(Host) The Vermont Senate has given its approval to the state budget for next year.
The Appropriations chairwoman says the legislation is an effort to protect vulnerable Vermonters during tough economic times.
VPRs Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) There’s really only one bill that has to pass during the legislative session and that’s the budget for next year. Once budget writers from the House and Senate meet to hammer out a compromise agreement, it’s a clear signal that the session is close to an end.
That process could start at the beginning of next week. The House passed its budget last month and the Senate is scheduled to give final approval to its spending bill late Thursday.
The Senate budget increases state spending by just over 3%. Appropriations chairwoman Susan Bartlett says the bill protects essential services at a time when the Vermont economy is slowing down:
(Bartlett) "When money…and the purses are becoming more and more constricted as they really have been for several years the push comes to putting the money where your priorities are and making a whole variety of very difficult choices."
Two weeks ago, the state’s revenue forecast was downgraded forcing the committee to cut an additional $24.5 million from their original proposal.
The committee agreed to cut 250 positions from state government, borrowed money from the Vermont Higher Education Trust Fund, tapped into the state’s crime restitution fund and accelerated the implementation of new business fees.
Bartlett said her panel was guided by several principles in developing these additional cuts:
(Bartlett) "The reductions should be throughout government that we should refrain from making reductions where we lose a lot of federal match and that we shouldn’t push costs back out on to local governments."
Several dozen human service and environmental groups want lawmakers to dip into the state’s $75 million rainy day fund to avoid making budget cuts.
Bartlett says that’s a bad idea because economic conditions could get even worse in the next 6 to 12 months:
(Bartlett) "As tempting as that is as much as we want to be able to say yes as much as we are wanting to avoid any more financial pressure…by doing that now isn’t the time we don’t know what’s going to happen with the economy."
No amendments were offered to the budget during the preliminary debate – it’s possible that some changes will be proposed on Thursday during final consideration of the bill.
For VPR News I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.