(Host) After a relatively brief debate, the House gave its preliminary approval Thursday afternoon to a state budget for next year.
And it has very different priorities than those proposed by Governor Jim Douglas.
Critics of the budget argued that it relies too heavily on federal stimulus money and new tax revenues.
VPRs Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) The impact of the current economic downturn can be seen in the state budget. A sharp decline in state revenues means that the total budget for 2010 is actually $100 million lower than the budget that was adopted two years ago.
Because of the declining revenue base, lawmakers have had to cut the current fiscal year budget by more than $70 million.
House Appropriations chairwoman Martha Heath told her colleagues that her committee rejected Governor Douglas’s plan to cut many social service and health care programs, and it opposed the Governor’s plan to transfer $60 million in other programs to the Education Fund:
(Heath) "This is a difficult budget prepared in challenging economic times and yet this budget is a balance creative alternative to the Governor’s proposal this budget maintains our commitment to Vermonters to help them with their current economic storm and makes strategic investments to lay the foundation for a stronger more vibrant state in the future."
In order to balance the budget, and to avoid implementing many of the Governor’s cuts, the House budget relies more heavily on federal stimulus money. The Governor wanted to use roughly $90 million from this source, the House budget uses $160 million. Heath says it makes sense to use these funds:
(Heath) "As your House Appropriations committee worked its way through the budget process we got a clearer picture of the stimulus dollars that would be available these dollars would clearly provide a significant opportunity to meet one of their stated purposes stabilizing state budgets."
The House budget also calls for an additional $24 million in new taxes – it’s likely that the House next week will pass an income tax surcharge to provide this revenue.
Londonderry Rep. Rick Hube was one of the few people to speak against the budget. He said the committee should have followed the Governor’s budget outline – an approach that he says would put the state on a sustainable spending path. Hube also objected to raising taxes:
(Hube) "If our financial situation was not so dire or difficult H441 might be categorized as funny or even a joke. The challenges are significant, the challenges are real, and the challenges are not going away…as I see it the budget is built on questionable growth assumptions, unsustainable spending increases and unannounced revenues."
The measure will come up for final approval in the House on Friday.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.