Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. Welcome back, everyone. It's a little bit before 04:00.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We're gonna spend a little bit more time going through our budget work that we were doing a little earlier in the afternoon. Take off going line by line. Let's see. We ended with, the Vermont State Police conversation, and there was, we had to send an email out to the committee, kind of clarifying how that process was working as far as the special fund that was referenced, but we can come back to that tomorrow. I just wanted to cite that email was sent out to members for review. So, thank you. Next up on the list is military administration, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, BSAC, for the National Guard Tuition Benefit Program. $1,200,000. Excuse me. And that is, you know, in my mind, my heart and soul, a very valuable program.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: It's in the guns, Rick?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Mhmm. Yep. Thumbs favorably. Alright.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And I do wanna say something about that, that when the guard does not use that tuition money, they give it right back.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yes. Okay. Which is
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Any kind. So up next, military position for April. These are for six limited service positions from the position pool for military maintenance specialist to one military building construction specialist and a military story keeper. This is seems per the notes in the governor's rec. And it's And it is federally funded. Right. So this must be some kind of just pass through or sniff through the general
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: fund. They call them cooperative agreements. A lot of these are where the federal money is. What's the word for I know that we don't wanna say, but I don't wanna say it, but where the, you know, where the money is transferred from one
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Remitted. There we go. Yep. We'll go with remitted.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: You know the word I was thinking of, but it's kinda kinda funny.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Let's say military position pool, we are looking at the table. Yes. That's Favorable. Alright. For the sake of being redundant with federal funds, we are at a military position goal for a $147,411. This is for the status component. Yep. That's same. So, that's what that is?
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yes. Positions, Rep Morgan?
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: I'm sorry.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Same six positions?
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah, it's the same identical. It's the same identical verbiage. It's just there's a match part of this what I've gathered. Matching state? No, that is not uncommon.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yes, with federal dollars, there is typically a string like that attached. Okay. So, committee, are we finding this favorable?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Yeah.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Alright. And now we are on to, Veterans Affairs, dollars 30,500. Vermont Medal Program, Veterans Advisory Council, money for Veterans Day Parade, Boys Girls State, $10,000, and EUSS Vermont Supreme, dollars. Those are common requests that come through here. It is in the go through. Questions, comments?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: No. Good and thoughtful.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Favorable thumbs. Alright. Shifting gears to an agriculture, food and markets, a $136,000, 770, administrative services manager position. And It is in the governance. It is. And that's just a breakdown of how it gets to that total sum, if I'm reading that correctly, representative? Yes. Questions or comment? Favorable thumbs? DPS, conversion of one limited service classified by an actual director to a permanent position. So this is a conversion. So this is one of those things where it's a if I'm reading this correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, committee, it was a one time funded position that's now looking to be permanently
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I think maybe we need to hear from Robert Hooper about this. Doesn't show any kind of dollar amount. Yeah, we don't have a dollar amount either.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: A question mark, let's pull that one. Department of Vermont Health Access, 09/4001 hundred and 50 four, last five positions being taken. Pool, one healthcare assistant, digital comms, business project manager, four healthcare service specialists, and five, Vermont healthcare service specialists. It is in the government's recommended, Repstone. I just saw your name was on it. Well, actually I got a hand over here from Brett as well.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: So my question is, if these positions don't get filled, then the money just goes into the surplus for the year? We don't get it back.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: What surplus?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Well, it's asking for a permanent For the end of
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: the year budget, I mean, budget surplus that year. If we don't hire one of these positions, then the money is part of the surplus?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: No, just wouldn't be included. We're discussing whether or not to recommend including the 900, just shy of a million. Right. Yep.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: So that's what we're saying. So if we we approve this and put it in the budget, and then they don't hire the digital communications specialist.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Was just saying.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Was So that money sits in there as a surplus.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Well, if we fund it and it doesn't get higher, would that fall into the vacancy savings kind of conversation?
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I think so. Yeah,
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: I think so.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Oh, there's a call, it's called a vacancy.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah, it's a
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: pool. Okay, because it's part of the pool. I was just wondering if you don't just spend that on something else because it's in the budget. That's my question.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: And so with this, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm running through this process of preference. Let's say we fully fund all these positions, they don't hire it. All of them, some of them, but not all. That proration will go into like a vacancy savings bucket, and then that gets disseminated at the end of the year through like a different budgetary process. Or BAA. Yeah. That's why it's like a different budgetary The
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: constant remaneuvering of mine.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yep.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Correct.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah, because like, yeah, just like the personnel of the positions, it's like defined as, but maybe inconsistent with people, it flow,
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah. Because you do, you always have, well, and you've got, lapse, right, is another way to call it. So, lapse of a position unfilled, three months gives you the ability to go fill potentially something out, you know, so there's always all kinds of ways you can remanuver that plane. All right.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Barring no further commentary, favorable funds?
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: All the Medicaid changes are going to
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: need these positions for people to help navigate changing landscapes.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Up next, we have Department of Corrections pre trial supervision program for $200,000 added to the prior year funding of seven positions, probation parole, Position pool. Is it a recommend? Yes, for Waters Evans.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Okay. It's not really our job to investigate this. Just FYI, I did read a news article last week. Did you all read it? About how they're not sure these programs were or as effective as they would like them to be.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Gotcha. Think the report that I read said that there wasn't as much usage of the program as they expected. The people who were using it, it was successful before. There wasn't a whole lot of usage, so there are that are available in judiciary that they're talking about this now.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: You want me to try to get anything more on it?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Something to note.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah, note for sure.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I I guess if judiciary decides that this is the way to go, regardless of what the uptake has been, then they wouldn't need those positions funded. Dollars 200,000 doesn't seem like a lot for seven permanent classifieds.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: It's additional. Adding to additional.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay. Perfect. So that's probably almost a cost of living type.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: I would say, yeah.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: They know they're
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: With change of benefits and yes, concur.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: But I think
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: to let Courtney.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Wrap Stone's point, I heard it, but if you would like to say that again, just for
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: very It's the state of the
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: program statewide is the rationale for the additional $200,000 ask. Got it. That's reasoning. What was that? Favorable funds?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: That's all right, favorable. Good with that deal? Yes. All right, cool. Oh, educational transformation unknown.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: I have reached out to my budget buddy, and he wrote back to me and said he agreed with me on the youth council and the VAN request, but he didn't answer my other questions, nobody answered him back and said, well, what about the others? And I'm not the best one. So we'll table that until I give them that.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Brad, hang on a team.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, so this was part of Act 73, I believe. And there is no known dollar amount for this. It depends on how Act 73 is implemented. So I don't know how we can really make a justification for this, except say that however it's implemented, we either support or don't support the implementation of a bill that we already passed. So we're not giving a dollar value, Kate. I know that.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We're going to hold for more information on this one, it says
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: What is that one we just say we
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: don't have recommendations? Oh, we could do a no Yeah.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: So that's going really to good, right?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Well, that's the thing, it's like I didn't know if there was pertinent information with what she was waiting on, and then we go to a no rec kind of thing. You know what I'm saying? We still have a little bit of clock, hopefully we have to
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: be
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: definitive. But my head was very much kind of in your spot with that, where this is something that it does come to us, but this is a big policy conversation that happens too well, robustly outside of the chair.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Well, next one is just technical corrections.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah, so I guess what we'll do with this, and it seems like there's another one just after these bigger education pieces don't have a dollar amount assigned to it. Want to know
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: that the transition of the current ones that are purchased and used tax last year, there's, I've heard this conversation, that's about $100,000 that they're taking away from the education fund, but it triples in value federal government matching dollars. So, they're taking the So, I don't think it affects Not giving it to anybody. There's $1 amount to this, it's just a transfer of funds allocation.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Oh, that one would be, if you're talking about the purchase Yes. That would be a transfer from purchase and use going to the Ed Fund to purchase and use going back to the fund. So, would be a watch. Just would go to a different fund.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. So, it's
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: A lot of
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: A basic way of putting it, it's like fund hopping. Yeah. So do you want to take a position on that? Because it seems like it's interesting buckets that are moving.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. Yes.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yes. Seeing favorable funds. And then next up, transitions to the current one third.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yeah.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Seems like That was the one I was just
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: talking about. Yeah, that's what
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: I thought
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: right there. Yeah, because I was looking at the technical correction, the one above. These are all I'm also
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: looking at that one.
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: There's really no need for action.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Just it's a good point of awareness.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: With The one that is the, second column now?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: No. Third. Third. Okay. Yeah.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Because I kinda blended those last two. Whoops. So with the school construction special funds, with that, I just wanna make sure I've got my notes my head correct here. We were fine with that. Okay. And then going down to the second, where we were talking about the purchase and use and the vehicle tax, we're fine with that. That's just fund swapping. Correct. Okay. So, alright. And then we are down to the BroadHigher Education Endowment Trust Fund.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Question And about that.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: How, and maybe Rep Stone can answer this, how that differs from the $15,000,000 under the UVM line item for the Higher Education Endowment Trust Fund. What kind it's not just for UVM? That's Vermont College of Post Secondary Institutions. It's not just UVM specific, whereas the first one is. And do we have a dollar value for this one?
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: No, it was established in 1999 and it's distributed $30,000,000 to date, but I don't have an exact number for it.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And it also refers back to the construction aid special fund. This is very confusing.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We can come back to that one then.
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: I don't know if there's much need for action, though. These are more just like points of information versus things.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: So it's more
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: kind of housekeeping without Correct. It being That's information that I got when I sought Information from my BudgetBuddy
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: apparently. Okay.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Were we going back to the line item above it too? The education fund?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. No. I had that down as positive.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Okay.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. And then this one, I mean, they kind of all seem like they're working in the same sort of structure. So if there's no dollar amount here Right. Wanna take a favorable position on this? Are we comfortable with a favorable position on this?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: On the Higher Education Development Trust?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Seven more minutes. Vermont Association of Planning and Development Agencies. $7,838,580 And this is for the general disbursement to those organizations statewide for regional planning commissions.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: So every regional planning commission gets a piece of this money.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Do you
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: know how it's dispersed? Is it by population or list I
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: think it's by population. I do not know the exact disbursement of it. But my guess is population because each one has a different number of towns in it. So like Essex County and Orleans, Caledonia, they have a huge RPC that has 55 towns in it, because it's very sparsely populated.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: And it is like all of the different offices operate at different levels of staff capacities, and that breakdown totally varies. But my understanding over time is, barely distributed amongst the organizations based on their. Staff size charges and duties,
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: how many do we have at stake and the. I'll just see some of their budgets considering that you're getting $7,800,000 in that House attribute as well. It's like, what are their budgets?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: They also get grant capacity for different things. They get stuff from federal government. They do a lot of work.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: We take $300,000 from that and get it to ethics.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: This is a ridiculous amount of money. Almost 8. He's not planning. When they don't stop acting.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: That's a conversation on the policy level within this legislative body. Their job within the scope of housing is to take what we do and then translate it to the communities. They're sort of a conduit for effectuating and implementing the things that we send out into the wild. So
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: the member towns only contribute 4% to my Franklin County Regional Planning Commission.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: So you only get 4% of the 7.8%?
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: No. Says that it's out of their total budget in Franklin and Grand Isle County, because it's a two county RPC, only 4% of their budget comes from the member towns. Everything else is grants or state funding.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: We've talked to that. Has anybody changed on that?
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Mean, we've got RPCs in here in several different capacities.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, sure.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: As far as the budget recommend, I mean, maybe I'm conflating with a previous biennium, but I feel like this is a he spoke to this for the organization early session.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: I have a letter. Yeah, we got a little letter. It's the Yeah, in the body.
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: Just handling increased complexity and demands for small municipalities like professional planners, managers, grant writers, brownfields cleanup, housing and development and infrastructure act two fifty reforms and emergency preparedness, and energy planning are some of the things that they will be directing these funds to.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: That sounds like what I understand their roles today.
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: In the future, I think it would be helpful when people, and I'm saying this for myself, as somebody who had a $15,000,000 budget asked from UVM, if somebody's just asking for that much money, maybe it'd be helpful to get some itemized,
[Lucy Boyden (Clerk)]: some of the things that
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: they're asking for for all of my time, just so that we're not getting stuck on this. So,
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: we do have a letter from ABDA, from Devin Neary, who I think testified for one reason or another. And much of this is a loss of FEMA emergency management funding. Oh, that's interesting and good to know. I'm trying to see if he also included,
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: So why don't we cut that volume and import it to some? Me see if the Frank finds Yeah. We're on.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Sandy and I are smoothing figures around. Don't worry.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: The budget language that's referenced. It's a wrong, incorrect reference.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: So maybe we put that in the waiting pile for tomorrow. What
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: do you want to find out more about on that? And I can see if I can find out something more. If
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: we are supplementing lost female money, how much is that? Is there any other federal money that they are not getting next year that we're covering or that they're anticipating not getting that we're covering with that? And I guess that's all what I wanted to know too. Alright, Katherine, did you have other questions?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: I'd like to see what lenders I'd like to see their overall budget.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Oh, that's it, the 7.8 whatever. So what specifically do you want to see? The budget has each be RPC?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Well, the budget has to be for that because this 7,000,000 doesn't include the grants they're getting. It doesn't include what they're getting from the town's contributions.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay, I see what you're So
[VL Coffin IV (Member)]: what's their budget? 15,000,000?
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And then would you like to know how it's split up? Yes.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: Okay.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Sorry. I'll hold on this one. Then next up, then I'll be conscious of time, but auditor.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: This is above. So this is above what the governor's giving out, 286,000. We don't know what he needs the additional money for, just that it's above administration.
[Lucy Boyden (Clerk)]: We did get a letter from them and a spreadsheet, which I believe is posted to our community page number. So they have 16 positions and 12 auditors. There's no significant changes. They have no federal funds. The position change that that they switched an exempt position to a classified senior auditor, that's currently being recruited. There are $70,000 in carry forward funds. If you look at the spreadsheet, it's personnel, so it makes up for that need.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: I'm all for it.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay.
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: Some of these things you have questions about.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: I can put that as a yes with broadly favorable.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Slightly papercloth. Just
[Kate Nugent (Member)]: see Otter here.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: That's when he knows. The Otter. Arbuna Library is 3.9. And that is increase of 98. I
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: was just gonna say it looks like the notes column reason for ask column got swapped. Okay. Because it says it was less than $100,000 from last year.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yep.
[Mary-Katherine Stone (Member)]: And that's in the governor's recommended. I like a library.
[Michael Morgan (Member)]: Public infrastructure.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Favorable thumbs. Libraries. Favorable thumbs on libraries. Let's muscle through this last page. Vermont State Youth Council, $140,000. We just those students last week.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yes. And I believe appropriations is in favor of it. Or to my budget, buddy.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Favorable times?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: K. Repenting funds.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We're on a council on rural development. $500,000, coordinated services, delivery systems.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: So we heard that testimony the other day from Jessica Savage and Danny Smith on the screen. And that was specifically for, and I'm gonna make a note on this urinal municipal assistance. And it's a one time mask. And again, this may help with individual towns who, for instance, have lost funding in certain areas and don't know where to go to look for help.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: And then also I think this plays into that conversation around the admissions.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Did they send us budgets? Yes. Yes,
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: there was a request to post it. And they were with us just last week, we actually have a representative sitting at the gallery right now. Do you like a moment to address the whole line item?
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Sure. Yeah, please. Great. Denise Smith,
[Lucy Boyden (Clerk)]: I'm the executive director of
[VL Coffin IV (Member)]: the Vermont Councilor Lovall. And I was on screen last time, so I wasn't here in person. Nice to see you all. This is a one time funding to really help support and continue the municipal technical assistance work that we had been doing over the last few years. That money is sunsetting.
[Denise Smith (Executive Director, Vermont Council on Rural Development)]: And we got a lot of momentum going. Most of this money, twothree of it, would go directly to towns in very flexible grant appropriations. So that's what we're hoping for. And I think the budget was up $300,000 to small grants, towns like Newport or Sutton or whoever is applying. So we're hoping to use this money as a bridge between the MTAP ending and creating more support for rural towns around the state. We don't want to lose the momentum. And so that's why we're here this year asking for this. The Virta report came out. And so we're basically responding to what the Vermont Evaluation of Rural Technical Assistance report is recommending, which was done through the Department of Housing and Community Development.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: I mean, I personally, in light of the moment and the needs of that, I'm parapropos to the recommendation.
[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Thank you very much so. Yes,
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: looks like favorable puns. Thank you for being with us.
[Denise Smith (Executive Director, Vermont Council on Rural Development)]: Thank you for having us.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Alright. Folks, that leaves us with just a page and a smidge of a surplus with a couple of circle backs. We identified some time tomorrow. This process going.
[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And we do want to say that there's a blank spaces. We need to fill in.
[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: We're meeting this thirty tomorrow afternoon. Yeah. And then we also added the 02:45 to revisit the Wi Fi on that replacement component. Yeah. Adjust one adjustment to our scale. Anything else? Alright. Good work, everyone. There's a lot of moving parts today. Very helpful. That's a wrap. So, we'll be back up tomorrow morning at 9AM, still live, at, 9AM for our joint hearing on cannabis. And that's going to be in Room 11. We will be meeting in Room 11 tomorrow morning at 9AM on last year. Alright, thank you.