MONTPELIER — Legislative leaders released a list Tuesday of the kinds of cuts they would consider if members of the House and Senate don’t want to raise $24 million in new revenues to help close next year’s budget gap.
“It’s easy to say ‘cut, cut, cut,’” said Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille. “Our job right now is to have these reductions become real to people.”
The list of potential cuts she handed out included closing all rest areas, fish hatcheries and historic sites, reducing days of operation at courts and the Department of Motor Vehicles, suspending a mentoring program and the Next Generation scholarships, closing a prison and cutting services to the elderly and disabled.
In all, Bartlett presented 16 ways to save $40.48 million to the House Ways and Means Committee — a panel charged with deciding by Friday how to raise $24 million.
“If we don’t raise $24 million, these are the possibilities,” Bartlett said. “I don’t think anybody wants to make these kinds of reductions.”
Dennise Casey, spokeswoman for Gov. Jim Douglas, criticized the list as a scare tactic.
“I think it is disingenuous to suggest that our only options are to implement the cuts on this list or impose massive income tax increases on struggling families,” Casey said.
The governor has argued that tough decisions about spending are the solution to the budget crisis. “Do we need to tax Vermonters more to solve this problem?” asked Secretary of Administration Neale Lunderville. “The governor strongly believes ‘no.’”
In another room in the Statehouse, a mother and her disabled daughter joined a crowd of 75 who came to put real faces in front of lawmakers as they consider decisions that could affect services for the developmentally disabled.
Erika Nestor of Burlington said state-funded services, including a full-time aide, enable her 5-year-old daughter, Zoe, to live at home. “We can try to have a normal family life with an extremely non-normal situation.”
“People like Zoe can’t take cuts to their services,” said Marie Zura, director of developmental services at the Howard Center. “We are here today because we are concerned we are going to be funded $1.8 million less than we need.”
Belt-tightening this year already led to the elimination of 178 positions in the network of agencies that provide mental health and developmental services.
“There should be no sacred cows during these difficult budgetary times,” said Ken Libertoff, executive director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health. “At the same time, no sector, particularly a vital health care sector, should be impacted in a way that dismantles important systems of care or rips holes in the state’s public mental health and developmental services safety net.”
House Appropriations Chairwoman Martha Heath, D-Westford, acknowledged later Tuesday that making decisions about funding for programs such as developmental services “is one of the heart-wrenching challenges of this.”
Her committee has been closeted in its meeting room, trying to wrap up work on its budget plan by Monday — a budget that assumes $24 million in new revenues and still requires $28 million in cuts.
Half the cuts are to come through reductions in labor expenses such as eliminating jobs or reducing pay and benefits. Heath said lawmakers should let state workers and the Douglas administration negotiate the details of these reductions.
The Vermont State Employees Association is expected to announce a response today to the administration’s most recent proposal, which included 320 job cuts or a 5-percent pay cut and an increase in the workers’ share for health insurance.
To achieve the remaining $14 million in savings the budget-writing committee is looking at base-funding for all kinds of services. Heath said Tuesday it was still too early to detail where the cuts would be made.
“They keep backing away from any cuts that are proposed,” complained House Republican Leader Patti Komline. “In four days, this thing is supposed to be out. Sooner or later they are going to have to jump into that pool.”
Rep. Philip Winters, R-Williamstown, a Ways and Means member, questioned how the tax-writing panel could make a decision about the need for new revenues without knowing the full budget picture.
“We should be looking at not only this list,” he said, pointing to the sheet Bartlett handed out. “We should know what they are doing upstairs in the Appropriations Committee.”
Legislative leaders are pushing House committees to make most of their big money decisions by the end of this week or Monday to keep the Legislature on a schedule that would lead to adjournment by May 8.
In the interim, you may call any of these representatives at 1-800-322-5616 to learn more:
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS (Room 42)
Representative Heath of Westford, Chair
Representative Larson of Burlington, Vice-Chair
Representative Helm of Castleton
Representative Acinapura of Brandon
Representative Bostic of St. Johnsbury
Representative Hunt of Essex
Representative Johnson of South Hero, Clerk
Representative Keenan of St. Albans City
Representative Miller of Shaftsbury
Representative Morley of Barton
BURLINGTON, VT (For immediate release) – With the opening day of Vermont’s trout season fast approaching, one local Trout Unlimited chapter is providing a night of entertainment and eye-candy to help anglers get into the casting mode.
The Champlain Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited will hold a free showing of Confluence Films’ “Drift” on April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Silver Maple Ballroom on the 4th floor of the University of Vermont’s Davis Center.
There will be prize giveaways, too. As always, non-TU members are invited to attend. Donations will be accepted at the door.
A stunning visual journey, “Drift” combines the highest quality film production, world-class flyfishing and an eclectic group of anglers to create the most definitive film about the sport to date.
“Drift” takes you on a cinematic adventure across the flats of Belize and the Bahamas, down the tailwaters of the Green, Frying Pan and the Big Horn, spey casting on the Deschutes, and exploring the exotic rivers of Kashmir, India.
The movie features spey casters John & Amy Hazel, celebrated photographer and legendary angler Brian O'Keefe, salt water fanatics Ian Davis and Keith Paar, trout junkies R.A. Beattie, Adam Barker, Tommy Knight, Jordan Gage, Robert Boyce, Robert Eddins, permit specialists The Garbutt Brothers, the "Godfather of Bonefishing" Charlie Smith and legendary Henry's Fork Guides Travis Smith and Jon Steihl.
For more information, contact Ed Collins at (802) 878-0525. To see a trailer of “Drift” log on to http://www.confluencefilms.tv/
We, the Undersigned, fully support exploring the removal of the old dam located in the Village of Swanton, Vermont on the Missisquoi River.
We consider removal of this old dam as being necessary to restore fish runs to their historic spawning grounds on the Missisquoi River below Highgate Falls, which will benefit fish and other aquatic species found in the Lake Champlain basin as well as the human community that depends on a healthy lake and river. The changing industrial activities of Man have and will continue to impact the world’s environment and species that are dependent on it. As we draw sustenance from the world around us, we believe that we should take care to return our environment to its natural condition whenever our activities no longer require the use of a resource, thus the world may be able to renew the resources that have nurtured and sustained us through the ages. We believe, therefore, that removal of the Swanton Dam being located on one of the largest and most important spawning tributaries of Lake Champlain, being a river having great historical fisheries resources, is justifiable and in the best social and economic interest of the local community and the people of the State of Vermont, and that an exploration of dam removal will reveal this. We believe that this old dam should be removed as soon as it is possible, but only ask now that you consider removal by initiating a fair and thorough assessment....
To see the complete petition online...