Where’s the vision in Phil Scott’s 2025 budget?

2024-02-19

Dear friend,

“Eighty-five percent approval rate!” State House denizen marveled the other day, as if Governor Phil Scott’s poll numbers constituted their own weather event.

I don’t begrudge the Governor his strong numbers. I’m grateful for how he got us through COVID. My concern is that the Teflon-like hype takes our eye off effective governance.

I noticed this in late August talking to a constituent at a church event. When she found out that I was a legislator, she wanted me to know something.

“I love Phil Scott,” she said.

“Great!” I said. “Me too.” (True.)

“Listen to him,” she added.

“I will,” I replied. (Easy enough—I listen to everyone.)

With that level set, she was ready to hold her legislator to task.

“I have an issue for you,” she continued.

A juicy issue from a voter? I love it. Voters have a way of hitting that ripe spot that former Governor Madeline Kunin asks us to aim for, where passion and sometimes anger for an issue spills over to optimism, knowing that we can and must do better.

“Your website’s not working,” she said.

“My website’s not working?” I said.

“You’re a legislator,” she said, as if that made me Vermont’s all-purpose IT guy.

“I want to buy a Vermont Strong license plate,” she said, “but the webpage isn’t working.”

This conversation took place the Saturday before the Monday that the sales page was to launch. As far as I know, the only issue was that it was still Saturday.

“DMV set up a webpage for that,” I said. “I think sales begin Monday.”

“I know, but the information page isn’t even loading,” she said.

“I can look into it for you,” I said.

“Good,” she replied. “Look into it. That’s what the Legislature’s for.”

And that was when I got curious.

“Since you’re a fan of the Governor’s,” I said. “How about a hypothetical question? When I look into it, what if I find that this possibly broken webpage is a result of work done by the Agency of Digital Services, an agency Phil Scott created and which was found in an audit to have delivered one out of six IT projects on time, five of six had ‘significant cost increases and/or schedule delays caused by a variety of reasons’ and one failed to deploy anything at all after $2.42 million spent. Who is responsible…”

At this point she interrupted me. (I would have, too.) “Phil Scott doesn’t run the webpages,” she said, scrunching her face as if to say, “How could you approach the throne thusly?”

And that, I thought to myself, is Phil Scott’s relationship with voters.

Throw Scott a big problem, like COVID. We’re all clear on the mission. He takes charge. The public votes him victory laps.

Throw Scott the ten thousand more mundane, intractable problems throughout his own administration’s delivery of services? It’s the Legislature and the public getting the run-around.

For example, the Governor admirably held his budget to a 3.15% increase. But when costs are up 11% or more across-the-board, what did he cut to get there?

Gov. Scott arrives in the House session for his January 23, 2024 budget address to a joint session.

I predicted on NBC5 after the Governor’s State of the State address that the Governor’s not-yet-released FY25 budget would cut essential services that the Legislature would be forced to identify and put back in.

Here’s the kind of thing we’re seeing.

Scott’s budget saves us $737,052 in General Fund dollars by converting from contracted clinicians to four full-time Department of Corrections (DOC) staff. Commissioner Deml tells us it’ll be a win-win, that DOC can do it more reliably.

Credible, but I have questions. Commissioner, with all the vacancies you already have and the lack of qualified personnel out there, what’s your confidence level in filling all four positions promptly and transferring the caseload seamlessly? By what results can we evaluate this new service-delivery model a year from now?

My concern stems in part from DOC’s slow implementation of Act 183 of 2022. They surveyed employers, who want welders. They surveyed inmates, who want those jobs. They retrained their staff. They refitted space. They bought welding simulators.

Offering my prediction that Gov. Scott's budget would give the Legislature plenty of gaps to fill.

Yet asked what steps remain to launch the welding program, a year after their last and only progress report, DOC doesn’t name specifics.

I have a ton of gratitude for DOC in doing a job that few others want. Commissioner Deml speaks highly about top-to-bottom vision and determination. I wonder how much greater a force for good DOC could be if the Commissioner could express that in DOC’s budget?

As another example, DOC makes a credible, pragmatic case for closing the “work crew” program, but judges and prosecutors are asking for a more creative sentencing option. What’s stopping DOC from rebooting the program under a recidivism-reducing model like that of EMERGE Connecticut?

Digging in, we find the supposed savings from cutting out the sex-offender treatment contract are realized by utilizing four vacant work-crew positions.

And then it dawns on me—DOC can’t reboot a failed program at the same time it can use those vacant positions somewhere else.

COVID is over, and our neighbors are racing ahead. How will Vermont get her footing back?

In this hard budget year, let’s live within our means. Let's be prepared to give up on our most cherished priorities if we can’t justify the costs. In order to do that, let’s take a clear and honest look at what’s working and what’s not.

Let’s also do this—let’s dare to have a greater vision. Let’s dare to imagine all agencies across state government thriving, fulfilling their missions, and contributing to a safe and prosperous Vermont.

warm regards,

Rep. Tristan Roberts
Vermont House of Representatives