Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Good afternoon. This is the House Appropriations Committee. It is Thursday, 03/19/2026. It's about 01:15PM, and we are back at top about, age nine thirty eight, which is the homelessness prevention continuum bill. I'm probably calling it the wrong thing, but that's the And Kara Wood from Human Services is back with more specific numbers than we had when we first heard the bill that was still being discussed. And so now they've been discussed. These are kind of hot off the press. So yeah, Kara Wood. Literally.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Good afternoon. Theresa Wood, chair of House Unum Services. So as you went through the bill previously, this, what you're looking at now, is referencing section 14 of the bill, which is on expenditures. And just to refresh people's memories, we're not appropriating it in this bill, but we are outlining where the expenditures will happen. It'll be appropriated in your budget, in the general assembly's budget.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: We because the governor has it in the budget as well. So you're rearranging his same numbers,

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: but the total is the same. Exactly. The total is the exact same as the governor has in his budget. However, in discussions with the agency of human services this morning, we have reached a tentative agreement on how those things will be broken out for FY 'twenty seven. So FY 'twenty seven, it will be a transition year that will still stick within the governor's budget, but will be looking at items, being spent, in a combination of the new way and the, current way. And the current way, for folks who might not be aware, there's really two line items to be aware of. And that is HOP. If you're looking at the governor's budget, it's under HOP. And that's in the Office of Economic Opportunity. And it's under GA, Emergency Housing. And that's in the Economic Services Division. So what this will encompass is this program is created in the Office of Economic Opportunity and includes all services, which you have already gone through the bill, so I don't need to do that for you. But this breaks it out. And there were certain things that we agreed to allow flexibility during this transition year that could be under the existing structure of the housing opportunity program and allow some flexibility within those line items. And there were certain line items that we wanted to specifically see spelled out here. And so what we are looking at are the You can disregard the thing that's in yellow. What we are looking at here is our committee will be doing an amendment to further delineate the sections where the money will be spent. And we will be proposing specific appropriations for shelter development for the use of hotels and motels that align with the bill as it's written right now, for rental assistance program through the Vermont State Housing Authority, for municipal grants and emergency cold weather. Those are things that we have agreed need to be enumerated. The rest are going to be in a more flexible manner, such as exists right now in the HOP program. So it will include shelter operations. It includes case management. It includes flexible supports. All the kinds of things that we see in the regular housing opportunity program now. So this is the administration's They acknowledge, first off, that these numbers may shift a little bit. We'll continue to work on this amendment over the next twenty four hours. But I wanted the committee to be able to see not only the big number, the $82,000,000 number, but in close approximation where those funds would be spent next year. So one, this is providing more detail than you would ordinarily have. Ordinarily, you just have those two line items. And we are saying that we needed a bit more detail than just those two line items. Okay? Now, do need to make a decision. There's a decision point to be made because the original numbers did not have essentially the administrative costs, there was a miscalculation on the hotels and motels. And so they have provided options for that in terms of where they think that potential exists. That's the bottom of the demo.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: I'm looking at the spreadsheet that Brendan sent

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: in your email. Yeah, it has

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: a 3,500,000.0 Are you putting $4,000,000 more or $3,500,000 more than what the government recommends in this thing?

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: It's not what I am doing. There was a miscalculation. So these numbers will be adjusted,

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: is what I'm saying, to accomplish what government So

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: the public's living within the governor's budget?

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Yes. So there will not be an increase in general funding?

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: There will not be any increase in what is being proposed. And as you can see in the governor's recommend, this is where they are proposing that the resort I don't know why they included the potential Wood Amendment on there. Because we sent them a memo earlier, as you can see on the bottom, just asking for the breakout of these items that we agreed to break out. And so you can honestly just disregard that piece at this point in time, and to be looking at, the governor's recommend. Now, one thing I think that we need clarification on is, in the hotel's line item, they have fewer dollars than is represented in the bill in terms of the number of hotel rooms. And I don't know the reason why, and I can't tell the calculation because they didn't send us the spreadsheet. But I will be working with Nolan to understand that and to get more clarification. So what I want to assure you is that it is only going to be $82,634,153 And you will see an amendment that will also come to you. Just literally, as I sat down, is when we got this. So I have not had an opportunity to prepare the amendment yet, which will come back to you because it has appropriations. It has expenditures in it. So you'll be able to see the written document. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Yes, we will get a real spreadsheet.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: You'll a amendment with real dollar amounts in real categories.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: And we'll have to wait tomorrow.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Yeah, absolutely. Only if

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: you want the program to go.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Absolutely. That we care. Absolutely.

[Unidentified Member of House Appropriations Committee]: Yeah, back in the text of the bill language on page 36. Any funds that remain unspent at the end of the fiscal year 2027 shall be carried forward for the same purpose. I have a problem, given all the things that we're dealing with budgets and given the fluid nature of this whole COVID, having that as automatic carry forward seems problematic to me.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: I'm I'm just double checking. I think that's supposed to say '26, FY 26 b on page 36.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Sorry.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: I understand that it's a policy decision that we're making, but

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: what the bill says.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: So Madam Chair, how would you like to handle this? So obviously, you're going to see an amendment to the bill. And we now need to get to work on finalizing these numbers and get an amendment to you. Right. Committee has to look at it first.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Yeah. So we will not be voting on I wasn't sure we were going vote on it today, and I didn't think we were. But So we need you to come back tomorrow when you have the amendment and the numbers, and then we can vote on the whole bill.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: Yes. Okay. Is that enough, Cindy? Does that help you? I'm just wanting to make sure that we were on the same page. Yes. Yes.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Yes. Go ahead, Barb. When you come back with your amendment and your numbers, not necessarily the amendment itself, it would be helpful, however, if you would break out the numbers by the level one, two, three and four, which is shown in the amendment, because we talk about this kind of stuff and that kind of service and this kind of service.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: In the future, that will happen. For FY 'twenty seven, as a transition year, that is not going to happen. I can put beside the ones where it is. So, like the hotel motels is level five. I could put that. But that really is the sort of only Well, rental assistance, that's a separate The only one that's a level on here is hotel motels. Because they really ask for more flexibility during this transition year, which we really intended to have, because This is a new way of thinking, and they need to work with providers to adjust to this new way of thinking. We're moving the whole program into OEO. That's another transition. And I think it was justifiable transition year when you're making such a significant change.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: So the level one, I guess I should look at the language of the bill. Is the level one, two, three, four referred to 'twenty eight?

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: That will be fully implemented in 'twenty eight. Thank

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: you. Any other questions for Chair Wood? Thank you for the update. I know you've been working hard on this and trying to get us to a place where the numbers match and everybody's in agreement, and then we can go ahead. We're keeping the '82. We're keeping the money in the budget the governor had put in. It's sort of going to be a matter of where it ends up and goes in the budget. Thank you very much.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: I appreciate Thank so much. And I will work with Legg Council and JFO to see if we can get you something first thing. Yes. I know you've got a lot on your

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Yeah, at least we know the dollars for the budget.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: It's not changing.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: So you've

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: got the work

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: to do to figure that part out.

[Rep. Theresa Wood (Chair, House Human Services Committee)]: I appreciate that. All righty, thank you.

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: Okay, thank you. So, committee, we got two more bills today. One is already on our schedule, the Dana Vogers, H2-eleven. And we also got a miscellaneous Ed bill, which is nine thirty one. I guess we're not going to hear that at nine. All right. I don't know if we're going to hear the miscellaneous Ed bill today or tomorrow. That the last one that's coming to us? It is. Okay, so Housewives and Means has done their job and voted everything out. It's never been. The last they're coming to us, so we'll work that out. Isn't that nice? Isn't it amazing? I know. So we are going to vote on two bills this afternoon. Do we have people having to come in to talk to us about them? All right, so what if we we're going to do a possible we're going to do a vote on I'm thinking of moving it up the calendar just a little bit, but not necessarily till eleven, but Otherwise, we're doing it at 02:15. This thing took a lot less time than I thought. So why don't we can we start this at 01:45 instead of at 02:15? And I'll give you a few minutes to look at the three bills again that we're just going to vote on. It's the prescription drug discount program, the dam safety program, and the bottle bill. Not supposed to say that. The extended That

[Unidentified Member of House Appropriations Committee]: has no agenda. So which numbers?

[Robin Scheu (Chair, House Appropriations Committee)]: They're in the agenda. It's five seventy seven, seven seventy eight, and nine fifteen. Some of those will affect the budget. We've sort of accounted for within the budget. While we're on a break, I'm going to chat a little bit with joint fiscal. Based on our conversations that I've had with each of you, I'm going to do a couple of tweaks to the budget, and they're to put together a draft spreadsheet. It's still not final, but going to make some changes. Not huge changes, but a few little changes. And then we can take a look at that. And then that will be the one, still draft that we can make public later on this afternoon. That's what I'm thinking about for right now. So this is $1.45. 01/1945. So you have about 50