Vermont Governor Phil Scott delivered his budget address to a joint session of the Legislature Tuesday, focusing on affordability, demographics and education costs.
Scott, a Republican, started his address by saying the legislature should take inspiration from the UVM men’s soccer championship team’s hard work and discipline to reach a goal.
He then told the joint session that the $9 billion budget he is presenting follows through on his commitment to Vermonters to fix the education system and make the state affordable.
“Taxpayers also made it clear they want us to fix broken systems not just fund them. So I’ll forward four bills that address housing, public safety, education and affordability to improve in each of these areas,” Scott told legislators. “Focusing on these issues is critical to improving our demographics, which alongside making Vermont more affordable, has to be at the center of everything we do.”
Scott’s budget would fully fund the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board with nearly $37 million to continue investments in affordable housing across the state. He will also provide funds for what was intended to be a temporary pandemic program to help house the homeless.
“My budget also dedicates over $30 million, which is among the largest one-time allocations we’ll make, for what’s known as our Hotel-Motel program. But I want to be clear. This is funding, not fixing the problem,” cautioned Scott.
Scott told legislators that Vermont’s children are not getting what they deserve from the $2.4 billion the state currently spends on education. His administration is proposing sweeping changes and his budget provides funding to the Agency of Education and school districts to help with a four-year transition. Scott cautioned that if they fail the state will revert to escalating education costs.
“We had a historic increase in education costs last year. And here we go again, because we are facing another 6% increase in property tax bills. So, while we fix the education system, we can also use $77 million in General Fund to eliminate this year’s projected property tax increase. But folks are hurting, so that’s not enough. We should provide some much-needed relief with a $13.5 million tax reduction package,” Scott said.
Responding to the presentation, Democratic House Speaker Jill Krowinski said she heard many areas where they can work with the governor to make the state more affordable.
“I was glad to hear about how we can make sure our kids get the best education at a price we can afford. I think we have some common ground that we can find on housing. I am disappointed though that we didn’t hear more on health care,” Krowinski said. “We know that health care is one of the main drivers for affordability in this state. That is just a critical piece. For us this session it’s about education. It’s about health care and it’s about housing. Those are our key priorities.”
Governor Scott made no mention of federal action to pause all grant funding. Speaker Krowinski said they are working with the Congressional delegation and the actions are so recent that there is considerable uncertainty as to potential impacts.
