Vermont Governor Phil Scott held his first post-veto session press briefing today. The Republican and administration officials focused on a bill that passed during the veto session to continue support for a homeless housing program that allowed his budget veto to be overridden.
Governor Scott says the overrides by the Democratic supermajority legislature will cost Vermonters hundreds of millions in new taxes, fess, penalties and spending in the coming years.
“One of those bills I vetoed was the state budget which was because of a $20 million unnecessary increase in DMV fees and a 13 percent increase in annual spending. Unfortunately the legislature wasn’t interested in addressing those concerns but after a political flare up at the end of the session they were interested in discussing the pandemic housing program. Now what was interesting about the housing bill, H.171 which I signed today, was that for the first and only time this session legislative leaders were willing to negotiate with us and pass a bill that gave us tools to ease this transition and address the issue of permanent housing at the same time.”
H.171 adjusts and extends the pandemic-era hotel-motel program that was intended to temporarily house the homeless. Agency of Human Services Secretary Jenney Samuelson outlined the changes to the program that will be implemented as a result of the new law.
“This is a collaborative effort between the administration and the legislature to better serve Vermonters in the General Assistance Housing Program by connecting them with services and supports and not just rooms. We have 1,214 individuals who are currently in the hotel and motel program. At the end of this month, we’ll be determining eligibility. Each room in the program right now is costing an average of $153 per night. It’s important to note that Vermont has a housing shortage making this matter more difficult for us to resolve. Even when a household needs services paired with units, the units don’t simply exist.”
Scott says he knew that if he and legislative leaders successfully negotiated the housing bill, his budget veto would be overridden.
“It wasn’t lost on me that I was working against myself. But at the end of the day, it was the right thing to do because we know we need housing. You know we have a crisis on our hands and we need to do everything we can to forward that. And I saw an opportunity for us to get some of the provisions that we’ve been actively pursuing during the legislative session but were unsuccessful in doing and accomplishing. Many of those were cut from some of their bills. So I thought it was a good opportunity for us to get more of what we needed, more tools to provide assistance and for them to get what they needed as well.”
The legislature passed a bill during the regular session to implement zoning reforms in order to increase the availability of housing across the state. The bill passed during the veto session advances the effective date for those reforms from December 2024 to July 1, 2023 to accelerate construction and availability of available units.
