Much, including education funding, still unsettled in Legislature

We’re about halfway through the legislative session, and we still don’t have a solid plan for education funding. We’re unclear about when and how losing federal funds will impact Vermonters, and there’s a battle in the State House over the Budget Adjustment Act because certain people think it’s OK to put children and pregnant women out on the streets.

My dear friend often quotes her grandmother, who, when asked, would say, “I’m fine. F-I-N-E. Fine!” even if her hair was on fire or her cat had just died.

This is how I feel about the past couple weeks at work. We’re fine! Everything is fine! Have several people, including myself, made Titanic references? Sure. But we’re plugging away and hoping to resolve some things shortly.

So, education funding and the new system are still very much unknown. There are senators unveiling plans and the education committees are working away at going through the governor’s bill and coming up with alternatives or taking testimony on how those processes would affect Vermont kids. It’s taking a long time. As it should. I don’t think any of us want to rush through this — it’s huge and complicated with a lot of moving parts, and any hasty decision-making could have major impacts on our kids. And in my opinion, the kids and their education should be at the top of the priority list, and anything that comes after that is secondary.

The Budget Adjustment Act, which we call the BAA, is the mid-year spending adjustment bill where we adjust expenses and budget asks. For instance, interestingly enough, the Department of Liquor and Lottery is making less than anticipated, so they needed more money from somewhere else to make sure they can meet their budgetary needs for the year. Fun fact: Since cannabis was legalized, the Department of Liquor and Lottery income is lower, because often in states where cannabis is legal, people drink less.

The one sticking point for the governor is the hotel/motel program. It’s not a great program (I’ve discussed it in this column before), but it’s what we have at the moment. As it stands, on April 1, over 400 people will be homeless, including 161 children. The administration doesn’t want to continue these programs, and wants to cut the $1.8 million in funding and vetoed the Budget Adjustment Act because of that.

That amount of money is minuscule compared to the entire budget. Homeless kids sleeping in tents, pregnant women, people with disabilities. You’re not living in a motel because everything is going great for you, so why we have to start saving money by kicking kids out of their beds is beyond me. I’m hoping he will come around soon. Feel free to let him know how you feel.

One last little check-in: The town charter passed here in Charlotte, and the next step is to bring it to legislative counsel (our lawyers) and they will draft a bill that creates the charter for the town of Charlotte. The next part is the tricky part. I will present it to my committee and explain to them why Charlotters wanted it and needed it, and it will likely go nowhere.

As much as I would like to tell everyone what to do and make them do it, I don’t think it’s going to get very far at this point. The HOMES Act, the law that we are trying to partially exempt ourselves from, just went into effect a couple months ago, and I don’t believe that anyone in my committee or in the Legislature is going to feel comfortable exempting one town from a fairly major provision of that bill because we don’t want to have to comply. Saying yes to us would mean we’d have to say yes to everyone, and then that would negate the point of the law in the first place.

I understand why it’s important to people, and I will do my very best to advocate for you all, but the reality is that this will probably sit there on the wall for a while.

Email me If you have any questions or 917-887-8231.