Updated at 9 p.m.
Gov. Phil Scott unveiled a $9.4 billion budget on Tuesday that would allocate $105 million to lower an anticipated tax hike — a record amount that may still not be enough to prevent an average 6 percent increase.
Wrestling the property tax increase down further would require significant additional work by school boards, district administrators and lawmakers, he said during his address to the legislature.
“I know many districts are doing their best, but we need everyone pulling in the same direction to lower the tax burden on Vermonters this year,” Scott said.
He stressed that he supports the tax-reduction plan only if school districts keep a lid on their budgets and lawmakers continue the education reform efforts that started last year under Act 73.
“We cannot continue to prop up a failing system at the expense of other priorities, and we cannot ask Vermonters to continue to pay more while providing less and less for our kids,” Scott said.
Scott also laid out priorities for a range of other issues, including housing, energy, health care and crime.
Legislative leaders gave his message mixed reviews. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) said he was pleased that the governor supports his idea for capping future school spending.
“I think that bodes very well for getting some version of those caps through the Senate and to his desk,” Baruth said.
House leaders were less sanguine.
“We’re looking for long-term solutions here, not Band-Aids,” Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) said.
Rep. Kate Logan (P/D-Burlington), leader of the House Progressive caucus, said she didn’t appreciate the governor’s previous vow not to sign a budget unless lawmakers advance the education reform started last year with Act 73.
“He’s holding us hostage to do his bidding on education,” said Logan, who questions whether the consolidation called for will save money.
The proposed budget is $300 million over the current one, a 3 percent hike. That’s due largely to rising costs of salaries, pensions and health care benefits.
Scott also noted that transportation dollars are anticipated to drop $9 million, because of lower gas-tax revenues. This is happening as costs of clearing roads — sand, salt and overtime for plow drivers — are on the rise due to the snowy winter.
To support the fund, Scott is proposing to move $10 million in sales tax revenue from the education fund to transportation.
Rep. Emilie Kornheiser (D-Brattleboro), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, didn’t like the sound of that.
“We’re going to be paving the roads on the backs of our property tax payers,” she said.
On the housing front, Scott is again proposing to spend $4 million on the Vermont Housing Improvement Program, which he says has added more than 1,000 rental units over the past five years. The program is more cost-effective than building new units, he said, and he wants to make it part of the permanent budget. He also wants to spend $800,000 to help
repair mobile homes.
The governor is also proposing to end the pandemic-era motel program for homeless people, which he has long criticized as warehousing people instead of getting them help. He’s proposing to shift funds into more treatment options and to accelerate the construction of new housing, which would help not only homeless people but all Vermonters affected by the housing crisis.
“If we want the next generation of Vermonters to afford to live here, we’ve got to treat housing like the crisis it is and make real change this session,” he said.
On soaring health care costs, Scott cited lack of choice as the heart of the problem. He noted that new federal funding slated to deliver $1 billion to Vermont over the next five years will help resolve that by expanding primary care options.
He addressed public safety, saying that the work of the Community Accountability Court in Burlington helped address repeat offenders.
“We’ve learned a lot from this experience, and this budget includes funds to replicate this effort in other counties across the state,” Scott said.
He also again called for 19-year-olds accused of violent offenses to no longer be treated as juveniles.
On the energy front, Scott said the costs are too high for many people.
“Too many Vermonters are literally struggling to keep the lights on,” Scott said.
Instead of blaming the high cost on fossil fuels, however, Scott pointed to efforts to increase renewable energy use.
“Some have said that higher electricity and heating costs are the price we must pay to fight climate change,” he said. “I just don’t believe that’s true.”
Instead, he said decisions made by lawmakers that “prioritized ideology over reality and results” were responsible. His apparent solution, however, is to include nuclear energy in the mix again, something Vermonters turned away from in 2014 with the closure — due to high costs — of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
Environmental groups have vowed to fight Scott’s effort to bring nuclear power back to the state.
