to f y twenty five closeout that would be added to the budget. So this would say that after you fulfill the requirements of thirty [Chair Robin Scheu]: Can we [Emily Byrne]: back up one second? When we did this on Friday, we had talked about putting a money into the general fund balance reserve. When Jaya did the work over the weekend, it was thought through putting it in the once you put it in the balance reserve, it's really hard to get out. Given the uncertainty that's coming from the federal government, we talked through and thought that it didn't make sense to put it in the balance reserve and then add a [Chair Robin Scheu]: whole bunch of language that made [Emily Byrne]: it really complicated to get it out. So this was the proposal to like, rather than put it there, to set it aside for sort of the same purpose, the same federal funding issues. But this is that structure. But Okay. Thank you. [Wayne Laroche]: Yep. Sorry. So that goes into the reserve. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So everything no. So it's not. So if you look great, you will explain. Okay. Gotcha. First, everything goes to the reserves. Okay. [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: So thirty two VSA three zero eight is the general fund stabilization reserve. So this language would say, first, fulfill that requirement, and then fulfill the requirements of act one thirteen d o one three, which is the language you saw on the prior page, the hundred and thirty six million. And then if any balance remains, notwithstanding thirty two BSA three zero eight c, which goes directs money to the balance reserve and the pensions in that statutory construct. So rather than do that, finance management reserve remaining funds for future appropriations to address potential federal funding shortfalls. In sub b, while the general assembly is not in session, the joint fiscal committee, would have the ability to make recommendations to the emergency board on the transfer of those remaining funds that are reserved after fulfilling the requirements of the general fund stabilization reserve and section d of d one zero three, that hundred and thirty six million reserve. And then the e board would be authorized to transfer funds per JFC recommendations. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Oh, this is a way of trying to deal with what's coming down the road in a way that is not so inflexible that we can't get out of funds that we need to get out when we get. Any questions about the Sliin? Yeah. [Emily Byrne]: Can you just go over reserves? We've got [Chair Robin Scheu]: a I just said, well, is there a better three zero eight? [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: Yes. Yep. [Chair Robin Scheu]: And we've got [Emily Byrne]: zero eight c. [Legislative Staff or Counselor (possibly Erin Pedley)]: Which is the balance reserve and then the statutory allocation, twenty five to pensions and twenty five So that comes out [Chair Robin Scheu]: of this three zero eight c. Yes. [Emily Byrne]: Three zero eight c is the is the mechanism to do that, and it creates the general fund balance reserve. Sure. [Chair Robin Scheu]: The general fund balance reserve is also known as the rainy day fund. And so it's slightly different than the general fund stabilization reserve, right, which is statutorily five percent of appropriations that needs to be filled, and we keep that pretty much filled. [Emily Byrne]: Are there I'm assuming there [Chair Robin Scheu]: are different rules regarding each fund, and we can [Speaker 7 ]: touch them and under what circumstances. Correct. [Emily Byrne]: The stabilization reserve is the one that, like, doesn't get touched ever, really. That's the first five percent. That's five percent of prior year appropriations. The balance reserve is the one that's a little bit more flexible. That's the sort of rainy day fund. That's the sort of next five percent that gets reserved. It's not at five percent at this point. There's sort of, like, the back there's a mechanism to fill it up, which is the general the general assembly transfers money to it or the year end construct. There's about ninety eight million dollars in that one right now. So the language that's in the budget about the what the joint fiscal committee will have ability to do sort of talks about how they can access that stabilization that balance reserve if needed. [Wayne Laroche]: How much money is under stabilization? [Emily Byrne]: No. The stabilization reserve is at one eighteen. One twenty at the end of projected one hundred and twenty million at the end of f y twenty twenty five based on [Wayne Laroche]: The one twenty there that's hard to get at. Yeah. Ninety whatever. [Emily Byrne]: Ninety eight in the stable the eighty day fund. [Wayne Laroche]: Eighty days fund. Yep. [Chair Robin Scheu]: That's two hundred million. Yep. [Wayne Laroche]: That's it. [Emily Byrne]: The human services caseload reserve is another one that has ninety four point five million dollars in it. That one is sort of held there's two functions of the human services caseloaders. One is the Medicaid claims tail. So in the event we had to we had to there's usually three months of claims that you have to pay out. So if anything changed, that's sort of reserved there to deal with that liability. And then there's just also other money that goes in and out. [Wayne Laroche]: It happens in this language. It's not in here. What does it what does it default to? [Emily Byrne]: It defaults to thirty eight three three zero eight c, which would mean any money over and above the what's reserved in the budget adjustment for the next fiscal year would go fifty percent would go to the stabilize the rainy day fund, the balance reserve, and then the remaining fifty percent gets split between the teacher's pension and the state employee's pension. [Wayne Laroche]: I remember that part. So as the bill moves forward as the senate, if revenues continue to come in a little over projection, I assume we could insert, like, some kind of contingent, I guess, if we collectively chose to do that. Correct? Correct. [Chair Robin Scheu]: We absolutely could. And at the same time, we'll have more information on maybe about what's happening in Washington because I'm imagining that's gonna that could be our first priority depending upon where [Wayne Laroche]: our goal is. Right. I'm sorry. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Yep. [Emily Byrne]: Yeah. How much is only human service case when we start again? [Chair Robin Scheu]: Ninety four. Ninety four. [Emily Byrne]: Converse. To the end of that [Chair Robin Scheu]: by twenty five ninety four. [James Harrison]: So let's imagine the worst happens with the federal government and all parents with the numbers in different places. So what happens if for during fiscal year twenty twenty five, we need to [Wayne Laroche]: use all that money [James Harrison]: in order to make this work or and we have a we have a choice. We can either or question, do we have a choice to use all that money, complete our reserves, fulfill the budget? Do we have to perhaps come in and cut the budget in order to make that work and still have the magical math numbers so that if there's [36 seconds of silence] [Chair Robin Scheu]: Oh, we have five. Oh, we have five. Oh, we have that. Oh, okay. It's great. It's cool with us. [Emily Byrne]: There's language in the budget that sort of addresses, like, if it's by this much, this is what happens. If it's this much, joint fiscal committee and the emergency board get involved. And if it's anything more than that, then the general assembly has to come back because it's a big enough change. And then the general assembly or the joint fiscal committee depending sort of has access to different reserves at different levels, depending on how big the change is. If there was a decision by whichever body is in charge to I don't think the joint the joint fiscal committee couldn't be in a situation where they can deplete those two reserves. That would require statutory approval. The if the legislature came back and decided to do that, it would depend so there's, like, two sort of functions of that. Right? Statute says that that stabilization reserve has to be at five percent of prior year appropriations. So then you would have to refill it. Right? It's one time when it's in the stabilization in a reserve, it is one time money. Right? There is no, like, refilling mechanism to that. So you would have to either change the law that said your stabilization reserve was different, or you would have to meet the requirements of statute and refill that, [Chair Robin Scheu]: reserve. Which would be Right. It's it's fresh. You need to hear [Emily Byrne]: You need to hear ourselves twice. [Chair Robin Scheu]: At least I don't. That would mean finding ninety eight million dollars to fill the reserve assuming the same appropriation or possibly at [James Harrison]: a time when Right. At a time when the budget has to be presumably gonna have to be slashed to the bone. [Chair Robin Scheu]: That's right. So it may not be ninety eight. It might be sixty eight. But yes. Exactly. Which is why I think that doesn't get used very much. [Emily Byrne]: Yes. It's never been utilized. They the, stabilization reserve has a like, has to be at five percent of prior year appropriations. The rainy day fund, the balance reserve has a statutory maximum like a goal of five percent of prior year appropriations. It's not at five percent of prior year appropriations. So there is some if that one were to get used, there's no requirement to automatically refill that one. The human services caseload reserve, similar. I think if it gets used, there's not the same requirement that it automatically gets back billed. Right? It would depend on [Chair Robin Scheu]: what's you use it for, I think. John? It just has [Wayne Laroche]: a reminder because we talked about this some about Friday here, but what would be the level of prostate we might experience from the federal government to treaters to come back, perhaps redo a portion? [Emily Byrne]: Right. I think it's four percent of prior year of the rep of the January of the it'll be the July e board's adopted revenue forecast that would trigger. [Chair Robin Scheu]: The governor can call us back Right. Anytime. With or without a trigger. Right. But that trigger, that would be a like, definitely, you're coming back, I guess. [Emily Byrne]: And then sort of there was another I think representative even mentioned the sort of bond rating and all that stuff. Right? I think any utilization of the reserves would, you know, be something that the rating agencies would look at in terms of, like, is there one of the things that my understanding that helps us with our bond rating is that we have these reserves and that we are very judicious about when they get used and for what purpose, the extent that that means they haven't been used at all. Right? It means that they're there for that you know, when they're really truly needed. So I think two things would probably happen. There'd be a you know, we wouldn't be we'd be one of fifty states and six territories in DC that would be subject to having to deal with this. Right? So it would be a sort of a national thing that rating agencies would be looking at across the country. Also, it would sort of just depend on what the plan was in terms of how it impacted the rating terms of, like, would how would it get back how would it get rebuilt when all that sort of stuff would play out over the next couple years? Sort of using those funds, you know, like, does raise questions by the rating agencies, and it's something that they would look at and examine in terms of how they you know, what they would publish [Chair Robin Scheu]: for the next credit rating for the state. [Wayne Laroche]: Thanks. [Emily Byrne]: The only other to be thorough, the there is one other reserve, the famous two thousand seven hundred and fifty three reserve, [Chair Robin Scheu]: which we are moving, [Emily Byrne]: I think, dollars five million to next year. Right? That one is really just specifically for the liability of the twenty seventh payroll when that happens every twelve years, and then the fifty third week of Medicaid, which happens every five to six years. But that money is specifically dedicated for that. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So it just smooths it all out. So it's the same amount every year, and we don't suddenly have to pay thirty five dollars, whatever it is Yeah. Once every seven years. We're just doing that. So right. [Emily Byrne]: And right now, that has [Chair Robin Scheu]: at the [Emily Byrne]: end of fiscal twenty five, it's projected to have fourteen million dollars in it. You're gonna add this budget contemplates adding another five point seven. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So it came to about twenty at [Emily Byrne]: the end of f y twenty six. And I can't remember when the next So this is pay period. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Should be about the closeout and how we wanna do it and signaling that it's our intent to have some money to be used in the event of things happening, federal funding. Okay. You feel alright with that? Does that make sense? Alright. Is there any speculation or any assessment of what the worst case scenario might be? Worst case scenario is we lose three point one billion dollars. We don't have any debt. Mhmm. That's a different so we figured out a rabbit hole of what if they reduce these rates here? What if they change the match here? What if they and [John Kascenska]: So, you know, like, we we talked about hospitals and whatever, how much they should have in reserve. Does does the amount that we have in reserve seem like a reasonable amount if someone decides to take government? [Chair Robin Scheu]: Well, it normally is. Right. But that's that's why we have this closed out language proposing this closed out language so that in the event that, you know, some of the worst happens, then we have access to funds. Okay. So it sounds like we can go with this language. Not hearing otherwise. So thank you, Grady. Mhmm. And we will since we're speaking of reserves, Jim met with, joint fiscal office and Bryn Hair and Reb Kornheiser to talk about the joint fiscal committee, and e board language that we looked at on Friday. I'm sure you've all memorized it. But, anyway, there's some tweaks that are gonna come to that, and we will get a piece of language to take a look at. So I'm not sure quite when that's gonna be this afternoon, but it'll be this afternoon. And I think everybody's come to agreement on that. And if all those people change the agreement, I'm inclined to come to agreement with the rest of them. So we'll see what that says. So that's what we did on Friday. And so Jim, as you all know, did some work over the weekend. And [Wayne Laroche]: I I was trying to get at least me to a guess. Maybe Wayne as well. You might have helped move forward. I do appreciate I mean, we all yes. We all we look at things very differently. That includes me as a House Republican in the area I represent. That includes, you know, the governor's administration who look at things differently, and all of you look at things differently. So it's not easy to break that needle sometimes. But having said that, when they left Friday, I think, was concerned about a couple things. One was the money that was reduced in the state's attorney budget as proposed. There were six hundred and fifty thousand vacancies that which they said they didn't have, which means they would have to actually reduce some staff to accomplish that and not replace the line item. And my personal feeling, I think Wayne agrees that we need all hands on decks with public safety. And if we don't have state's attorneys that they've already got a huge backlog, and we need to at least maintain. They had asked, obviously, for a number of new positions on top of this and that's just getting them the cards set down. So I proposed putting the six hundred fifty thousand dollars back into their budget. I also had had some communication with the criminal justice council, which had a number of apps like everyone else with new positions and whatnot. But one that struck me that was perhaps relatively easy to do was a canine trainer. They do canine training for police dogs and whatnot which can be extraordinarily valuable when they're doing search and rescue, hunting for someone that's going through the woods, whatever. And, currently, because they don't have in the budget for a position for that, they use an outside contractor, and that cost them seventy five thousand dollars for, you know, one session for part of the year. And as a result, even the state police, which need this training, have been, my understanding, almost using services training down in Connecticut. So there's some potential signals that I can't identify what they are with the state police on the board. But anyhow, so they're spending seventy five thousand. The position we estimate all including, we go at one fifteen. So there's a forty thousand dollar gap, but that would give us year round training, which they believe they're moving. I think it ultimately will save some money to state police. So I put forty thousand back at the criminal justice council, and then, you know, the good bank because it was the end of the day and because we ran out of money, we only had five hundred thousand dollars in that Vermont feeding Vermonters budget, and I was going back to a request early on in the session where they had an app store of one point seven five million of base funding in the emergency management We formed a more formal partnership. We have an emergency that they're they're on call with necessarily food, water, whatever else they need to do. Obviously, it would continue to help their operations. So I, you know, couldn't come up with one point seven five, so I put five hundred thousand dollars towards that. And then to offset because we did add [Chair Robin Scheu]: So the total of that was Total [Wayne Laroche]: I'm sorry. The total of that was one point one nine million one million one hundred and ninety thousand dollars of addition. And reductions, I I have a a short list. As you might remember, we are way behind in our radios and number of radios and state police are are having issues. So they had the administration had put nine hundred and twenty thousand twenty nine five in addition to an ongoing base funding so that we don't get in the situation again. And I trimmed that by a hundred and twenty thousand. So public safety may not be happy with me on that point, but I think that was a doable number. We would still have eight hundred thousand in that area with one nine plus the ongoing base budget. And then I as I shared last week, I I not sure it's the place for state government to be funding private business organizations, however more they they were. And I've got a pass with running a business trading association, and I would have loved state money to help PT overhead, but I just have a I hang up on that. But understanding that people wanna help this, I I reduced that two hundred and fifty thousand by fifty thou so two hundred thousand is still it's been a little bit smaller and change, and it's still, I think, beneficial to that group. The large part of the money that I needed sorry what I was saying. I took from the two hundred million dollars that we allocated to that freedom and unity scholarship program. I talked to John at Sensta, who was VSAC, and and from his conversations with feedback, he said that if we started with a million and a half that while it wasn't the initial five million they were asking for, it would enable the program to get up and going. And if we could do more in the future, we can. And then the last thing was the baseline numbers balance. Sorry, Tiff. We reduced the the embedded commissions in the pediatric offices by twenty thousand. So we ended up with the same total of one million hundred and ninety thousand dollars. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Thanks for working on that for the weekend, Jim. People have questions, comments, anything you wanna say about that? I'm not happy. I think that was the last one called because I probably you probably knew I wasn't. Well, I [Wayne Laroche]: think that was the first one. No. Tim asked me about it here. I mean, you know, the goal here was to get started with something that we don't have here. Let's talk about Visa trunk to an end here clearly. I was in the Visa proposal here. That's what we discussed. Yeah. You know, I haven't discussed that directly with VSAC here, but they know that, you know, we're still kind of playing with some numbers here for sure. Right. And I gave them a little bit of a heads up that things might change just depending on what other homework Jim was doing here over the weekend. Yeah. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Can I go back over a couple of things? What for public safety, he's cut [Emily Byrne]: out You have to go spreadsheet? [Chair Robin Scheu]: Yeah. They can spreadsheet. I have to go. I have a spreadsheet from Jim. No. I can send that to you. [Emily Byrne]: Okay. [Wayne Laroche]: It's there was a a a one time where do I have one time? It is. It had nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars for the jump start the radio. But they have line nine on the spreadsheet that have a little bit of portable radio equipment. They have a lot of radios that are [Chair Robin Scheu]: I understand. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't have any concern about putting money toward, like, the state's attorneys Yeah. Or any of these things. I'm just trying to figure out what the number part what didn't you do with the nine nine twenty? [Wayne Laroche]: I I I shaved it by a hundred and twenty thousand. So So it's a hundred. Total would be if we accept this, would be eight hundred thousand. And and I'll just add, I mean, none of us would come with the same budget Right. BluePrint if we were doing them individually. And I certainly have just left my brothers would make other changes. But, you know, at the end of the day, I was trying to get to a point that a couple of us harder to please people would get on board. So and I did feel the state's attorney's department in particular was very important. So I don't expect everybody to love every piece of what I put down. Just trying to get forward. I in spite of the fact that it's very easy to meet both of them, I did wanna get to a yes. [Chair Robin Scheu]: This will get me there? Mhmm. Okay. [James Harrison]: The professional deployed network was a as recommended by the administration. Mhmm. [Wayne Laroche]: Did you reach out to anybody, an advocate or a member of the network [James Harrison]: or their board of directors to discuss a potential cut? No. So So it's just [Wayne Laroche]: because it was there. Yes. This is money from my understanding. No. It's taken granted money in the past, but okay. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Travis? [Trevor Squirrell]: Yeah. Just a comment. I appreciate Representative Harrison putting this together. Sean can get us to a place where hopefully we can all agree. I agree with Jim that if we individually had to go away in presentation on this, it might look a [Wayne Laroche]: little different for all of us. [Trevor Squirrell]: But I'm okay with this. I'm particularly glad to see us do something for the state's attorneys. It's growing into a significant issue, and I think that's a really good addition to [Wayne Laroche]: the budget. So thank you. Jim mentioned that too too. We can't afford to lose the capital reduced. Yeah. Let's see. Yeah. Conversation. Great. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Any other comments, Lynn? I sent that to you. Okay. Sheets. Yeah. So alright. So if I don't hear well, I just [Emily Byrne]: wanna oh, I just wanna let people know that I talked with the health care committee, [Speaker 7 ]: chair and just broached the the cut made to the embedded clinicians. And, you know, and that's it it's twenty thousand dollars, and that is [Chair Robin Scheu]: that she is okay with that. So alright. So in that case, what I recommend we do is we in a minute, we'll go up live, Emily will print new spreadsheets. We'll take a look at that, And then we will have spreadsheets, a web report, and language, and then we all get to go in and read something. Lynn. Can I just ask one question? All of these changes are one time? If it's on the one time list, it's one time. You have to look at what the heading is on the spreadsheet you're looking at. Oh, then this this stuff. Discuss the Yes. I believe. All our time. No. Maybe they're not. [James Harrison]: Bank is based. [Chair Robin Scheu]: Bank is based. Sorry. [Wayne Laroche]: Yeah. Maybe they are. The criminal justice counsel is based. Obviously, the state's attorney is in their base, but the vacancy is safe. [Chair Robin Scheu]: And everything else is happening? One time. One time. [Wayne Laroche]: But as we heard in the past few weeks, there's a fair amount of one time that there's there's A lot of actually in the page that that [Chair Robin Scheu]: would use For one time expenditures. Right. About seventy million of page So in some respects is [Wayne Laroche]: for this year, it doesn't matter what column or the name of the future, but for now it doesn't. Okay. [Chair Robin Scheu]: So I'm gonna check with Emily Byrne. Is two thirty, two thirty five what time do you want us to back then? Two more time. You tell your thirty.

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