Gov. drops budget - What happens next

2023-01-21

Dear friend,

It's the last day of Week 3 in Montpelier, and that means the Governor has dropped his budget for 2023-2024, a.k.a. fiscal year 2024.

Gov. Scott's FY24 budget totals $8.4 billion, and is higher than last year's by $20 million.

What's in it? A lot, and it's the job of your lawmakers to pore through it, to understand what's proposed, and to see if and how the Legislature can improve on it. That will be the working of our committees over the coming weeks and months.

On the House Corrections & Institutions Committee, I'll be studying the Capital Bill, the Governor's proposed spending of $108 million of bonded money over the next two years.

Based on his address, the proposed budget is a good start. It includes $150 million in infrastructure spending that will bring back four times as much in federal matching dollars.

But often those government funds go to cities and larger towns that have more infrastructure to go after grants.

I was glad to see the governor put more of a commitment behind the nod he gave in his inaugural address to small towns like those in our district.

As he often does, Scott peppered today's budget address with mentions of towns across Vermont. He tagged Halifax as one of the poster children for small towns that lack administrative infrastructure to compete for government funding. I'm glad it's on the Governor's radar, and though I have yet to study the details, I applaud his $3 million plan to set aside money to help small towns like Halifax get funding for critical projects.

The need is so urgent that the Governor put that money in the Budget Adjustment Act. The BAA, as they call it around Montpelier, is the mid-year bill that amends the current year's budget based on current conditions.

I only hope that the Governor's plan to administer this funding avoids setting up more hoops for struggling towns to jump through. With our strong Windham County House and Senate delegation, I will bring that voice to the table with the budget adjustment for this year, and the budget bill for next year.

Here's a link to the budget address.