Scott wants lawmakers to use $58 million in one-time funds to prevent a property tax increase — and says a five-year plan that hinges on increasing staff-student ratios would help to easily pay back that money and save nearly $300 million.
Mark Perrault, a senior fiscal analyst for the legislature, struck a cautionary note when he testified Wednesday before the House Ways and Means Committee. “It’s highly speculative to book savings five years out,” he told lawmakers. “You can hope that we save money, but there is no guarantee.”
He later added, “It’s pushing obligations into the future in hopes that good things will happen.”
Tax Commissioner Kaj Samsom and Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin had the unenviable task of pitching the governor’s plan to highly unreceptive lawmakers in several different committees.
The atmosphere was especially tense in Senate Finance, where committee chair Ann Cummings (D-Washington) began by asking the Scott officials, “Why now?” and then repeatedly interrupted the men throughout their presentation.
“I find this beyond frustrating and it’s two years in a row,” she said, referring to Scott’s late-session proposal last April to create a statewide teachers’ health insurance plan.
“I understand the frustration. It’s on both sides,” Samsom responded.
Administration officials maintain that Scott gave lawmakers a “menu” of ideas in January, and expected the legislators to give them more direction about which to pursue. “The attempt for collaboration was very earnest,” Samsom added.
At one point, another committee member, Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden), held up Scott’s 12-page memo with distaste. “I have to say, I’ve never seen such disrespect of the legislative process,” she told Samsom and Greshin.
Democratic legislators — and, privately, some of their Republican colleagues — have suggested that Scott is subverting the legislative process by asking them to approve a major proposal with less than two weeks left in the session. Complaints that Scott officials have been disengaged during the legislative session — which were made last year, too — are growing.
In the House Appropriations Committee, chair Kitty Toll (D-Danville) told Greshin and Samsom that the administration would have to prove that “we can actually make those ratios happen and save those dollars” in order for lawmakers to take the plan seriously.
John Walters contributed reporting.
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Maybe Senators Cummings and Lyons can explain what they have done to resolve the $58 million shortfall in the Education Fund other than vote out a bill that raises our property taxes. For the record, Ive never seen so much disrespect for us Vermonters. Legislators dont feel compelled to resolve this issue before they go home without raising taxes. Shame on them.
Maybe the Governor can actually start working with the legislators so that all sides have a reasonable period of time to consider proposals and negotiate so that some progress can be made. This business of throwing big proposals out just a couple of weeks before the end of the session is purposeful subversion of the process. What the administration is looking to do is to throw a monkey wrench in at the last minute knowing full well that there isnt enough time to do anything with poorly vetted proposals, and then turn and point fingers at the legislature and say see, they cant get anything done. Vermonters should be able to see this for what it is – bad governance. Im all for the Govs no new taxes of fees pledge, but he and Jason Gibbs needs to stop playing political games and start governing.
Governor Scott this year to his credit warned as early as November 2017 of the impending large property tax increase in order to give school boards and the legislature the time to address the problem. In early January he proposed a series of ideas for the legislature to consider. School boards rose to the challenge and kept their budgets under the rate of inflation. The legislature, while knowing that the governor was elected on a pledge not to raise taxes or fees, did not seriously address what needed to be done to keep property takes down.
If they do not want to go with the governor’s current plan, they could simply propose to lower the 173 million in benefits given out in income sensitivity to fill the 58 million dollar hole and thereby match revenue with spending.
I think we have 3 plans on the table. House proposes a smoke and mirrors approach by simply shifting costs from property tax to income tax. The Senate approaches it the old fashion way by just raising taxes again to fill the void. The Govs plan is a 5 year plan to stabilize taxes, reduce costs, repay the so called one times and create capacity to invest in early education and higher education. Why is this such a hard decision?
it is too late to Legislate the budget for schools. The real solution is to establish the spending limit which can not be exceeded. If school boards knew in advance approximately what they could spend, and the Legislature were bound not to exceed their budget, then, for the taxpayer, the problem is solved, One thing we know, that expenditures will always seek to rise faster the the ability to pay for them. So cut budgets. Live within that budget; cut the school budgets by 1/3 and students would still get educated, and maybe even more evenly balanced, if they were forced to spend less time in institutions and had more time to pursue their own interests, learned what is not being taught to them. Schools have exceeded much of their usefulness, and certainly have exceeded their monopoly privileges. Time for a change.